Encore Avenue was a

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Category A premium

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and

satellite television Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location.ITU Radio Regulations, Section IV. Radio Stations and Systems ...

channel that was 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 ...

. Encore Avenue was designated to operate west of the

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border, including the

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. The channel offered a variety of classic films from the 1970s to the 1990s, with films from the early 2000s interspersed within the schedule. The service's programming was comparable to that of TMN Encore, a separately-owned pay service (and sister channel to Crave (known as The Movie Network at the time)) that was marketed to Eastern Canada, serving areas located east of the Ontario-Manitoba border. On March 1, 2016, Movie Central and Encore Avenue were shut down by Corus, with subscribers migrated to The Movie Network and TMN Encore.

History

The channel was launched on October 1, 1994 as MovieMax!, operating as a sister network to premium movie service Superchannel (now

Movie Central Movie Central (occasionally abbreviated as "MC", mostly in program guides) was a Canadian English language Category A premium cable and satellite television channel that was owned by Corus Entertainment. Movie Central was designated to operat ...

). The channel originally focused on movies from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, but later expanded its film library to include films from earlier decades (as its licence allows the channel to air movies that were released up to five years from the present year). The channel was originally owned by Western International Communications. In the late 1990s, after

digital cable Digital cable is the distribution of cable television using digital data and video compression. The technology was first developed by General Instrument. By 2000, most cable companies offered digital features, eventually replacing their previo ...

and satellite television became available in Canada, MovieMax! launched a multiplex channel called MovieMax! 2, which was available initially on satellite only (and operated as a two-hour

timeshift channel A timeshift channel or time-shift channel (sometimes referred to as a +1 channel) is a television channel carrying time-delayed reruns of its "parent" channel's programming. This channel runs alongside its parent: the term ''timeshift'' does not ...

of the main MovieMax! channel). Duelling takeover bids for, and eventual 2000 split of, WIC resulted in Superchannel and MovieMax! being acquired by

. On April 1, 2001, Superchannel and MovieMax! were rebranded under the umbrella brand Movie Central, which consisted of six diverse channels utilizing a common street-themed branding scheme: Movie Central, Adrenaline Drive (focusing on action movies), Heartland Road (focusing on romance films), Shadow Lane (focusing on horror/suspense films), Encore Avenue (focusing on classic movies), and Comic Strip (focusing on comedy films). On March 1, 2006, the sub-brands were dropped due to confusion among Movie Central subscribers regarding the meanings of the channel's names; four of the channels remained under the Movie Central brand (but using numbered names rather than a combination of the parent network's name and a sub-brand, a common naming scheme for North American premium television services), and the two remaining channels became Encore Avenue, each of which are still diverse in their schedules. The Encore Avenue channels adopted a format of films from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, possibly due to the introduction of TCM in Canada. Encore Avenue ceased operations at 6:00 A.M. Pacific Time on March 1, 2016. The reason for that is that Corus Entertainment shut down the channel and its sister network Movie Central to accommodate the national expansion of

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 ...

's The Movie Network and sister channel TMN Encore.

Channels

List of channels

Depending on the service provider, Encore Avenue provided up to four multiplex channels – two 24-hour multiplex channels, both of which were simulcast in both

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 ...

and high definition. Sister service Movie Central operated as a separate service under a separate licence – and subscribers to one of the two services did not necessarily have to subscribe to the other. However, Encore Avenue was very frequently sold together in a package with Movie Central. Encore Avenue broadcast its primary and multiplex channels on a

Pacific Time Zone The Pacific Time Zone (PT) is a time zone encompassing parts of western Canada, the western United States, and western Mexico. Places in this zone observe standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−08:00 ...

schedule. Because Encore Avenue operated a singular feed and its license was restricted to broadcast solely in a geographical area covered by the Pacific,

Mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

and Central time zones, this resulted in the difference in local airtimes for a particular movie or program between two geographic locations being three hours at most.

Other services

Encore Avenue HD

Encore Avenue HD was a high definition simulcast feed of Encore Avenue that broadcast in the

1080i In high-definition television (HDTV) and video display technology, 1080i is a video display format with 1080 lines of vertical resolution and Interlaced video, interlaced scanning method. This format was once a standard in HDTV. It was particular ...

resolution format. In addition to its main channel, Encore Avenue also operated a high definition simulcast feed of its multiplex channel Encore Avenue 2. The main Encore Avenue channel originally launched its HD simulcast feed on April 24, 2008; the HD feed of Encore Avenue 2 followed on August 15, 2013. Among others, Encore Avenue HD was currently carried regionally by satellite providers

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 ...

IPTV Internet Protocol television (IPTV), also called TV over broadband, is the service delivery of television over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. Usually sold and run by a Telephone company, telecom provider, it consists of broadcast live telev ...

provider MTS TV, and cable providers

Shaw Cable Shaw Communications Inc. was a Telecommunications in Canada, Canadian telecommunication, telecommunications company which provided telephone, Internet, television, and mobile services. The company was founded in 1966 as Capital Cable Televisio ...

Novus Novus (Latin, 'new') may refer to: Businesses and organizations * Novus Biologicals, later Bio-Techne, an American biotech company * Novus Entertainment, a Canadian telecommunications company * Novus International, an animal health and nutrition ...

Access Communications Access Communications Co-operative Limited is a Canadian telecom cooperative based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The cooperative provides internet, cable television, telephone, smart home and security services to residential and business customers ...

, Cogeco,

Telus TV TELUS Optik TV is a product of Telus Communications, 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 chan ...

and Westman Communications. These channels shut down on March 1, 2016.

References

{{Canadian movie channels Movie channels in Canada Former Corus Entertainment networks Defunct specialty television channels in Canada Television channels and stations established in 1994 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2016 1994 establishments in Canada 2016 disestablishments in Canada English-language television stations in Canada Commercial-free television networks