FYI (stylized as fyi,) 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 Discovery Health Canada, ULC, a subsidiary 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 ...

. Based on the American cable network of the same name, the channel featured lifestyle programming, with a mix of

reality Reality is the sum or aggregate of everything in existence; everything that is not imagination, imaginary. Different Culture, cultures and Academic discipline, academic disciplines conceptualize it in various ways. Philosophical questions abo ...

, culinary, home renovation and makeover series. The channel was launched on September 7, 2001, as Discovery Health Channel by a joint venture of

Alliance Atlantis Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. (commonly known as Alliance Atlantis) was a Canadian media company that operated primarily as a specialty service operator in Canada. Alliance Atlantis also had offices in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, Los ...

and

Discovery Communications Discovery, Inc. was an American multinational mass media factual television conglomerate based in New York City. Established in 1982, the company operated a group of factual and lifestyle television brands, such as the namesake Discovery Cha ...

, which focused on health and wellness-oriented programming. Discovery Health was acquired by

Canwest Canwest Global Communications Corporation, which operated under the corporate name Canwest, was a major Canadian media conglomerate based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with its head offices at Canwest Place (now called 201 Portage). It held radio, ...

in 2008 which rebranded the network as Twist TV in 2010 before being taken over by

Shaw Media Shaw Media, Inc. was the television broadcasting division of Shaw Communications. It owned the Global Television Network, which broadcasts nationally via 13 television stations, as well as 19 specialty channels including Slice (TV channel), Slice ...

. As Twist TV, the channel shifted to reality programming aimed at a female demographic. After being rebranded to FYI in 2014 and acquired by Corus in 2016, the channel ended its operations on December 31, 2019.

History

As Discovery Health

In January 2000,

brokered a deal with

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian - American retired business magnate, investor, and media mogul. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of List of assets owned by News Corp, local, national, a ...

News Corporation The original incarnation of News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp. and also variously known as News Corporation Limited) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media corporation founded and controlled by media mogul Ru ...

and several Canadian television providers, including both national satellite companies Bell ExpressVu and Star Choice, to distribute News Corporation's cable channel, The Health Network, in Canada. The deal would mark the first time The Health Network would be available in Canada. The deal struck to sponsor The Health Network's distribution in Canada was a prelude to the fact that Alliance Atlantis and News Corporation would eventually launch a Canadian version of the channel for the domestic market and remove the American channel from the Canadian market. On November 24, 2000, Alliance Atlantis (which would hold 80% majority interest in the channel) and News Corporation (which would hold the remaining 20% interest) were granted a broadcasting licence for The Health Network Canada 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). Prior to the launch of the network, in September 2001,

(owners of

Discovery Health Channel Discovery Life is an American cable television, cable television network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched on February 1, 2011 as Discovery Fit & Health, it was the result of the merger of the Discovery Health Channel and FitTV, followi ...

in the U.S.) bought The Health Network from News Corporation for US$255 million. Through that transaction, Discovery Communications would also acquire News Corporation's 20% interest in The Health Network Canada. As a result of Discovery Communications' newly acquired interest in the service, the network was launched that same month on September 7, 2001, as the ''Discovery Health Channel''. On the same day as the Canadian channel's launch, the American service, The Health Network, was removed from all Canadian television providers. In February 2002, The Health Network was removed from the CRTC's list of foreign satellite services eligible for carriage on Canadian pay television providers, by request of The Health Network's owners. On January 18, 2008, a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

between

and

Goldman Sachs Capital Partners Goldman Sachs Alternatives is the alternative investment arm of Goldman Sachs, focused on private equity, private credit, secondaries, real estate, infrastructure, and growth equity investments globally. The group, which is based in New York ...

