Cooking Channel 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 ...

majority-owned by

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 ...

. Dedicated to programming related to food and cooking, it served as a spin-off of

Food Network Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery, who manages and operates it as a division of the Warner Bros. Discovery U.S. Networks Group. The channel airs both televi ...

. The channel was launched in 2001 as SexTV: The Channel under the ownership of

CHUM Limited CHUM Limited was a Canadian media company based in Toronto, Ontario in operation from 1945 to 2007. The company was founded in 1945 as York Broadcasters Limited when it launched CHUM (AM), CHUM-AM 1050 but was acquired by salesman Allan Waters in ...

; based on the Citytv series of the same name, it carried programming related to

human sexuality Human sexuality is the way people experience and express themselves sexually. This involves biological, psychological, physical, erotic, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors. Because it is a broad term, which has varied ...

and relationships. In 2009, then-owner

CTVglobemedia Bell Media Inc. ( 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 national television ...

sold the channel to Corus; in 2010, the channel was relaunched as W Movies, a spin-off of W Network focused on films targeting women. It then relaunched as Cooking Channel on December 12, 2016; following the relaunch,

Scripps Networks Interactive Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc. (SNI) was an American mass media company, which was formed on July 1, 2008, and acquired by and merged into Discovery Communications on March 6, 2018. It was formed in 2008, through the spin-off of the E. ...

took a minority interest in the channel. In June 2024,

Rogers Sports & 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. Operations Current television brands owned by Rogers include two television sy ...

announced that it had acquired Canadian rights to Warner Bros. Discovery factual and lifestyle television brands beginning in 2025, including Food Network and Cooking Channel. While Corus announced plans to relaunch Food Network as Flavour Network, no such plans were announced for Cooking Channel, and the channel was shut down by Corus on January 1, 2025, with its licence revoked by the CRTC on February 21. Rogers does not plan to launch a new specialty channel for Cooking Channel, with any original programming to be distributed via its digital platforms.

History

SexTV: The Channel

In June 2001,

received 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 national Category 2 specialty channel known as Relationship Television, a channel described as being "devoted exclusively to programming related to love, romance, marriage, relationship-themed game shows, sexuality and gender issues, family planning, relationship breakdown and magazine style programming featuring romantic vacation resorts." SexTV

The channel was launched three months later on September 7, 2001 as SexTV: The Channel, a channel modeled after and its name derived from ''

SexTV SexTV was a Canadian documentary television series that explored a diverse range of topics related to human sexuality and gender. Created by the Canadian media executive Moses Znaimer, the documentary-series premiered in 1999 on national broadca ...

'', a now-former program on

Citytv Citytv (sometimes shortened to City, which was the network's official branding from 2012 to 2018) is a Television in Canada, Canadian television network owned by the Rogers Sports & Media subsidiary of Rogers Communications. The network consis ...

(which was a CHUM-owned property at the time). SexTV aired programming on sex and

, including issues on love, dating, romance and related subjects. In July 2006, Bell Globemedia (later

) announced that it would purchase CHUM for an estimated CAD$1.7 billion. Due to CTV planning to retain the

network, SexTV: The Channel was among the channels along with A-Channel,

Access Access may refer to: Companies and organizations * ACCESS (Australia), an Australian youth network * Access (credit card), a former credit card in the United Kingdom * Access Co., a Japanese software company * Access International Advisors, a hed ...

CKX-TV CKX-TV (channel 5) was a television station in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, which served as a private affiliate of CBC Television. Owned by CTVglobemedia, it was the first privately owned television station in Manitoba. It shared its call letters ...

Brandon and CLT to be sold to

Rogers Communications Rogers Communications Inc. is a Canadian communications and media company operating primarily in the fields of wireless communications, cable television, telephony and Internet, with significant additional telecommunications and mass media ass ...

on April 9, 2007, awaiting the final approval. The sale was approved by the CRTC on June 8, 2007, on the condition that CTV must divest the Citytv stations, effectively cancelling the sale of SexTV: The Channel to Rogers and the transaction was completed on June 22, 2007 while the Citytv stations were sold to Rogers later that year.

Under Corus ownership

W Movies

On July 14, 2009, CTVglobemedia announced that it would sell Sex TV, along with Drive-In Classics (then Sundance Channel, now defunct), to

for a combined CAD$40 million. In late September, Corus announced that the channel would be rebranded as W Movies, a spin-off of W Network with a focus on films targeting women. The sale was approved by the CRTC on November 19, with the transaction being completed by December. The on-air relaunch as W Movies took place on March 1, 2010. On December 2, 2011, W Movies launched a high definition feed. It was available through all major television providers in the country.

Relaunch as Cooking Channel

After the CRTC relaxed genre protection rules in 2015, Corus announced on October 19, 2016 that W Movies would be relaunched as a Canadian version of

Cooking Channel Cooking Channel is an American basic cable channel owned by and spin-off of Food Network. Both are owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (69%) and Nexstar Media ...

on December 12, 2016. The network served as a spin-off of Corus's Canadian version of Food Network, and came shortly after

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 ...

's re-launch of Gusto, which competes directly against Food Network.

subsequently acquired a 19.8% interest in the channel.

Network closure

In June 2024, Rogers announced it had acquired the rights to all Warner Bros. Discovery factual and lifestyle television brands beginning January 1, 2025, including Food Network and Cooking Channel. Rogers stated that the Cooking Channel brand will operate as a digital platform on Citytv+, rather than being relaunched as a new discretionary service. While Corus announced plans to relaunch Food Network as Flavour Network on December 30, 2024, several television providers have stated that Cooking Channel will shut down on January 1, 2025. This change was directly confirmed by Corus via the channel's website in December, stating that Corus will no longer offer the channel and would focus more on Flavour Network and Home Network. The channel's licence was revoked by the CRTC on February 21, 2025.

Programming

Cooking Channel primarily aired programming similar to Food Network, albeit with a larger emphasis on instruction- and personality-based programming over

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 ...

and competition-style series. As SexTV: The Channel, the network aired programming devoted to human sexuality including issues on love, dating, romance and related subjects. Past programs on the network included ''Sex Wars: Gender in the Age of Representation'', ''Beyond Carnival: Sex in Brazil'', and ''Sexploration''.

References

{{Warner Bros. Discovery International English-language television stations in Canada Former Corus Entertainment networks Warner Bros. Discovery Americas Defunct specialty television channels in Canada Television channels and stations established in 2001 2001 establishments in Canada Television channels and stations disestablished in 2024 2024 disestablishments in Canada