OLN (formerly Outdoor Life Network) is a
Canadian English-language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
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 targeted ...
. OLN primarily broadcasts factual-based and adventure-related reality programming aimed at male audiences. OLN is wholly owned by
Rogers Sports & Media, with the "OLN" name licensed from Camden Media, owners of the ''
Outdoor Life'' magazine brand.
History
Licensed in September 1996 as ''Outdoor Life'' by the
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; french: Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes, links=) is a public organization in Canada with mandate as a regulatory agency for broadcasti ...
(CRTC), the channel launched on October 17, 1997, as ''Outdoor Life Network''. Its initial owners were
Baton Broadcasting (later
CTVglobemedia),
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, such as the Citytv and Omni Television terrestrial television stations, Sportsnet, ...
, and the Outdoor Life Network in the U.S., which was later acquired by
Comcast
Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...
.
It was announced on November 16, 2007, that Rogers would acquire the remaining interests in OLN from both CTVglobemedia and Comcast, leaving Rogers as the sole owner of OLN. The deal was approved by the CRTC on July 7, 2008, and was finalized on August 1, 2008, with Rogers taking operational control on August 31, 2008.
On June 24, 2011, OLN launched their
high definition
High definition or HD may refer to:
Visual technologies
*HD DVD, discontinued optical disc format
*HD Photo, former name for the JPEG XR image file format
*HDV, format for recording high-definition video onto magnetic tape
* HiDef, 24 frames-pe ...
feed. This feed is available on
Shaw Direct,
Bell Satellite TV,
Eastlink,
Optik TV,
Bell MTS,
SaskTel,
Rogers Rogers may refer to:
Places
Canada
*Rogers Pass (British Columbia)
*Rogers Island (Nunavut)
United States
* Rogers, Arkansas, a city
* Rogers, alternate name of Muroc, California, a former settlement
* Rogers, Indiana, an unincorporated community
...
,
Cogeco
Cogeco Inc. is a Canadian telecommunications and media company. Its corporate offices are located at 1 Place Ville-Marie in Montreal, Quebec. The company is structured into three strategic business units (SBU); Cogeco Connexion, Breezeline ( ...
, and
Bell Fibe TV
Bell Fibe TV is an IP-based television service offered by Bell Canada in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It is bundled with a FTTN or FTTH Bell Internet service, and uses the Mediaroom platform. Bell Fibe TV officially launched on Septem ...
.
Programming
OLN was originally based on the
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
channel of the same name later known as
NBCSN
NBCSN was an American sports television television channel, channel owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It originally launched on July 1, 1995, as the Outdoor Life Network (OLN), which was dedicated t ...
, which operated from 1995 to 2021, and shared much of its programmingincluding coverage of the
Tour de France. Today, OLN primarily airs general-interest reality series with little to no relation to the network's original format (including original programs, such as ''
Storage Wars: Canada'' and ''
The Liquidator''), and library programming from other Rogers channels including
Citytv
Citytv is a Canadian television network owned by the Rogers Sports & Media subsidiary of Rogers Communications. The licence of the original Citytv station, granted the callsign of CITY-TV by the CRTC on November 25, 1971 to Cable Television Ass ...
. Since 2023,
Due to restrictions in its
CRTC license that required it to maintain a focus on outdoors programming at the time,
CRTC Decision 96-606
/ref> and because Rogers already operated several services under the Sportsnet
Sportsnet is a Canadian English-language sports specialty channel owned by Rogers Sports & Media. It was established in 1998 as CTV Sportsnet, a joint venture between CTV, Liberty Media, and Rogers Media. CTV parent Bell Globemedia then ...
brand, OLN did not follow the suit of its American counterpart and become a mainstream sports channel. However, OLN has been used for sports coverage, including CTV/Rogers Media coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics
)''
, nations = 82
, athletes = 2,626
, events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines)
, opening = February 12, 2010
, closing = February 28, 2010
, opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean
, cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy GreeneWayne Gretz ...
and 2012 Summer Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
.
OLN occasionally carries WWE programs as an overflow from Sportsnet 360
Sportsnet 360 (SN360) is a Canadian discretionary specialty channel owned by Rogers Media. The channel was launched in 1994 as the licence-exempt service Sportscope, which featured a display of sports news and scores. In 1997, the network was ...
when schedule conflicts arise in the latter's sports programming.
Since early January 2023, OLN now carries repeats of adult animated comedies including '' The Simpsons'', ''Family Guy
''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show centers around the Griffin family, Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter Griff ...
'', '' Bob's Burgers'', and ''American Dad!
''American Dad!'' is an American animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane, Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman for the Fox Broadcasting Company. Since 2014, the series has been airing new episodes on TBS. ''American Dad!'' is the first television ...
'', sharing with FX.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oln
Rogers Communications
Television channels and stations established in 1997
English-language television stations in Canada
Men's interest channels
1997 establishments in Ontario