 | |
| Country | Canada |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | National |
| Network | Independent |
| Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario |
| Programming | |
| Picture format | 240i |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Lively Arts Market Builders Inc. |
| History | |
| Launched | February 1, 1983 |
| Closed | June 30, 1983 |
C Channel was a short-lived Canadian premium television channel specialising in arts programming. It was one of Canada's first licensed "pay TV" channels when it began in 1983 but it ended in failure within five months.
Toronto-based company Lively Arts Market Builders Inc. was one of several companies that received a license from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to provide a subscription television service for Canadian cable companies. The company's offering, C Channel, would feature artistic content such as theatrical, opera, and ballet performances. This format was distinct from the other new pay-movie services, First Choice and Superchannel.
C Channel, First Choice, and Superchannel began their broadcasts on February 1, 1983. C Channel's President Edgar Cowan predicted 200,000 subscribers and financial equilibrium within a year. [1]
C Channel was required, as a condition of license from the CRTC, to spend no less than 20% of its revenues and 50% of its expenditures on Canadian-produced programming. [ citation needed ] The channel had planned to spend C$4 million in production during its initial seven months of broadcasting. [2]
C Channel held a two-night preview of its programming on January 20–21, cablecast on most cable systems, such as Greater Winnipeg Cablevision, which was actually not able to carry the real service due to the dispute with the Manitoba Telephone System (MTS). [ citation needed ]
On the first night, there were only two programs, beginning at 8 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time): Swan Lake , performed by the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House in London, England. The other was a film originally released in 1980, The Last Metro .[ citation needed ]
One of the programs featured was a Bach-themed concert performed by flautist James Galway and violinist Kyung-wha Chung, while jazz enthusiasts could watch performances from the Montreal International Jazz Festival.[ citation needed ]
Stereo audio broadcasts using available cable FM channels were permitted by the CRTC on February 11, 1983. C Channel immediately activated its stereo audio feed when it received this approval. [3]
One of its marquee presentations was the Royal Shakespeare Company's 8½ hour production of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby acquired from Britain's Channel 4. [2] The program ran on March 13, 1983, from 1 p.m. to midnight with breaks for lunch, tea, and dinner. [4] [5] [ full citation needed ]
C Channel initially broadcast approximately 8 hours per day, beginning at 7 p.m. (Eastern) with the children's programming block and ended approximately 11 p.m. or midnight. The station planned to expand the schedule by May 1983 with an earlier daily on-air time with the broadcast day ending at approximately 3:30 a.m. C Channel president Ed Cowan had hoped to implement a 24-hour schedule later that year. [6]
The three Canadian premium channels, at a steep and expensive $16 per channel per subscriber (equivalent to $39in 2021) at a time when a basic cable subscription was $10–12, appealed to only to a small percentage of the many existing Canadian cable TV subscribers. [ citation needed ]
C Channel's cultural offerings, similar to the type of programming occasionally seen on PBS and CBC Television, failed to attract the expected number of subscribers. In April 1983, station president Ed Cowan admitted that "we always knew we were under-financed", noting that C$5 million in financing was raised, when double that capital amount was deemed "safe". Also, during the round of private financing in December 1982, share prices were cut to $3 each from $10 in order to sell. [6]
On June 17, 1983, the broadcaster was in a receivership with C$9 million in debt, equivalent to C$21.9 million in 2021, and gained only 27,000 subscribers where 60,000–100,000 were expected, well short of its break-even point of 175,000 subscribers. [7] As a result, C Channel's broadcasts ceased on June 30, 1983. [8] [9]
Following the receivership, the production facility and other studio assets were sold to Crossroads Christian Communications which was planning to establish a national faith-based television service. [10]
C Channel's demise was one part of a troubled start to Canada's subscription television industry. The remaining premium movie channels were forced to restructure into regional monopolies for survival; these monopolies still exist despite the current profitability of this sector.
About 10 years later, a second attempt at launching an arts-oriented cable network in Canada was made when the CRTC heard an application by CHUM Limited of Toronto for a Canadian version of the Bravo television network that had been in operation in the United States since December 1980. Bravo! signed on January 1, 1995, and was considerably more successful and continues to broadcast, though (in the vein of the "channel drift" encountered with many niche specialty channels) it has gradually shifted towards more popular fare at the expense of its fine-arts programming. Unlike C Channel, Bravo! does not charge an individual fee for service, but rather is included in various "bundles" or "tiers" offered by the country's cable and satellite service providers.
