Sundance Channel 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 ...

Category B

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

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 ...

that aired various films. The channel was founded in 2001 as Drive-In Classics 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 ...

, the owner of

Citytv Citytv (sometimes shortened to City, which was the network's official branding from 2012 to 2018) is a Television in Canada, Canadian television network owned by the Rogers Sports & Media subsidiary of Rogers Communications. The network consis ...

, that aired Drive-In B films and other programming related to it. Drive-In Classics was acquired by

CTVglobemedia Bell Media Inc. ( 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 national television ...

in 2007 and was resold to

in 2009. In March 2010, Drive-In Classics became Sundance Channel which aired programming focused on independent films, documentaries, music series, dramas and more. The channel closed its doors on March 27, 2018.

History

As Drive-In Classics

In June 2001,

was given approval from 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) to launch a national category 2 specialty channel known as "The Drive-In Channel", with programming described as being centred on "Drive-In B movies and series, as well as occasional magazine-style shows focusing on the genre". The channel was launched only three months later, on September 7, 2001 at 9:00 p.m. EST under the name "Drive-In Classics", which focused on showing primarily films from the

B movie A B movie, or B film, is a type of cheap, low-budget commercial motion picture. Originally, during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood, this term specifically referred to films meant to be shown as the lesser-known second ...

genre, focusing on films popular at the

drive-in theatre A drive-in theater/theatre or drive-in cinema is a form of movie theater, cinema structure consisting of a large outdoor movie screen, a projection booth, a concession stand, and a large parking area for automobiles. Within this enclosed area, c ...

s in the 1950s to 1970s, and a number of television series including '' The Hilarious House of Frightenstein'' and '' Xena: Warrior Princess''. Programming on Drive-In Classics were organized into themes including: Martial Arts Mondays - fight-themed movies, Western Wednesdays - Western movies, Steamy Windshields (Fridays) - teenage-themed movies, Horror Marathon (Saturdays) - horror films and Salem's Lot, various films picked by host Rob Salem, which was ended on August 30, 2009. In July 2006, Bell Globemedia announced that it would purchase CHUM for an estimated $1.7 billion CAD, included in the sale was Drive-In Classics. The sale was approved by the CRTC in June 2007, with the transaction completed on June 22, 2007 while the

stations were sold to

Rogers Media Rogers Media Inc., operating as Rogers Sports & Media, is a Canadian subsidiary of Rogers Communications that owns the company's mass media and sports properties. Operations Current television brands owned by Rogers include two television sys ...

. On July 14, 2009, CTVglobemedia announced the sale of Drive-In Classics and SexTV: The Channel to

for $40 million CAD. Before the sale was approved, Corus announced in late September that they planned to rebrand the channel, but did not give any specific details regarding the rebranding. The sale was approved by the CRTC on November 19.

As Sundance Channel

On December 8, 2009, Corus announced that Drive-In Classics would be rebranded as a Canadian version of Sundance Channel (now known as SundanceTV) on March 1, 2010 under an agreement with the American channel's owner,

AMC Networks AMC Networks Inc. is an American mass media and entertainment corporation headquartered in 11 Penn Plaza, New York City. The company owns and operates the AMC cable channel, BBC America, IFC, Sundance TV, and We TV. It also owns the art ho ...

(formerly known as ''Rainbow Media Holdings, LLC'', a subsidiary of

Cablevision Cablevision Systems Corporation was an American cable television company with systems serving areas surrounding New York City. It was the fifth-largest cable provider and ninth-largest television provider in the United States. Throughout its ex ...

), which would not own any stake in the Canadian channel. The channel was rebranded on March 1, 2010 as planned, focusing its programming on independent films, documentaries, scripted drams and comedies, and musical performances. In February 2018, a notice was posted on Sundance Channel's website that the channel was closed on March 1, 2018. Shortly after this, the channel space that was created by Drive-In Classics in 2001 simply ceased to exist. The CRTC revoked the channel's broadcast license on March 27, 2018.

Programming

Includes former programming as of December 2014. Acquired from SundanceTV *'' Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys'' *'' Iconoclasts'' *''Love Lust'' *'' The Red Road'' *'' Push Girls'' Other Acquired Programming *'' The Hour'' *''Innovators in Music'' *'' Land Girls'' *'' London Live'' *''

Monty Python's Flying Circus ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' (also known as simply ''Monty Python'') is a British surreal humour, surreal sketch comedy series created by and starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Terry Gilliam, w ...

'' *'' Rake'' *'' Shameless'' *''Video Killed the Radio Star''

Sundance Channel HD

Telus has announced on their website that they will carry the HD feed of Sundance Channel (Canada).

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 ...

and

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 ...

never launched it in time due to the channel's closure.

References

External links

* {{Canadian movie channels Movie channels in Canada Former Corus Entertainment networks Television channels and stations established in 2001 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2018 Defunct specialty television channels in Canada English-language television stations in Canada 2001 establishments in Canada 2018 disestablishments in Canada