Frissons TV is a
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) 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 ...
French language
French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...
commercial-free
Category B television channel
A television channel is a terrestrial frequency or virtual number over which a television station or television network is distributed. For example, in North America, "channel 2" refers to the terrestrial or cable band of 54 to 60 MHz, with ...
owned by IO Média. Frissons TV broadcasts programming focusing on the
horror genre. Programming primarily includes classic and modern films, along with scripted television series.
History
Before the launch of Frissons TV, a horror channel called
SCREAM
Scream may refer to:
*Screaming, a loud vocalization
Amusement rides
* Scream (Heide Park), a gyro drop tower in Soltau, Germany
* Scream! (ride), a tower ride at Six Flags Fiesta Texas and Six Flags New England
* Scream! (roller coaster), at ...
, was launched in 2001 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, Onta ...
and
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 operato ...
with the similar horror genre. The channel was rebranded to Dusk in 2009, but was later shut down and replaced by
ABC Spark
ABC Spark is a Canadian English language specialty channel owned by Corus Entertainment. The channel was launched on March 26, 2012, replacing the declining channel Dusk.
ABC Spark is based on the U.S. subscription channel Freeform (previously ...
in 2012.
A year after Dusk ceased operations, in 2013, another attempt at a horror-based channel when Sylvain Gagné, owner of IO Média inc., announced plans to launch Frisson TV while having plans to launch a similar channel in English, called
Terror TV
Terror TV is an upcoming Canadian English language specialty channel owned by IO Média. Terror TV will broadcast programming focusing on the horror genre. Programming is expected to include classic and modern feature films, movies-of-the-week, ...
. It was listed on the CRTC's List of Exempt Category B and Exempt Third-Language Services since 2013, a list identifying launched Category B television services without a CRTC-granted broadcasting licence due to a limited number of subscribers. This is despite the channel ever officially launching.
While focusing on the launch of Terror TV, it was decided to simultaneously launch a similar channel in French called Frissons TV, as both would be complementary to each other.
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) approval for Frissons TV was granted on April 2, 2014, describing the service as ''"a national, French-language specialty Category B service devoted to horror feature films, horror series as well as other programming such as magazine shows dedicated to the phenomenon of horror."''
The same month of Frissons TV's CRTC-approval, Sylvain Gagné, through Callisto Television Corp. issued a press release announcing the launch of Terror TV in August or September of that year; however, the channel did not launch as intended. With successive attempts to launch Terror TV failing, Frissons TV was thought to be abandoned as it was initially thought to only be viable with an English language counterpart, however, further research by Callisto Television Corp. found that Frissons TV would be viable after all without Terror TV. In July 2017, IO Média inc. announced that it had reached a deal with Vidéotron to launch the service on September 1, 2017 in
high definition. The channel launched its
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 on December 15, 2017, when it was launched on several of
BCE's platforms, including Bell Fibe and Bell Aliant Fibe.
In 2020, Frissons TV started producing its own original content and solicited the help of Montreal based horror film festival Cabane a Sang, to build a spinoff series of the festival. The 12 episode series was hosted by Frank Appache and Martin Richard, who helm Cabane a Sang Film Festival.
Les courts d'horreur a l'honneur
Journal de Montreal, 09-27-20
References
{{Reflist
External links
Official site
Digital cable television networks in Canada
Television channels and stations established in 2017
French-language television networks in Canada
Anime television