Love Nature is a Canadian-based

specialty television 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 targeted ...

channel. The channel broadcasts documentaries and television series related to wildlife and nature. The channel's Canadian operations are owned solely by

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 referenc ...

, while the international operations are jointly owned by Blue Ant Media, Rock Entertainment Holdings and Smithsonian Networks.

History

As Oasis HD

In August 2005, John S. Panikkar (co-founder of the channel's original owner,

High Fidelity HDTV High Fidelity HDTV was a Canadian licensed television broadcaster specializing in HD content. The company was founded in 2003 by co-founders John Panikkar and Ken Murphy, both of whom have been involved in the Canadian broadcasting industry for m ...

), was granted a licence 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) to launch ''OasisHD'', described as ''"a national English-language Category 2 high definition specialty programming undertaking... featuring urban and wild landscapes by Canadian and international cinematographers."'' The channel launched in Canada on March 12, 2006, as Oasis HD, focusing on wildlife and nature programming, similar to its current format. On December 21, 2011, High Fidelity HDTV announced that it had entered into an agreement to be purchased outright by Blue Ant Media. While initially purchasing 29.9% of the company, the remaining 70.1% would be purchased once it is approved by the CRTC. Oasis TV channel logo

In the summer of 2014, the channel dropped the "HD" moniker and was re-branded as Oasis with a revised logo and new website. On January 19, 2015, Oasis re-branded again, this time as Love Nature. The re-branding coincided with an announcement by Blue Ant Media that it planned to produce 200 hours of nature programming per-year in 4K

Ultra HD Ultra-high-definition television (also known as Ultra HD television, Ultra HD, UHDTV, UHD and Super Hi-Vision) today includes 4K UHD and 8K UHD, which are two digital video formats with an aspect ratio of 16:9. These were first proposed b ...

Makeful Makeful (formerly known as BiteTV) is a Canadian pay television channel owned by Blue Ant Media. It has transmittered from 299 Queen Street West since at least 2012. The channel was first launched on March 5, 2005, as BiteTV, and primarily aired ...

replaced BiteTV on August 24, 2015 and it became a sister station to Makeful as with other Blue Ant channels.

International expansion

On July 14, 2008, then owners High Fidelity HDTV, announced that it had reached an agreement with Cameron Thomson Group to distribute then Oasis HD, throughout Europe. Although the channel did not launch internationally as planned. On December 14, 2015, Blue Ant Media and

Smithsonian Networks The Smithsonian Channel is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through its media networks division under MTV Entertainment Group. It offers video content inspired by the Smithsonian Institution's museums, research facilit ...

jointly announced that it was partnering in a new joint venture called Blue Skye Entertainment, with the new company focusing on developing and distributing 4K Ultra HD wildlife and nature programming globally via SVOD and linear television services under the Love Nature brand and Smithsonian Network's stand-alone streaming service, Smithsonian Earth. The new company's first product launch came with the launch of the Love Nature SVOD streaming service, which launched in 32 countries at launch, in February 2016. The channel's first international linear television distribution agreement was signed with

StarHub TV StarHub TV is a pay television service provided by StarHub in Singapore. It has been a subsidiary of StarHub Limited since StarHub acquired Singapore Cable Vision (SCV) in 2001, and was the sole pay-TV operator in the country until 2007 when mi ...

in Singapore in November 2016. The channel launched on

Virgin Media Virgin Media is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, Cable television, television and Internet access, internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, Berkshire, Reading, Engla ...

on channels 293 and 294 in the United Kingdom on 21 July 2018. They were removed from Virgin Media on 4 December 2020. Most of the programmes that aired on the channel moved to

Sky Nature Sky Nature is a British pay television channel owned and operated by Sky, a division of Comcast, which launched on 27 May 2020. Sky Nature broadcasts original Sky content, content from Canadian channel Love Nature, and Sky's collection of David ...

. The channel launched on

Ziggo Ziggo Holding B.V. () is the largest cable operator in the Netherlands, providing digital cable television, Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers. History The company is the result of the merger between ...

on channel 205 in the Netherlands on 1 February 2019. The channel launched on MyTV SUPER on channels 402 and 403 in Hong Kong on 11 March 2019, available in HD and 4K formats. The channel launched on

Unifi TV Unifi TV (stylized as unifi tv, formerly known as HyppTV prior to January 2018) is an IPTV service operated by Telekom Malaysia (TM). It was launched in 2010 as part of TM's bundled Triple-play service offering of VoIP Telephone, Internet and ...

on channel 502 in Malaysia and channel 746 in the United States on 15 January 2020, available in HD and 4K formats. The channel launched on AIS Play on channel 505 in Thailand on 1 August 2020, available in HD and 4K formats. The channel launched on

SkyCable Sky Cable (stylized as SKYcable) is a cable television service of Sky Cable Corporation in the Philippines. It covers areas across the country with both digital and analog cable services, and it has 700,000 subscribers, controlling 45% of t ...

on Channel 192 in Philippines on March 28, 2022 available soon in HD format.

References

External links

* * * * {{Television in the Netherlands Blue Ant Media channels Digital cable television networks in Canada Television channels and stations established in 2006 English-language television stations in Canada Video on demand services Television channels in the Netherlands