BBC Canada was a Canadian English language specialty channel that mostly broadcast television series originally produced by the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

, the public-service broadcaster of the United Kingdom. The channel was owned by

Corus Entertainment Corus Entertainment Inc. is a Canadian mass media company. Formed in 1999 as a spin-off from Shaw Communications, it has prominent holdings in the radio, publishing, and television industries. It is headquartered at Corus Quay in Toronto, Ont ...

(80% & managing partner) and

BBC Studios BBC Studios is a British content company. It is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC that was formed in April 2018 through the merger of the BBC's commercial production arm and the BBC's commercial international distribution arm, BBC Worldwide. ...

(20%).

History

Alliance Atlantis Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. (commonly known as Alliance Atlantis and commonly shortened to simply Alliance or Atlantis and formerly traded as TSX:AAC) was a Canadian media company that operated primarily as a specialty service operat ...

(AAC) was granted a

broadcast licence A broadcast license is a type of spectrum license granting the licensee permission to use a portion of the radio frequency spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting purposes. The licenses generally include restrictions, which vary f ...

for a

Category 2 speciality service A Category B service is the former term for a Canadian discretionary specialty television channel which, as defined by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, may be carried by all subscription television providers. Such ...

covering "entertainment, drama and documentary programming". BBC Canada, 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) in November 2000. Alliance also received licenses for channels including National Geographic, IFC, and The Health Network, launched as Discovery Health. The channel was launched on 7 September 2001 as a joint venture between AAC and BBC Worldwide. To promote the launch of BBC Canada's 2007 fall season, a 16-page British-style tabloid insert called the ''BBC Telly'' was published in the '' Toronto Star''. Toronto-based

Pilot PMR Pilot PMR is a strategy and design agency based in the St. Lawrence neighbourhood in downtown Toronto, Canada, near the city’s historic Distillery District. The agency provides branding and digital development, strategic communications, marketin ...

created the campaign. On 28 January 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. It held radio, television broadcasting an ...

and

Goldman Sachs Capital Partners Goldman Sachs Capital Partners is the private equity arm of Goldman Sachs, focused on leveraged buyout and growth capital investments globally. The group, which is based in New York City, was founded in 1986. As of 2019, GS Capital Partners ...

known as CW Media bought Alliance Atlantis and gained AAC's interest in BBC Canada. On 27 October 2010, the channel's ownership changed once again as Shaw Communications gained control of BBC Canada as a result of its acquisition of Canwest and Goldman Sachs' interest in CW Media. On 13 May 2011, BBC Canada was separated from the now-defunct children's channel

BBC Kids BBC Kids is the international children's brand of BBC Studios, and has been applied to a number of TV services. It draws from the long history of children's programming on the BBC, and is strongly related to the CBBC channel in the United Kingd ...

due to its ownership changing hands to

Knowledge Network Knowledge Network, also branded as British Columbia's Knowledge Network, is a Canadian publicly funded educational cable television network serving the province of British Columbia. It is owned by the Knowledge Network Corporation, a Crown cor ...

. On 1 April 2016, Shaw Media was sold to

. BBC Canada also earned several sister networks to go with the existing ones. In a notice to subscribers posted in early November 2020, Corus sister company

Shaw Direct Shaw Direct is a direct broadcast satellite television distributor in Canada and a subsidiary of the telecommunications company Shaw Communications. As of 2010, Shaw Direct had over 900,000 subscribers. It broadcasts on Ku band from two communic ...

indicated that the channel would be shutting down on 31 December 2020. In March 2021,

Blue Ant Media Blue Ant Media Inc. is a Canadian broadcasting and media company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. The company was founded by Michael MacMillan and formed in 2011 following the acquisition of Glassbox Television. Its name was chosen in refere ...

, a company owned by former Alliance Atlantis executive

Michael MacMillan Michael I. M. MacMillan (born 1957) is the CEO of Blue Ant Media, a privately held Canadian media company that creates and distributes engaging content in categories that span lifestyle, travel, music and entertainment. The company owns specialty ...

which already owns the Canadian version of BBC Earth, announced that its HIFI channel would be rebranded as a Canadian version of the BBC's international entertainment channel brand

BBC First BBC First is an entertainment subscription television channel featuring comedy, crime, drama and film programming, originating from UK and mostly from the BBC. The channel is wholly owned and operated by BBC Studios. The channel began rolling o ...

on March 16. Several programs that had been carried by BBC Canada prior to its closure, including '' Top Gear'' and ''

Antiques Roadshow ''Antiques Roadshow'' is a British television programme broadcast by the BBC in which antiques appraisers travel to various regions of the United Kingdom (and occasionally in other countries) to appraise antiques brought in by local people (g ...

'', were picked up by BBC First.

Programming

While BBC Canada was part-owned by the BBC, not all of the BBC's programmes aired on BBC Canada. In general, while BBC Worldwide and its affiliated operations have a "first look" at the corporation's output, this right only applies so long as BBC Worldwide pays no less than what the BBC Commercial Agency, which is at

arm's length The arm's length principle (ALP) is the condition or the fact that the parties of a transaction are independent and on an equal footing. Such a transaction is known as an "arm's-length transaction". It is used specifically in contract law to ar ...