Bravo is an American basic cable television network, launched on December 8, 1980. It is owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The channel originally focused on programming related to fine arts and film. The network's brand is focused heavily on reality series targeted at 25-to-54-year-old women and the LGBTQIA+ community at large.
CBC News Network is a Canadian English-language specialty news channel owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). It broadcasts into over 10 million homes in Canada. As Canada's first all-news channel, it is the world's third-oldest television service of this nature, after CNN in the United States and Sky News in the United Kingdom.
Simultaneous substitution is a practice mandated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) requiring broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs) in Canada to distribute the signal of a local or regional over-the-air station in place of the signal of a foreign or non-local television station, when the two stations are broadcasting identical programming simultaneously.
Bell Media Inc. is a Canadian media conglomerate that is the mass media subsidiary of BCE Inc.. Its operations include national television broadcasting and production, radio broadcasting, digital media and Internet properties.
CKXT-DT was a broadcast television station based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada that broadcast to much of southern and eastern Ontario. It was owned by Quebecor Media through its Groupe TVA unit. Although beginning as a general interest independent station carrying a typical schedule of entertainment and information programming, by the time of the station's closure on November 1, 2011, the station had been converted into an over-the-air simulcast of Quebecor's cable news channel, Sun News Network. The station transmitted on channel 52 in Toronto.
Cartoon Network is a Canadian English-language discretionary specialty channel owned by Corus Entertainment. The channel primarily broadcasts animated series aimed at children and teenagers.
CTV Drama Channel is a Canadian English language discretionary specialty channel owned by Bell Media.
Super Écran is a Canadian premium television network owned by Bell Media. It airs a mix of commercial-free films and television series. Films are primarily sourced from the United States and Canada, while the television series mostly consist of original series and programs from HBO and Showtime in the United States.
Family Channel is a Canadian English-language specialty channel owned by WildBrain. The network primarily airs children's television series, teen dramas, as well as other programming targeting a family audience. Despite having its own headquarters in the Brookfield Place office in Financial District, the channel is transmitted from Corus Quay.
Crave is a Canadian premium television network and streaming service owned by the Bell Media subsidiary of BCE Inc.
Movie Central was a Canadian English language Category A premium cable and satellite television channel that was owned by Corus Entertainment. Movie Central was designated to operate west of the Ontario-Manitoba border, including the territories. Although the channel's name implies that it focuses solely on theatrically released motion pictures, Movie Central's programming included original and foreign television series, made-for-cable movies and documentaries.
Super Channel Entertainment Network is a Canadian English language premium cable and satellite television channel owned by Allarco Entertainment 2008 Inc. Super Channel's programming primarily includes theatrically released, first to television motion pictures and television series, along with documentaries and other niche programs.
The Life Channel was a Canadian premium television service featuring programming on lifestyle and health subjects, existing for almost 14 months in the late 1980s. The programming represented some of the earlier efforts of Canada's premium television industry, considering pay-TV movie channels had commenced in 1983. It should not be confused with later Canadian cable channels Life Network and CTV Life Channel.
CBC Parliamentary Television Network was a Canadian cable television specialty channel that broadcast the House of Commons of Canada proceedings via Anik satellite to Canadian cable television headends between September 1979 and 1992.
CBC Television 2 and Télé-2 were proposed second television services to be operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)/Société Radio-Canada (SRC). These were to have been the Canadian equivalents to BBC Two in the United Kingdom, itself the second television channel of the BBC.
Videon Cablesystems was a Canadian cable television service in Manitoba, Alberta, and for a short period, northwest Ontario. The company was owned by Moffat Communications Ltd. and Randall L. Moffat was its president.
Canada is served by various multichannel television services, including cable television systems, two direct-broadcast satellite providers, and various other wireline IPTV and wireless MMDS video providers.
TSN2 is a Canadian English-language discretionary sports specialty channel that acts as the secondary feed of sports-centred channel The Sports Network (TSN) and owned by CTV Specialty Television Inc. It was launched in its current form on August 29, 2008.
Encore Avenue was a Canadian English language Category A premium cable and satellite television channel that was owned by Corus Entertainment. Encore Avenue was designated to operate west of the Ontario-Manitoba border, including the territories. The channel offered a variety of classic films from the 1970s to the 1990s, with films from the early 2000s interspersed within the schedule.
OutTV is a Canadian English language specialty channel and streaming network that was launched in September 2001. It broadcasts general entertainment and lifestyle programming aimed at the LGBT community.