CTV Specialty Television Inc. is a Canadian media company that is a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

between

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 ...

subsidiary of BCE Inc. (also known as Bell Canada Enterprises, the owner of telecommunications company

Bell Canada Bell Canada (commonly referred to as Bell) is a Canadian telecommunications company headquartered at 1 Carrefour Alexander-Graham-Bell in the borough of Verdun, Quebec, in Canada. It is an ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier) in the province ...

) and

ESPN Inc. ESPN Inc. is an American multinational sports media conglomerate majority-owned by the Walt Disney Company, with Hearst Communications as an equity stakeholder. Founded by Bill Rasmussen in 1979, it owns and operates local and global cable and ...

that operates a number of specialty channels

The Sports Network The Sports Network (TSN) is a Canadian English language discretionary sports specialty channel owned by the Sports Network Inc., a subsidiary of CTV Specialty Television, which is also a joint venture of Bell Media (70%), also owned by BCE ...

(TSN) and

USA Network USA Network (or simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was launched in 1977 as Madison Square Garden Sports Network, one of the first national sports ...

. The company was formed in 1984 as Labatt Communications, Inc. by brewer John Labatt Ltd.; but long after its acquisition by

Interbrew Interbrew is subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV is based in Breda, Netherlands. It has one subsidiary, Ambev S.A. of São Paulo, Brazil. Brands Interbrew brands have historically included Budweiser, Stella Artois, Boddingtons Brewery, Boddi ...

in 1995, LCI was sold to four local investors and

in 1996 which changed the name of the company to NetStar Communications Inc. NetStar was then acquired by CTV Inc. in 2000 and later merged with

alongside ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'' to form Bell Globemedia and renamed to its current entity afterwards.

History

This company was founded in 1984 when brewer John Labatt Ltd., who owned the

Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Since 1989, the team has p ...

at that time, launched Canada's 24 hour sports channel

(TSN). Its French counterpart,

Réseau des sports Réseau des sports (RDS) is a Television in Canada, Canadian French language Discretionary service, discretionary specialty channel oriented towards sports and sport-related shows. It is available in 2.5 million homes, and is owned by CTV Special ...

(RDS) went on the air five years later. The company also operated and established Viewers Choice and SkyVision Entertainment, both founded in 1991. With partnership of

Discovery Communications Discovery, Inc. was an American multinational mass media factual television conglomerate based in New York City. Established in 1982, the company operated a group of factual and lifestyle television brands, such as the namesake Discovery Cha ...

, Labatt launched the Canadian version of the

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 that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

on December 31, 1994. In 1995, when Belgian brewer

announced it purchased John Labbatt, a consortium of four Canadian investors— Stephen Bronfman (22.5%), the Caisse (22.5%), Reitmans (16.5%), and senior management (6.5%)—along with

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

(32%), took over the company. The sale was approved 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 ...

on March 15, 1996 and the company was rebranded to NetStar Communications Inc. After a takeover attempt by

CanWest Global Canwest Global Communications Corporation, which operated under the corporate name Canwest, was a major Canadian media conglomerate based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with its head offices at Canwest Place (now called 201 Portage). It held radio, ...

that was vetoed by ESPN, CTV Inc. (the former Baton Broadcasting Inc.) announced a friendly bid to take over NetStar Communications in early 1999, with CRTC approval on March 24, 2000. After acquiring Netstar, the CRTC required CTV to divest itself of either Netstar's TSN or their own

Sportsnet Sportsnet is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language Discretionary service, discretionary sports broadcasting, sports specialty channel owned by Rogers Sports & Media. It was established in 1998 as CTV Sportsnet, a joint venture betw ...

; they chose to sell the latter to Rogers. NetStar was then renamed again to CTV Specialty Television Inc. after its acquisition. Later, CTV Inc. merged into

's Bell Globemedia, but was renamed to CTVglobemedia in 2007 and again to

in 2011.

Assets

Active

Television

* CTV Nature Channel (jointly owned with

Warner Bros. Discovery Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and Outline of entertainment, entertainment Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It was formed from WarnerMedi ...

, 20%; formerly Discovery Science) * CTV Speed Channel (jointly owned with

, 20%; formerly Discovery Velocity) *

CTV Wild Channel CTV Wild Channel is a Canadian English language discretionary specialty channel majority-owned by Bell Media. The channel primarily broadcasts factual series and documentaries relating to animals. The network was originally established in 2001 ...

(jointly owned with

BBC Studios BBC Studios Limited is a British content company. It is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC that was formed in April 2018 through the merger of the BBC's commercial production arm and the BBC's commercial international distribution arm, BBC Wor ...

, 10% and

, 10%; formerly Animal Planet) *

(RDS) **

RDS2 RDS2 is a Canadian French language discretionary sports specialty channel, acting as the secondary feed of French language television network Réseau des sports, owned by CTV Specialty Television Inc. The channel was launched on October 7, 2011, ...

** RDS Info *

(TSN) **TSN1 (British Columbia and Yukon) ** TSN2 **TSN3 (Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Prairies) **TSN4 (Ontario excluding the Ottawa Valley) **TSN5 (Atlantic Canada, Ottawa Valley and Quebec) *

(jointly owned with

, 20%; formerly Discovery Channel)

Productions

* Dome Productions (jointly owned with Rogers Media Inc.) — a multi-platform production company that operates a fleet of 18 television production mobiles, one production/

uplink In a telecommunications network, a link is a communication channel that connects two or more devices for the purpose of data transmission. The link may be a dedicated physical link or a virtual circuit that uses one or more physical links or shar ...

truck, and three KU uplink tractors. For over 30 years, Dome's head office was located in the

Rogers Centre Rogers Centre (originally SkyDome) is a retractable roof stadium in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated at the base of the CN Tower near the northern shore of Lake Ontario. Opened in 1989 on the former Railway Lands, it is home to t ...

in Toronto. The company has since moved to 130 Merton Street in 2023.

Defunct

ESPN Classic ESPN Classic was an American multinational pay television television network, network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which controlled an 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which had 20%). The channel was ...

(ceased operations in 2023) *Exploration Production Inc. and Exploration Distribution Inc. (56.06% owned by CTV Specialty) were Discovery Channel's in-house production and distribution companies. In February 2021, EPI and EDI were subsumed into Bell Media Studios. * SkyVision Entertainment (sold in 1996, renamed to Fireworks Entertainment, but folded in 2011) * NHL Network (21.42% owned by CTV Specialty via the NHL Network Inc., joint venture of

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

consortium (NHL,

Edmonton Oilers The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton. The Oilers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference. Th ...

and

Calgary Flames The Calgary Flames are a professional ice hockey team based in Calgary. The Flames compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference. The ...

- 58%) and

Insight Sports Insight Sports Ltd. is a sports media and entertainment company based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The company is owned in part by Larry Tanenbaum, part owner of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. Properties Insight Sports operates Aquila Product ...

(20.58%) - ceased operations in 2015) * Viewers Choice (ceased operations in 2014) * WTSN (ceased operations in 2003)

References

External links

NetStar Communications
at the

Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by Internet Archive, an American nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California. Launched for public access in 2001, the service allows users to go "back in ...

CRTC ownership chart
Bell Canada Canadian brands Canadian companies established in 1984 BCE Inc. acquisitions Companies based in Toronto Mass media companies established in 1984 Television broadcasting companies of Canada 1984 establishments in Ontario Hearst Communications assets Joint ventures Disney Media Networks {{Authority control