, judges to be a particular property's value. Furthermore, while BBC Canada served a similar purpose to the

BBC America BBC America is an American basic cable network that is jointly owned by BBC Studios and AMC Networks. The channel primarily airs sci-fi and action series and films, as well as selected programs from the BBC (such as its nature documentary ser ...

channel available in the United States, there are also significant differences between the programming rights owned by the two channels. This meant that much of the BBC's output (and, for that matter, BBC America's original programming) aired on other Canadian channels which have either co-produced the programmes or simply bid more for the Canadian broadcast rights. Conversely, many of the British series that did air on the channel are not sourced from the BBC, with some having originally been produced by or aired on other British channels, such as the privately owned ITV or the independent public-service broadcaster

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service in ...

. Despite its British focus, BBC Canada was licensed as a Canadian channel and was not exempt from the CRTC's broadcasting regulations that required it to carry a quota of

Canadian content Canadian content (abbreviated CanCon, cancon or can-con; ) refers to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) requirements, derived from the Broadcasting Act of Canada, that radio and television broadcasters (inclu ...

. This meant that in addition to British programmes, it also broadcast a number of Canadian series, which according to the channel's licence were required to "explore or einformed by Canada's relationship to the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth".Decision CRTC 2000-484
CRTC, 24 November 2000 Canadian programmes that aired on the channel included repeats of '' Disaster DIY'' and ''

Holmes Inspection ''Holmes Inspection'' is a 2009 Canadian home renovation series on HGTV, co-hosted by general contractor Mike Holmes and construction supervisor Damon Bennett. It is the third of Holmes' renovation series, following ''Holmes on Homes'' and '' H ...

''. In the early 2010s, the channel began airing American series featuring British personalities, such as the American version of the Gordon Ramsay programme ''

Kitchen Nightmares ''Kitchen Nightmares'' is an American reality television series formerly broadcast on the Fox network, in which chef Gordon Ramsay is invited by the owners to spend a week with a failing restaurant in an attempt to revive the business. Produced ...

'' (it has also in the past carried the British parent series ''

Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares ''Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares'' is a television programme featuring British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay first broadcast on Channel 4 in 2004. In each episode, Ramsay visits a failing restaurant and acts as a troubleshooter to help improv ...

''), and repeat airings of the American dramas '' House'' and '' Elementary'' (each of which has a British actor in the lead role). Many of the channel's programmes, whether British, American or Canadian, were shared with other Corus Entertainment channels such as the

Global Television Network The Global Television Network (more commonly called Global, or occasionally Global TV) is a Canadian English-language terrestrial television network. It is currently Canada's second most-watched private terrestrial television network after C ...

Showcase Showcase or vitrine may refer to: *Cabinet (furniture) *Display case Music * ''Showcase'' (Bill Anderson album), 1964 * ''Showcase'' (Patsy Cline album), 1961 * ''Showcase'' (Buddy Holly album), 1964 * ''Showcase'' (Philly Joe Jones album), 1959 ...

HGTV Canada HGTV is a Canadian English-language Category A cable and satellite specialty channel owned as a joint venture between Corus Entertainment (which serves as managing partner and owns 80.24% majority control through licensee HGTV Canada, Inc.) and ...

and

Food Network Canada Food Network, formerly called Food Network Canada, is a Television in Canada, Canadian English language specialty channel based on Food Network, the U.S. cable network of the same name. It airs programming related to food, cooking, cuisine, and th ...

. BBC Canada did not ordinarily carry BBC News programming, as the

BBC World News BBC World News is an international English-language pay television network, operated under the ''BBC Global News Limited'' division of the BBC, which is a public corporation of the UK government's Department for Digital, Culture, Media an ...

channel is also widely available in Canada, and BBC News also has a long-standing content-sharing agreement with the CBC. On the rare occasions that BBC Canada did carry news coverage, coverage may have been produced by Corus-owned Global News instead of the BBC, such as with the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton.

BBC Canada HD

In October 2016, Corus Entertainment launched BBC Canada HD, a 1080i high definition simulcast of the

standard definition Standard-definition television (SDTV, SD, often shortened to standard definition) is a television system which uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. "Standard" refers to it being the prevailing sp ...

feed. The HD feed was only available on Telus Optik TV and

. The HD simulcast was shut down on 31 December 2020.

Related properties

Apart from the television channel, BBC Worldwide directly operates a BBC Canada Shop website which sells merchandise related to

British television series This is a list of television series that have been aired in the United Kingdom. British programming Universal Channel * ''House'' * ''Royal Pains'' * '' Chance'' * ''Condor'' * '' Major Crimes'' * '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit' ...

such as '' Top Gear'', ''

Little Britain Little Britain may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Little Britain'' (sketch show), a British radio and then TV show ** ''Little Britain USA'', an American spin-off * "Little Britain", a song by Dreadzone from the 1995 album ''Second Light'' * ...

'' and ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the ...

''.

References

External links

*-
archived websiteBBC Canada
-

Canadian Communications Foundation The Canadian Communications Foundation (CCF) is a Canadian nonprofit organization which documents the history of broadcasting in Canada, particularly radio and television. Since 1995, the organization has distributed its collection via an intern ...