The History Channel (also known as History) 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 ...
discretionary 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 ...
that primarily broadcasts programming related to
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 ...
and historical fiction. It is owned by History Television, Inc., 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 ...
.
History was launched on October 17, 1997, as History Television under the ownership 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 ...
. Through various ownership changes, the channel adopted its current name in 2012, with the
History Channel
History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television television broadcaster, network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney General Entertainme ...
branding used 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 ...
. The History Channel operates two
time-shifted feeds: East (
Eastern Time
The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico.
* Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five hours behi ...
) and West (
Pacific Time
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). ...
). The West Coast feed was launched on September 1, 2006.
History
Licensed 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 September 4, 1996, as ''The History and Entertainment Network'', the channel was originally owned by
Alliance Atlantis Communications
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 launched as History Television on October 17, 1997.
On January 18, 2008, a joint venture between
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, ...
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 Alliance Atlantis and gained AAC's interest in History Television. On October 8, 2009, Canwest launched a
high definition simulcast of History Television. History Television HD initially only had one national feed operating from the
Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 U.S. states, states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico.
* Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five ...
. It is available through all major TV providers in Canada.
On October 27, 2010, 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 History Television as a result of its acquisition of Canwest and Goldman Sachs' interest in CW Media. On May 30, 2012,
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 ...
announced that History Television would be rebranded as a Canadian version of U.S. cable channel
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 ...
on August 12, 2012, through a wider 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 ...
. Fellow Shaw network,
The Cave, was also rebranded as a Canadian version of spin-off network
H2.
On April 1, 2016, History and its sister channel H2 were sold to
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 ...
. An HD feed for the network in western Canada was launched on September 18, 2019. In January 2022, the network converted its imaging to the current American logo introduced in the fall of 2021, and like the American network, it uses "History" and "The History Channel" interchangeably.
Programming
The channel's programming includes documentaries, reality shows, films, and human interest series. In addition to shows acquired from its American counterpart, History also produces and commissions several original programs of its own, including ''Restoration Garage'', ''
Yukon Gold'', and ''
Vikings
Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...
''.
The channel also frequently commissions original documentary television films on historical topics, with noteworthy examples having included the World War II documentaries ''
The Real Inglorious Bastards'' and ''
Cheating Hitler: Surviving the Holocaust'', the four-part
Black Canadian
Black Canadians () are Canadians of full or partial Afro-Caribbean or sub-Saharan African descent.
Black Canadian settlement and immigration patterns can be categorized into two distinct groups. The majority of Black Canadians are descendants ...
history series ''
BLK, An Origin Story'',
[Michelle Butterfield]
"Groundbreaking new series explores Canada’s shocking, untold Black history"
Global News
Global News is the news and Current affairs (news format), current affairs division of the Canadian Global Television Network. The network is owned by Corus Entertainment, which oversees all of the network's national news programming as well as ...
, February 26, 2022. and the
Indigenous Canadian
Indigenous peoples in Canada (also known as Aboriginals) are the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples within the boundaries of Canada. They comprise the First Nations in Canada, First Nations, Inuit, and Métis#Métis people in ...
history ''True Story''.
[Becca Longmire]
"The History Channel’s Groundbreaking Documentary ‘True Story’ Is Returning For ‘Part Two’"
''ET Canada
''Entertainment Tonight Canada'' (commonly shortened to ''ET Canada'') is a Canadian entertainment news television series that aired on the Global Television Network from 2005 to 2023. Its branding and format were based on the American entertainm ...
'', September 1, 2023.
Under the ''History Television'' branding, the network also aired a special called ''Fact & Film'', which shows a program on a topic and then a movie on the same subject.
Logo
File:History TV Logo.svg, First logo as History Television (October 17, 1997 - May 3, 2008)
File:Historytv.svg, Second and final logo as History Television (May 3, 2008 - August 12, 2012)
File:History-TV-HD.png, HD logo for History Television (October 8, 2009 - August 12, 2012)
File:History Logo 2008-2015.svg, First logo as History (August 12, 2012 - May 31, 2015)
File:History Logo.svg, Second logo as History (June 1, 2015 - January 2022)
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 ...
*
List of Canadian television channels
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, bu ...
*
Historia, French-Canadian TV channel
*
History (American TV channel)
References
External links
*
{{A+E Networks
Television channels and stations established in 1997
Specialty television channels in Canada
A&E Networks
Corus Entertainment networks
English-language television stations in Canada
Television channels and networks about history
1997 establishments in Canada