BookTelevision was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

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 targete ...

owned by

Bell Media Bell Media Inc. (Canadian French, French: ) is a Canadian media conglomerate that is the mass media subsidiary of BCE Inc. (also known as Bell Canada Enterprises, the owner of telecommunications company Bell Canada). Its operations include nati ...

. The channel was originally established in 2001 by Learning and Skills Television of Alberta Ltd., then partially owned by

CHUM Limited CHUM Limited was a Canadian media company based in Toronto, Ontario in operation from 1945 to 2007. The company was founded in 1945 as York Broadcasters Limited when it launched CHUM (AM), CHUM-AM 1050 but was acquired by salesman Allan Waters in ...

, airing programming relating to books,

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

, and various media. Following its acquisition by Bell, the network later shifted primarily to airing Bell Media library programming with little relevance to its original format. Amid declining investments in the channel, BookTelevision was shut down on February 21, 2021.

History

In November 2000, Learning and Skills Television of Alberta, a company majority owned by

(60%), was awarded a category 1 television broadcasting licence by the

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; ) is a public organization in Canada tasked with the mandate as a regulatory agency tribunal for various electronic communications, covering broadcasting and telecommunic ...

(CRTC) called ''BookTelevision - The Channel'', described as "a national English-language Category 1 specialty television service that will feature magazines and talk shows, dramas and documentaries that are exclusively based upon printed and published works, and offered with additional programming that provides an educational context and promotes reading." The channel was launched on September 7, 2001.The history of CHUM
Globe and Mail article 2006-06-12 Although, shortly after the channel's launch, "The Channel" was dropped from its name and logo, resulting in a name change to simply BookTelevision. On February 15, 2005, CHUM completed the purchase of the remaining interest in LSTA, bringing its ownership to 100 percent. A year later, in July 2006, Bell Globemedia (later renamed CTVglobemedia) announced that it would purchase CHUM for an estimated $1.7 billion CAD, included in the sale was LSTA and its interest in BookTelevision. The sale was subject to CRTC approval and was approved in June 2007, with the transaction completed on June 22, 2007. In 2008, LSTA (then known as Access Media Group) was wound up into CTV Limited (the renamed CHUM Limited). On September 10, 2010, BCE (a minority shareholder in CTVglobemedia) announced that it planned to acquire 100% interest in CTVglobemedia for a total debt and equity transaction cost of $3.2 billion CAD. The deal which required CRTC approval, was approved on March 7, 2011 and closed on April 1 of that year, on which CTVglobemedia was rebranded Bell Media. Along with Fashion Television, the channel later abandoned its original format, and began to primarily air reruns of library programming from other Bell Media networks, and after CRTC category restrictions were repealed in 2015, reruns of dramas such as ''JAG'' and ''Matlock'', properties that had no literary inspiration. The channel ceased investments in original Canadian programming, and was rarely promoted by Bell. In January 2021, the CRTC approved a request by Bell to revoke BookTelevision and Fashion Television's licenses, stating that it planned to shut both channels down on February 21.

References

External links

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Original CRTC Broadcast Decision
{{DEFAULTSORT:Booktelevision Defunct specialty television channels in Canada 2001 establishments in Canada 2021 disestablishments in Canada Television channels and stations established in 2001 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2021 English-language television stations in Canada Former Bell Media networks