CTV Specialty Television

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CTV Specialty Television Inc.
Formerly
  • Labatt Communications, Inc. (1984–1996)
  • NetStar Communications, Inc. (1996–2000)
Company type Subsidiary and Joint Venture
Industry Mass media
Founded
  • 1984;40 years ago (1984)
Headquarters 9 Channel Nine Court,
Scarborough, Ontario
,
Canada
Area served
Canada
Key people
Owner BCE Inc. (80%)
The Walt Disney Company/Hearst Corporation (20%)
Parent Bell Media (80%)
ESPN Inc. (20%)
Divisions Dome Productions, Inc.
Website bellmedia.ca
espn.com

CTV Specialty Television Inc. is a Canadian company that is a joint venture between Bell Media subsidiary of BCE Inc. (also known as Bell Canada Enterprises, the owner of telecommunications company Bell Canada) and ESPN Inc. that operates a number of specialty channels The Sports Network (TSN) and Discovery Channel.

Contents

The company was formed in 1984 as Labatt Communications, Inc. by brewer John Labatt Ltd.; but long after its acquistion by Interbrew in 1995, LCI was sold to four local investors and ESPN Inc. in 1996 which changed the name of the company to NetStar Communications Inc. NetStar was then acquired by CTV Inc. in 2000 and later merged with Bell Canada alongside The Globe and Mail to form Bell Globemedia and renamed to its current entity afterwards.

History

This company was founded in 1984 when brewer John Labatt Ltd., who owned the Toronto Blue Jays at that time, launched Canada's 24 hour sports channel The Sports Network (TSN). Its French counterpart, Réseau des sports (RDS) went on the air five years later. The company also operated and established Viewers Choice and SkyVision Entertainment, both founded in 1991. [1] With partnership of Discovery Communications, Labatt launched the Canadian version of the Discovery Channel on December 31, 1994.

In 1995, when Belgian brewer Interbrew announced it purchased John Labbatt, a consortium of four Canadian investors—Stephen Bronfman (22.5%), the Caisse (22.5%), Reitmans (16.5%), and senior management (6.5%)—along with ESPN (32%), took over the company. [2] The sale was approved by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission on March 15, 1996 and the company was rebranded to NetStar Communications Inc. [3]

After a takeover attempt by CanWest Global that was vetoed by ESPN, CTV Inc. (the former Baton Broadcasting Inc.) announced a friendly bid to take over NetStar Communications in early 1999, with CRTC approval on March 24, 2000. After acquiring Netstar, the CRTC required CTV to divest itself of either Netstar's TSN or their own Sportsnet; they chose to sell the latter to Rogers. [4] NetStar was then renamed again to CTV Specialty Television Inc. after its acquisition.

Later, CTV Inc. merged into Bell Canada's Bell Globemedia, but was renamed to CTVglobemedia in 2007 and again to Bell Media in 2011.

Assets

Active

Television

Productions

  • Dome Productions (jointly owned with Rogers Media Inc.) — a multi-platform production company that operates a fleet of 18 television production mobiles, one production/uplink truck, and three KU uplink tractors. For over 30 years, Dome’s head office was located in the Rogers Centre in Toronto. The company has since moved to 130 Merton Street in 2023. [5] [6]

Defunct

See also

Related Research Articles

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In June 2024, Rogers Communications announced a licensing agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), under which it will hold the rights to the channel brands and programming of WBD's factual and lifestyle television networks. The agreement will trigger a major re-alignment of Canadian specialty television, ending the long-term associations between the brands of WBD predecessors Discovery Communications and Scripps Networks Interactive with Bell Media and Corus Entertainment respectively.

References

  1. ↑ https://digital.library.mcgill.ca/images/hrcorpreports/pdfs/6/635794.pdf
  2. ↑ Broadcast Dialogue newsletter, January 21, 1999 Archived March 4, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ↑ "Adnews".
  4. ↑ "Rogers Media | History of Canadian Broadcasting". broadcasting-history.ca. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
  5. ↑
  6. ↑ "Dome Productions". Bell Media. Retrieved May 2, 2021.
  7. ↑ "Senior staff laid off as Bell Media consolidates in-house prodcos".
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