Canal Indigo is 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 and

French language French ( or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-R ...

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program ...

and Near Video on Demand provider owned by

Vidéotron Vidéotron is a Canadian integrated telecommunications company founded in 1964. It's active in cable television, interactive multimedia development, video on demand, cable telephony, wireless communication and Internet access services. Owned by Qu ...

. The service was launched on August 26, 1996.

Channels and content

Canal Indigo PPV service consists of 11 standard definition channels and two high definition channels. Programming on Canal Indigo includes movies, concerts, sports, and other special events. Adult content is also available through Canal Indigo's Olé! Télévision service.

History

Canal Indigo started on August 26, 1996 with eight analogue channels using the Videoway system on Videotron. A few months after the launch of Videotron's digital cable, Indigo was running 39 channels, until January 1, 2005 at 8:41 pm when Indigo experienced a technical bug, leaving nine working channels. On June 1, 2005, Canal Indigo came back with 24 channels. On August 1, 2007, due to the growing popularity of Video On Demand, Canal Indigo was reduced to 12 channels. Canal Indigo was the

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic Competition (economics), competition to produce ...

provider of French-language pay-per-view programming in Canada until late 1999, when Bell ExpressVu (now

Bell Satellite TV Bell Satellite TV (; formerly known as Bell ExpressVu, Dish Network Canada and ExpressVu Dish Network and not to be confused with Bell's IPTV Bell Fibe TV, Fibe TV service) is the division of BCE Inc. that provides satellite television service a ...

) launched its bilingual Vu! service, replacing Canal Indigo on that provider. On December 27, 2007 Shaw Broadcast switched all of its PPV feeds to its own proprietary PPV service displacing Canal Indigo from Shaw, Shaw Direct and any other system that receives their PPV feeds via Shaw Broadcast. Viewers Choice Canada Inc., operator of the namesake English-language pay-per-view service, was originally the largest shareholder and managing partner (40%) in Canal Indigo, with Cogeco,

Groupe TVA Groupe TVA Inc. is a Canadian communications company with operations in broadcasting, publishing and production. It was founded as Télé-Métropole Corporation in 1960, and owned CFTM-TV, Montreal's first privately-owned francophone station. It ...

, and TQS Inc. holding minority interests at 20% each. However, on March 20, 2008, Groupe TVA announced it would be purchasing Viewers Choice and the remaining stakeholders interests in the service. The sale was approved 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) on July 18, giving Groupe TVA full ownership of the service. Groupe TVA launched a new 24/7 high-definition channel on November 1, 2008, and removed one SD channel. On December 1, 2009, the CRTC approved a corporate reorganization that would transfer Canal Indigo from Groupe TVA to fellow

Quebecor Media Quebecor Media Inc. is a Canadian media conglomerate that owns a wide array of media outlets, as well as an internet service provider. History In 1983 Quebecor purchased the Winnipeg Sun newspaper, which had been independently run. The newspa ...

division and cable provider

. In July 2014, Videotron indicated to the CRTC that it intended to change Canal Indigo into a bilingual (English / French) service, due to the planned shutdown of English-language provider Viewers Choice at the end of September 2014. Due to new standard conditions of licence for PPV providers being introduced in 2014, CRTC approval is no longer required to convert from a single-language service to a bilingual one. However, since Videotron operates almost exclusively in French-language markets, the company requested an exemption from the standard requirement for bilingual PPV services which would otherwise require it to operate a minimum of 15 English-language channels and 5 French-language channels, plus a separate

barker channel A barker channel is a form of digital signage, operating in the form of a television channel that is entirely composed of sales promotion and advertising, usually marketing various features of the service carrying the channel. The name is derived ...

in each language. Under Videotron's original proposal, Canal Indigo would offer at least 8 French-language channels and 2 English-language channels, plus a bilingual barker channel. The application was approved on September 30, on condition that Canal Indigo maintain the same ratio but with a minimum of 3 English-language channels (and thus 12 French-language channels).

References

External links

Canal Indigo
{{Authority control French-language television networks in Canada Pay-per-view television networks in Canada Television channels and stations established in 1996 1996 establishments in Quebec