Fashion Television, also known as Fashion Television Channel, was 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 ...

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...

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 targeted ...

owned by

Bell Media Bell Media Inc. (French: ) is a Canadian company formed by the amalgamation of several companies. Establishment (2011–13) On December 9, 2011, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan announced the sale of its majority stake in Maple Leaf Sports ...

. It was originally established in 2001 by CHUM Limited as a

brand extension Brand extension or brand stretching is a marketing strategy in which a firm marketing a product with a well-developed image uses the same brand name in a different product category. The new product is called a spin-off. Organizations use thi ...

of the

Citytv Citytv is a Canadian television network owned by the Rogers Sports & Media subsidiary of Rogers Communications. The licence of the original Citytv station, granted the callsign of CITY-TV by the CRTC on November 25, 1971 to Cable Television ...

series '' FashionTelevision,'' airing programming related to

fashion Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fash ...

, modelling,

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is emplo ...

, art,

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...

and design. Under Bell Media ownership and after the cancellation of its namesake, the network abandoned its original format and shifted primarily to airing Bell Media library programming with little relevance to its original format. Amid declining investments in the channel, Fashion Television shut down on February 21, 2021.

History

On November 24, 2000, CHUM Limited was granted approval 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 broadcast ...

(CRTC) to launch ''Fashion Television: The Channel'', described as "a national English-language specialty television service dedicated to fashion, beauty, style, art, architecture, photography and design." The channel was launched on September 7, 2001 as ''FashionTelevisionChannel''. In July 2006, Bell Globemedia (later called

CTVglobemedia Bell Media Inc. (French: ) is a Canadian company formed by the amalgamation of several companies. Establishment (2011–13) On December 9, 2011, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan announced the sale of its majority stake in Maple Leaf Sports ...

) announced that it would purchase CHUM for an estimated $1.7 billion

CAD Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve c ...

. The sale was approved by the CRTC in June 2007, and the transaction was completed on June 22, 2007 with the

stations were being sold to

Rogers 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, such as the Citytv and Omni Television terrestrial television stations, Sports ...

on October 31, 2007. BCE (a minority shareholder in CTVglobemedia) announced on September 10, 2010, that it planned to re-acquire 100% interest in CTVglobemedia for a total debt and equity transaction cost of $3.2 billion CAD. The deal which required CRTC approval, was approved on March 7, 2011 and closed on April 1 of that year, at which time CTVglobemedia was renamed Bell Media. The ''FashionTelevision'' series ended production in 2012, but repeats of that program and related series continued to air on the channel for a time. Along with BookTelevision, the channel later abandoned its original format and began to primarily air reruns of library programming from other Bell Media networks with little relevance to fashion. The channel ceased investments in original Canadian programming and was rarely promoted by Bell. In January 2021, the CRTC approved a request by Bell to revoke Fashion Television and BookTelevision's licenses, stating that it planned to shut both channels down on February 21.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fashiontelevisionchannel Digital cable television networks in Canada Defunct Canadian television channels Television channels and stations established in 2001 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2021 English-language television stations in Canada 2001 establishments in Canada 2021 disestablishments in Canada Former Bell Media networks Fashion-related television channels