, known as CW Media, bought

and through that transaction, acquired Alliance Atlantis' interest in Discovery Health. In 2009, CW Media purchased the remaining interest in the channel from Discovery Communications, bringing its ownership to 100%.Discovery Health Rebrands As Twist TV

As Twist TV

Two deals were announced in late 2009 and early 2010 that affected the future of the Canadian channel. First, Discovery Communications announced that the flagship Discovery Health channel in the U.S. would be replaced by the

Oprah Winfrey Network The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN, also known as the OWN Network) is an American multinational basic cable television network which launched on January 1, 2011, effectively replacing the Discovery Health Channel, which one month later merged with ...

(OWN) in January 2011. OWN later reached an agreement with

to launch a Canadian version of that channel shortly after the U.S. version's debut. Later in April 2010, Discovery Communications announced an expanded long-term agreement with

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 ...

(then CTVglobemedia, Discovery's Canadian partner for most of its other channels) under which Bell holds Canadian broadcast rights to most of the Discovery Communications programming library, including Discovery Health programs, and the right to launch new Discovery-branded channels. On September 15, 2010, Canwest announced Discovery Health Canada would rebrand as ''Twist TV'' on November 1. The rebranded channel would focus on reality shows about "people facing extraordinary situations" aimed at a female demographic including such shows as ''

Nanny 911 ''Nanny 911'' is an American reality television series that originally aired on Fox from November 3, 2004, to February 23, 2007, and on CMT from April 18 to June 6, 2009. Premise ''Nanny 911'' is loosely based on the British television progra ...

'', '' Raising Sextuplets'', '' Dad Camp'', and '' Little Miss Perfect''. The name came from the narrative " twist" trope common with reality and non-fiction programming. On October 27, 2010, the channel's ownership changed again as

Shaw Communications 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 ...

gained control of Discovery Health as a result of its acquisition of Canwest and Goldman Sachs' interest in CW Media. The channel officially rebranded five days later. The network was wholly unrelated to the American Twist network with the same format launched in 2021.

Rebrand as FYI

In June 2014, it was reported that Twist TV, along with sister network Mystery TV, would be rebranded as Canadian versions of FYI and the Crime & Investigation Network under a licensing agreement with

A+E Networks A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient ...

. A+E Networks and Shaw Media had previously partnered to rebrand History Television, Showcase Diva and The Cave as Canadian versions of

History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

, Lifetime and H2 in 2012. The launch of FYI (as well as CI) was intended to draw in more female viewers, the primary audience of Shaw Media's lifestyle networks. In addition to programming from the U.S. service, as well as other Shaw Media-owned channels, the new channel will air shows from other sources. The channel was relaunched on the morning of September 1, 2014 with a free preview to last the rest of the month. A month prior, a Canadian version of the FYI website went online. Over time, the website was updated to include information pertaining to the channel. A YouTube channel went online August 28, 2014; on that day, sneak peeks of FYI programming aired on Lifetime and Slice. On April 1, 2016, Shaw Media was sold to

Closure

In June 2019, at the Corus Entertainment upfronts, Corus Entertainment announced its Fall 2019 schedules of its top-performing specialty channels. However, FYI was not included in the upfronts. In October 2019, Corus announced that FYI would be shut down at midnight on December 31, 2019, after which the channel space created in 2001 by Discovery Health Channel ceased to exist. The channel's license was surrendered to the CRTC on February 4, 2020. Some of its programming such as ''

Storage Wars ''Storage Wars'' (stylized as ''STORAGE WAR$'') is an American reality television competition series that airs on the A&E network. It premiered on December 1, 2010. A 16th season is scheduled to premiere on June 7, 2025. When rent is not p ...

'', which aired on this channel, are also available on

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

which is accessible in Canada.

FYI HD

In late 2016, Corus launched FYI HD, a

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 ...

high definition simulcast of 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. The HD feed was available on

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 ...

and

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 ...

. On August 8, 2018, it launched on

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 ...

. The HD feed shut down on December 31, 2019.

References

External links

* {{Discovery Communications 2001 establishments in Canada 2019 disestablishments in Canada Defunct specialty television channels in Canada English-language television stations in Canada Former Corus Entertainment networks Television channels and networks about health Television channels and stations disestablished in 2019 Television channels and stations established in 2001