Bollywood Times was a Canadian

Hindi language Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

specialty channel A specialty channel (also known in the United States as a cable channel or cable network) can be a commercial broadcasting or non-commercial television channel which consists of television programming focused on a single genre, subject or targeted ...

owned by Channel Zero. Bollywood Times broadcast

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" ...

films encompassing a variety of genres including action, comedy, horror, and crime. It also aired television series including comedies, dramas, and thrillers. Programs were primarily sourced from India, in addition to Canadian content.

History

In May 2010, FDR Media Group Inc. was granted approval by the

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; french: Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes, links=) is a public organization in Canada with mandate as a regulatory agency for broadcast ...

(CRTC) to launch a television channel called ''Bollywood Times HD TV'', described as ''"a national, niche third-language ethnic Category 2 specialty programming service devoted to mainstream as well as art films in the Hindi-language not broadcast on other feature film channels."'' The channel launched on November 28, 2011, on

Bell Fibe TV Bell Fibe TV is an IP-based television service offered by Bell Canada in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It is bundled with a FTTN or FTTH Bell Internet service, and uses the Mediaroom platform. Bell Fibe TV officially launched on Septem ...

as Bollywood Times exclusively in high definition (HD). The channel launched on

Rogers Cable Rogers Cable Inc. is Canada's largest cable television service provider with about 2.25 million television customers, and over 930,000 Internet subscribers, primarily in Southern & Eastern Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador. R ...

only days later in December 2011 in both HD and

standard definition Standard-definition television (SDTV, SD, often shortened to standard definition) is a television system which uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. "Standard" refers to it being the prevailing sp ...

. At an undisclosed point, FDR's broadcast licenses were acquired by Channel Zero. In January 2018, the channel was dropped by all providers who carried it (along with sister network

Mehndi TV Mehndi TV was a Canadian Hindi language specialty channel owned by Channel Zero. Mehndi TV broadcast programming aimed at women, including such programs as cooking shows, health and wellness programs, reality series, exercise shows, and Bollywood ...

) and subsequently shut down.

References

Digital cable television networks in Canada Defunct television networks in Canada Television channels and stations established in 2011 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2018 2011 establishments in Canada 2018 disestablishments in Canada {{Canada-tv-station-stub