Documentary Channel (stylized as ''documentary channel'') 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 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 ...
Category A 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 the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is the Canadian Public broadcasting, public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a Crown corporation that serves as the national public broadcaster, with its E ...
(CBC), the
National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...
and four other independent producers. Its programming is devoted to featuring primarily
documentary film
A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
s along with documentary-style television series.
History
Licensed as ''The Canadian Documentary Channel'' on November 24, 2000 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), it was launched as the Documentary Channel on September 7, 2001 under the majority ownership of
Corus Entertainment
Corus Entertainment Inc. (often simply known as Corus) is a Canadian mass media and television production company. The company was founded in 1987 as Shaw Radio Ltd. as a subsidiary of Shaw Communications and was spun-off from Shaw in 1999. It h ...
through their
YTV Canada Inc. subsidiary (53%), the CBC (29%), the NFB (14%), and the following film producers at 1% each:
Omni Film Productions, Cinenova Productions,
Barna-Alper Productions, and Galafilm.
On May 11, 2006, Corus Entertainment announced that it would sell its 53% majority stake in the service to the CBC, bringing the CBC's interest to 82% from its former 29%. Corus decided to sell its interest in the service because it stated documentaries were considered a non-core asset and it wanted to further focus its attention on core assets: kids and family, women's lifestyle, and films. On June 22, 2007, the CRTC approved the deal and the transaction was completed.
On March 27, 2008 at 12:01 a.m.
EST, the Documentary Channel changed its name to simply documentary, along with a new logo and on-air graphics.
In October 2013, Neil Tabatznik purchased
eOne Television's interest (who gained ownership in the channel when it purchased Barna-Alper Productions in January 2008) in the channel.
Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2013-554
CRTC, 10-17-16
In 2016, the CBC rebranded the channel again, slightly modifying the logo to introduce the word "channel", renaming it back to documentary Channel.
Documentary Channel HD
On April 1, 2011 the CBC launched a high definition feed of Documentary Channel, simulcasting
Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...
the standard definition
Standard-definition television (SDTV; also standard definition or SD) is a television system that uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. ''Standard'' refers to offering a similar resolution to the ...
feed. It is available on 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 ...
, Cogeco, Rogers Cable
Rogers Cable is Canada's largest cable television service provider with about 2.25 million television customers, and over 930,000 Internet subscribers, primarily in Southern and Eastern Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador. Roger ...
, EastLink, Bell Fibe TV
Bell Fibe TV is an IPTV-based multichannel television service offered by Bell Canada, as part of fibre broadband services in parts of the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba (as Bell MTS Fibe TV) and Atlantic Canada (as Bell Aliant F ...
, Bell MTS
Bell MTS Inc. (formerly Manitoba Telecom Services) is a subsidiary of BCE Inc. that operates telecommunications services in Manitoba.
Originally established as Manitoba Government Telephones after the Government of Manitoba purchased the Manit ...
, Optik TV
TELUS Optik TV is a product of TELUS Communications, a subsidiary of TELUS Corporation, that provides IPTV service in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, and Quebec. The service offers over 630 digital channels, including more ...
, SaskTel
Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corporation, operating as SaskTel, is a Telecommunications in Canada, Canadian Crown corporations of Canada, crown-owned telecommunications firm based in the province of Saskatchewan. Owned by the provinci ...
, and Shaw Direct
Shaw Direct G.P. is a direct broadcast satellite television distributor in Canada and a subsidiary of the telecommunications company Rogers Communications. As of 2010, Shaw Direct had over 900,000 subscribers. It broadcasts on Ku band from two ...
.
Logos
See also
* List of documentary channels
This is a list of documentary channels, including channels that have been affected by "channel drift". It also contains channels accused of a biased point of view.
List
See also
* :Documentary television channels
* Channel drift
Channel ...
* Documentary Organization of Canada
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Documentary Channel Canada
Specialty television channels in Canada
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television networks
National Film Board of Canada
Television channels and stations established in 2001
2001 establishments in Canada
Documentary television channels
English-language television stations in Canada
Former Corus Entertainment networks