The History of Canadian BroadcastingA licence to operate a national weather network was granted to MétéoMédia in 1987, and the service was launched the following year. In 1993, the CRTC approved the transfer of control of MétéoMédia to Pelmorex Weather Network Ltd. The Weather Network provided weather forecasts nationally 24 hours a day, with local forecasts every ten minutes, […]
Originally licensed by the CRTC in 1994 to Moffat Communications, and launched in January 1995 as WTN, for Women’s Television Network, the specialty channel was acquired by Shaw Communications in 2001 along with ownership of Moffat, and the following year it was Shaw subsidiary Corus Entertainment who took over WTN, and rebranded it as the W […]
On July 15th 2009, Corus Entertainment Inc announced that it had agreed to purchase the specialty channel SexTV from CTVglobemedia, subject to CRTC approval. On September 29th, Corus president John Cassaday said that if the application was approved, Sex TV would be replaced with W Movies early in 2010. On November 19th, Corus announced that […]
Approved by the CRTC on December 1, 1987, and launched under the name Canal Famille in 1988, VRAK.TV was a French language service that targeted an audience of young people from 2 to 17 years old. In 2001, Astral Media bought all the shares of Canal Famille, and it was then relaunched under the name VRAK-TV . […]
Another in the strong portfolio of specialty channels owned at the time by Toronto’s CHUM Limited, CLT was licensed in 1996, but did not begin broadcasting until September 1999. It was Canada’s only national educational television specialty service, and was owned by Edmonton’s Access Media Group, which was in turn owned by CHUM Limited. Many of its […]
Vision received its first licence in 1987, and began its service the following year. It was owned by a not-for profit charitable organization. It claimed to be the only multi-faith and multi-cultural broadcaster in the world, and supplied “…a wide range of programs…..that explore spirituality, morality and cultural diversity.” Its basic program core, known as […]
Previous Station Group(s): Bell Media Inc. In March of 1991, the CRTC awarded a licence to Viewer’s Choice Canada to operate a pay-per-view service to serve the eastern part of the country. Viewer’s Choice was a partnership between Astral Communications, Rogers Pay Per View Inc. and TSN Enterprises. The service was launched September 5, 1991. In […]
Licensed to Telelatino in 2000 but not launched until 2005, Video Italia Canada’s all-music programming consisted primarily of rebroadcasts of open-air concerts and popular videos. The prime source for these was the Italian channel Video Italia, with additional Canadian content programming as mandated by the channel’s licence. This included such live events as TLN Italianfest, a […]
Previous Station Group(s): Rogers Media Licenced by the CRTC on November 24, 2000, this channel started out as The Biography Channel. It launched September 7, 2001. The channel was owned by Rogers Media, Shaw Communications and A&E Networks. In 2006, Rogers acquired the interests held by Shaw and A&E. On February 29, 2016, The Biography Channel […]
On July 2, 2010, Jay Switzer was given approval by the CRTC for four new specialty channels, including VELOCITY and ADVENTURE – featuring action and adventure; and KISS and THE LOVE CHANNEL, featuring romance, love and relationships. All four channels launched on November 23, 2011, branded as Hollywood Suite. The four channels were later rebranded […]