The History of Canadian Broadcasting
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 . […]
First Choice Canadian Communications Corporation, a company incorporated by a group of private investors, was licensed in March 1982 to operate a national pay-tv service. 100% ownership of First Choice was subsequently acquired by Astral Media Inc. In 1984, First Choice became an eastern Canada service only, with the west being covered by Allarcom’s Superchannel service. From […]
First Choice Canadian Communications Corporation, a company incorporated by a group of private investors was licensed in March 1982 to operate a national pay-tv service. 100% ownership of First Choice was subsequently acquired by Astral Media Inc. In 1984, First Choice became an eastern Canada service only, with the west being covered by Allarcom’s Superchannel service. […]
Movie Central was the most recent incarnation of pay television movie service available via cable to Western Canada. It was owned by Corus Entertainment. In 1984, two years after the first eight regional pay-tv licences were issued in 1982, various amalgamations saw the emergence of one eastern licensee, First Choice Communications, and one western, Allarcom, which operated […]
On April 1st 2008 Astral Media rebranded their classic quality drama and light-hearted entertainment specialty channel, originally known as MoviePix 2, then Mpix Too and later Mescape, as MorePix. On August 20th, 2012 Astral Television Networks announced that MorePix, offered in eastern Canada, would re-brand on September 18th to become The Movie Network Encore 2, […]
The Family Channel was first licensed by the CRTC to a partnership between WIC Premium Television Inc and First Choice (Astral) in 1987 as a pay television service “…which will provide…..programs from the Disney Channel, as well as selected Canadian programs designed for viewing by the whole family.” WIC’s half ownership was acquired by Corus […]
Disney XD was a Canadian English language Category B specialty channel, which was originally licensed to Astral Media by the CRTC in 2009 as an extension of its existing Family Channel. However, Astral Media Inc. subsequently acquired the rights to a Canadian version of the U.S. Disney XD channel, and launched the new venture in […]