Sportsman Channel 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 ...

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 Keywest Marketing Ltd. and the

Outdoor Sportsman Group Outdoor Sportsman Group, Inc. ( Outdoor Sportsman), a subsidiary of Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE), is an Outdoor recreation, outdoors media group in the United States. They publish 19 hunting, fishing and shooting magazines, and own the Spor ...

subsidiary of Kroenke Sports and Entertainment. It primarily airs informative programming that showcases outdoor lifestyle & adventure, hunting and fishing.

History

In April 2005,

Insight Sports Insight Sports Ltd. is a sports media and entertainment company based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The company is owned in part by Larry Tanenbaum, part owner of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. Properties Insight Sports operates Aquila Product ...

, through its subsidiary Global Fishing Network Ltd., was granted approval 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) to launch a channel called Global Fishing Network, described as "a national English-language Category 2 specialty programming undertaking devoted to fishing and fishing enthusiasts." The channel was launched on December 2, 2005 as World Fishing Network in

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 ...

Rogers Cable Rogers Cable is Canada's largest cable television service provider with about 2.25 million television customers, and over 930,000 Internet subscribers, primarily in Southern and Eastern Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador. Roger ...

. In November 2007,

World Fishing Network World Fishing Network (WFN) is an American television network that offers online and mobile platform dedicated to fishing. It offers a diverse range of programming that includes instruction, tips, tournaments, travel, food boating and outdoor lif ...

first launched internationally in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

on Verizon FiOS. A few months later, the channel launched its first

high definition High definition or HD may refer to: Visual technologies *Blu-ray Disc, the universal optical High Definition disc format *HD Photo, former name for the JPEG XR image file format *HDV, format for recording high-definition video onto magnetic tap ...

channel, in the United States, on

Dish Network DISH Network L.L.C., often referred to as DISH, an abbreviation for Digital Sky Highway, is an American provider of satellite television and IPTV services and wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation. The company was originally establ ...

. The Canadian channel launched its HD feed on September 2, 2010 on Rogers Cable. Despite the many firsts with Rogers Cable, the distributor dropped both the SD and HD channels on June 1, 2017. Since the channel's initial launch internationally in the United States, the American feed had also launched with several other American television providers such as Charter Communications, and television providers in the Caribbean, including Flow Cable in Jamaica. The American channel's affiliation with the Canadian channel has since been discontinued when, after Insight Sports sold a 50% stake in the American operations to

Altitude Sports and Entertainment Altitude Sports and Entertainment (usually referred to as simply Altitude or Altitude TV) is an American regional sports cable and satellite television channel owned by Stan Kroenke's Kroenke Sports & Entertainment. The channel, which serves ...

(ASE) in January 2011, Insight Sports sold its remaining interest in the channel to ASE's parent company

Kroenke Sports Enterprises Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE) is an American sports and entertainment holding company based in Denver, Colorado. Originally known as Kroenke Sports Enterprises, it was started in 1999 by businessman Stan Kroenke to be the parent company ...

, in July 2015. However, ASE took a 19.9% interest in the Canadian channel through its division Altitude WFN ULC in 2011. On January 19, 2017, the CRTC approved the sale of Insight Sports' interest in the Canadian channel to Keywest Marketing Ltd., a company with assets in both publishing and television productions relating to hunting and fishing, among others. The sale of the channel to Keywest Marketing marked Insight Sports' exit from the broadcasting industry, after selling off or shuttering its previous broadcasting assets, including

GameTV GameTV is a Television in Canada, Canadian English language Discretionary service, discretionary specialty channel. Owned by Anthem Sports & Entertainment, it primarily broadcasts competition-based programming, including game shows and reality com ...

and NHL Network Canada. On January 14, 2019, World Fishing Network in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

officially relaunched as Sportsman Channel.Sportsman Channel Canada launches
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References

External links

* {{Sports television in Canada Sports television networks in Canada Television channels and stations established in 2005 Specialty television channels in Canada English-language television stations in Canada Kroenke Sports & Entertainment

History

See also

References

External links