Category A services were a class of
Canadian specialty television channel which, as defined 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 ...
, must be offered by all
digital cable
Digital cable is the distribution of cable television using digital data and video compression. The technology was first developed by General Instrument. By 2000, most cable companies offered digital features, eventually replacing their previou ...
and
direct broadcast satellite providers that have the capability to do so.
Category A services were an amalgamation of the former analog pay and specialty services licensed prior to digital television (with the exception of general interest national news and sports specialty services which are designated as
Category C services) and the former category 1 digital specialty channels. In a policy decision released on October 30, 2008, the CRTC decided that all Category 1 digital services as well as all analog pay and specialty channels would be renamed Category A services, effective September 1, 2011.
Category A services share a number of similar regulations, including that they must be offered by all television providers in Canada, and have higher
Canadian content quota levels than
Category B services. They were also previously protected by "genre protection" rules forbidding other specialty channels from directly competing with them, but the CRTC phased out this rule by reclassifying the majority of specialty channels as
discretionary service
A discretionary service is a Canadian specialty channel which, as defined by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, may be carried optionally by all subscription television providers. It replaces the previous category A ...
s with standardized conditions of license.
Category A specialty services
English
Former analog services
*
BNN Bloomberg
*
CMT
*
CP24
*
CPAC
*
CTV Comedy Channel
*
CTV Drama Channel
*
CTV Life Channel
*
CTV Sci-Fi Channel
*
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...
*
DTour
*
E!
*
Food Network Canada
*
HGTV Canada
*
History
*
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
*
Much
Much may refer to:
*Much (TV channel), a cable network in Canada and its domestic and international spin-offs
*Much TV, a satellite cable channel in Taiwan
* ''Much'' (album), a 2001 album by Ten Shekel Shirt
* Much the Miller's Son, one of Robin ...
*
OLN
*
OWN Canada
*
Showcase
*
Slice
Slice may refer to:
*Cutting
Food and beverage
*A portion of bread, pizza, cake, or meat that is cut flat and thin:
:*Sliced bread
:*Pizza by the slice, a fast food dish
*Slice (drink), a line of fruit-flavored soft drinks
In Australia and New ...
*
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 ...
*
Teletoon
*
Treehouse
*
VisionTV
*
W Network
*
The Weather Network
*
YTV
Former Category 1 digital services
*
AMI-tv
*
Cottage Life
*
Crime + Investigation
*
Documentary Channel
*
History2
*
MTV2
MTV2 (formerly M2) is an American pay television Cable television, channel owned by the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global.
The channel launched initially as an all-music video service, once the original MTV had started to sh ...
*
One
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...
*
OutTV
*
T+E
French
Former analog services
*
Canal D
*
Canal Vie
*
CPAC
*
Elle Fictions
*
Évasion
*
Historia
*
Ici ARTV
*
Max
Max or MAX may refer to:
Animals
* Max (dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog
* Max (English Springer Spaniel), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of OBE)
* Max (gorilla) ...
*
MétéoMédia
MétéoMédia is a Canadian French-language weather information specialty channel and web site owned by Pelmorex. MétéoMédia primarily serves viewers in Quebec, although some cable TV systems in Ontario and New Brunswick carry the channel as we ...
*
SériesPlus
*
Télétoon
*
TV5
*
Unis
*
Vrak
*
Z
Former Category 1 digital services
*
addikTV
*
RDS Info
Multicultural
Former analog services
*
ATN Channel
ATN Channel is a Canadian Category A specialty channel, owned by Asian Television Network (ATN). It is the flagship channel of the Asian Television Network and features programming from &TV as well as Canadian content in several South Asian lan ...
*
Fairchild TV
*
Odyssey
*
Talentvision
*
TLN
Category A pay services
English
Former analog services
*
Family Channel (two multiplex channels)
**
Family Jr.
*
The Movie Network (four multiplex channels)
**
HBO Canada (East)
** TMN2
** TMN3
*
The Movie Network Encore
Starz is a Canadian English language premium television network owned by Bell Media.
The channel launched in 1994 as TMN Moviepix, a sister service to The Movie Network (now the Crave pay TV network) carrying classic films; it carried this fo ...
(two multiplex channels)
** The Movie Network Encore 2
Former digital services
*
Super Channel (four multiplex channels)
** Super Channel 2
** Super Channel 3
** Super Channel 4
French
Former analog services
*
Super Écran
Super Écran is a Canadian premium television network owned by Bell Media. It airs a mix of commercial-free films and television series. Films are primarily sourced from the United States and Canada, while the television series mostly consist of ...
(four multiplex channels)
** Super Écran 2
** Super Écran 3
** Super Écran 4
Defunct services
*
Argent
*
BookTelevision
*
Encore Avenue
Encore Avenue was a Canadian English language Category A premium cable and satellite television channel that was owned by Corus Entertainment. Encore Avenue was designated to operate west of the Ontario-Manitoba border, including the territori ...
*
Fashion Television
*
FYI
"FYI" is a common abbreviation of "for your information" (or "for your interest").
"FYI" is commonly used in email, instant messaging and other messages to indicate an informational message, with an intent to communicate to the receiver that they ...
*
G4
*
IFC
*
M3
*
Movie Central
*
Viceland
*
WTSN
See also
*
List of television stations in Canada by call sign
This is a list of television stations in Canada licensed to broadcast by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), all having call signs which begin with the letter C.
indicates a station that continues to broadcast ...
*
List of Canadian television networks (table)
Canada has adopted the NTSC and ATSC television transmission standards without any alterations. However, some unique local variations exist for DTH television because of transponder design variation in the Anik series of satellites.
Televisio ...
*
List of Canadian television channels
*
List of Canadian specialty channels
*
Category B services
*
Category C services
*
List of foreign television channels available in Canada
*
List of United States stations available in Canada
*
Digital television in Canada
*
Multichannel television in Canada
*
List of Canadian stations available in the United States
*
List of television stations in North America by media market
References
{{reflist
External links
CRTC list of all 21 original category 1 licensees
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
*1