Former Canadian television channel
Television channel
BBC Canada
was a Canadian English language
specialty channel
that mostly broadcast television series originally produced by the
BBC
, the public-service broadcaster of the United Kingdom. The channel was owned by
Corus Entertainment
(80% & managing partner) and
BBC Studios
(20%).
History
[
edit
]
Alliance Atlantis
(AAC) was granted a
broadcast licence
for a
Category 2 speciality service
covering "entertainment, drama and documentary programming". BBC Canada, by the
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
(CRTC) in November 2000.
[1]
Alliance also received licenses for channels including
National Geographic
,
IFC
, and The Health Network, launched as
Discovery Health
.
[2]
The
channel
was launched on 7 September 2001 as a
joint venture
between AAC and BBC Worldwide.
To promote the launch of BBC Canada's 2007 fall season, a 16-page British-style tabloid insert called the
BBC Telly
was published in the
Toronto Star
. Toronto-based Pilot PMR created the campaign.
[3]
On 28 January 2008, a
joint venture
between
Canwest
and
Goldman Sachs Capital Partners
known as CW Media bought Alliance Atlantis and gained AAC's interest in BBC Canada. On 27 October 2010, the channel's ownership changed once again as
Shaw Communications
gained control of BBC Canada as a result of its acquisition of Canwest and Goldman Sachs' interest in CW Media.
[4]
[5]
On 13 May 2011, BBC Canada was separated from the now-defunct children's channel
BBC Kids
due to its ownership changing hands to
Knowledge Network
.
On 1 April 2016, Shaw Media was sold to
Corus Entertainment
. BBC Canada also earned several sister networks to go with the existing ones.
In a notice to subscribers posted in early November 2020, Corus sister company
Shaw Direct
indicated that the channel would be shutting down on 31 December 2020.
[6]
In March 2021,
Blue Ant Media
, a company owned by former Alliance Atlantis executive
Michael MacMillan
which already owns
the Canadian version of BBC Earth
, announced that its
HIFI
channel would be rebranded as a
Canadian version
of the BBC's international entertainment channel brand
BBC First
on March 16. Several programs that had been carried by BBC Canada prior to its closure, including
Top Gear
and
Antiques Roadshow
, were picked up by BBC First.
[7]
Programming
[
edit
]
While BBC Canada was part-owned by the BBC, not all of the BBC's programmes aired on BBC Canada. In general, while BBC Worldwide and its affiliated operations have a "first look" at the corporation's output, this right only applies so long as BBC Worldwide pays no less than what the BBC Commercial Agency, which is at
arm's length
, judges to be a particular property's value.
[8]
Furthermore, while BBC Canada served a similar purpose to the
BBC America
channel available in the United States, there are also significant differences between the programming rights owned by the two channels.
This meant that much of the BBC's output (and, for that matter, BBC America's original programming) aired on other Canadian channels which have either co-produced the programmes or simply bid more for the Canadian broadcast rights. Conversely, many of the British series that did air on the channel are not sourced from the BBC, with some having originally been produced by or aired on other British channels, such as the privately owned
ITV
or the independent public-service broadcaster
Channel 4
.
Despite its British focus, BBC Canada was licensed as a Canadian channel and was not exempt from the CRTC's broadcasting regulations that required it to carry a quota of
Canadian content
. This meant that in addition to British programmes, it also broadcast a number of Canadian series, which according to the channel's licence were required to "explore or [be] informed by Canada's relationship to the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth".
[1]
Canadian programmes that aired on the channel included repeats of
Disaster DIY
and
Holmes Inspection
. In the early 2010s, the channel began airing American series featuring British personalities, such as the American version of the
Gordon Ramsay
programme
Kitchen Nightmares
(it has also in the past carried the British parent series
Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares
), and repeat airings of the American dramas
House
and
Elementary
(each of which has a British actor in the lead role).
Many of the channel's programmes, whether British, American or Canadian, were shared with other Corus Entertainment channels such as the
Global Television Network
,
Showcase
,
HGTV Canada
and
Food Network Canada
.
BBC Canada did not ordinarily carry
BBC News
programming, as the
BBC World News
channel is also widely available in Canada, and BBC News also has a long-standing content-sharing agreement with the
CBC
. On the rare occasions that BBC Canada did carry news coverage, coverage may have been produced by Corus-owned
Global News
instead of the BBC, such as with the
wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton
.
[9]
BBC Canada HD
[
edit
]
In October 2016, Corus Entertainment launched BBC Canada HD, a
1080i
high definition
simulcast of the
standard definition
feed. The HD feed was only available on
Telus Optik TV
and
Shaw Direct
. The HD simulcast was shut down on 31 December 2020.
Related properties
[
edit
]
Apart from the television channel, BBC Worldwide directly operates a BBC Canada Shop website which sells merchandise related to
British television series
such as
Top Gear
,
Little Britain
and
Doctor Who
.
See also
[
edit
]
- BBC
- Other BBC-associated television channels available in Canada:
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
|
UK channels
| |
---|
UK nations
and regions
| |
---|
Services and
programming
blocks
| |
---|
UKTV
channels
| |
---|
International
channels
and
joint ventures
| |
---|
Defunct
channels
| |
---|
|
|
---|
Television
| National
| English-language
| |
---|
French-language
| |
---|
|
---|
Provincial
| English-language
| |
---|
French-language
| |
---|
|
---|
Territorial
| |
---|
|
---|
Radio
| |
---|
Non-profit
| |
---|
Former
| |
---|
Proposed
| |
---|
- 1
Foreign broadcaster.
- 2
Partially privately owned.
- 3
Partially foreign-owned.
- 4
No terrestrial broadcasting.
- 5
Fully privatized
- 6
Private successor continues airing some educational programming as a license requirement
|