1 of 1- RadioActive
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Two Old City TV-Created Cable Channels Are Officially No More
At Bell Media's request, the CRTC has granted licence revocations for two cable channels that came into existence back when CHUM still owned City TV. Both Book Channel and Fashion Television Channel have had their licences pulled as of Feb. 21st, at 11:59 PM.
I suppose there were some who thought FT, back when Jeanne Beker and company were still fronting it, might have drawn some kind of an audience. I could never see the point of what was then called "Book TV" and given all the weird programming that wound up there in the past, it's pretty clear those running it had no idea what to do with it, either. I've never met a single person who ever watched either of them and I doubt viewers will miss them.
Both were applied for at a time when the CRTC was looking to increase the choice on Canadian cable TV, and if I recall correctly, I heard from those at City at the time that management simply put in endless applications, not expecting to get them. When the Commission gave their permission, they were then forced to come up with something to show on them.
That was in the pre-streaming days, when having a cable station was a licence to print money. But those days ended a very long time ago.
Book Television Licence Revocation
Fashion Television Licence Revocation
- MJ Vancouver
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Re: Two Old City TV-Created Cable Channels Are Officially No More
RadioActive wrote:
At Bell Media's request, the CRTC has granted licence revocations for two cable channels that came into existence back when CHUM still owned City TV. Both Book Channel and Fashion Television Channel have had their licences pulled as of Feb. 21st, at 11:59 PM.
I suppose there were some who thought FT, back when Jeanne Beker and company were still fronting it, might have drawn some kind of an audience. I could never see the point of what was then called "Book TV" and given all the weird programming that wound up there in the past, it's pretty clear those running it had no idea what to do with it, either. I've never met a single person who ever watched either of them and I doubt viewers will miss them.
Both were applied for at a time when the CRTC was looking to increase the choice on Canadian cable TV, and if I recall correctly, I heard from those at City at the time that management simply put in endless applications, not expecting to get them. When the Commission gave their permission, they were then forced to come up with something to show on them.
That was in the pre-streaming days, when having a cable station was a licence to print money. But those days ended a very long time ago.
Book Television Licence Revocation
Fashion Television Licence Revocation
I never saw Book Television, but I'm imagining a channel that aired repeats of Bestsellers over and over. I think it was produced in the 1980s out of Kingston but it aired a lot on CHCH when I was younger. It was so boring. I can't imagine 24 hours a day of that.
Last edited by MJ Vancouver (January 21, 2021 3:21 pm)
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Re: Two Old City TV-Created Cable Channels Are Officially No More
Book TV sounded like it might be interested when it started and Daniel Richler was in charge - I always found his stuff on TVO and CBC Newsworld to be interesting - but to be honest I was never interested enough to pay to add Book to my cable package. I expect like most cable channels it drifted from its mandate over the years into reality and other garbage. Remember when the History Channel had legitimate historical documentaries rather than reality shows and sensationalist pseudoscientific garbage like 'Ancient Aliens'?
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Re: Two Old City TV-Created Cable Channels Are Officially No More
I never saw two seconds of the channel, but I do recall once seeing listings for hours and hours of "The Adventures of Lois & Clark" reruns. That was from a comic "book," you see, and therefore somehow fit the format. Yeah, right.
I'm not sure if this site is accurate, but it lists shows on the station like Matlock, JAG, and even more baffling, The Amazing Race Canada. Hmmm, which bestsellers are those shows based on? The whole thing was a complete fraud and - while I believe it was a little more true to its roots in the beginning (I think there was a Daniel Richler show that featured interviews with authors, for example) - it long since lost its way.
As far as I know it had about as much to do with books at the end of its life as spaghetti has to do with roof repair. (Although I suppose if you used enough noodles, it might keep out the rain for a while!) I doubt many viewers will miss it.
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Thread Starter- RadioActive
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Re: Two Old City TV-Created Cable Channels Are Officially No More
Book TV sounded like it might be interested when it started and Daniel Richler was in charge - I always found his stuff on TVO and CBC Newsworld to be interesting - but to be honest I was never interested enough to pay to add Book to my cable package. I expect like most cable channels it drifted from its mandate over the years into reality and other garbage. Remember when the History Channel had legitimate historical documentaries rather than reality shows and sensationalist pseudoscientific garbage like 'Ancient Aliens'?
I remember when A&E (an American outlet) had quality shows. Now it's mostly cheap reality programming. Arts & Entertainment? Not for a long time.
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Thread Starter- Glen Warren
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Re: Two Old City TV-Created Cable Channels Are Officially No More
I never saw Book Television, but I'm imagining a channel that aired repeats of Bestsellers over and over. I think it was produced in the 1980s out of Kingston but it aired a lot on CHCH when I was younger. It was so boring. I can't imagine 24 hours a day of that.
iirc, Doug Hall's "Bestsellers" was produced at CKVR Barrie. It most likely aired on CHCH and other stations...
Doug Hall also had a run in radio, as well as television.
Here is an article from eleven years ago....
- MJ Vancouver
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Re: Two Old City TV-Created Cable Channels Are Officially No More
Book TV sounded like it might be interested when it started and Daniel Richler was in charge - I always found his stuff on TVO and CBC Newsworld to be interesting - but to be honest I was never interested enough to pay to add Book to my cable package. I expect like most cable channels it drifted from its mandate over the years into reality and other garbage. Remember when the History Channel had legitimate historical documentaries rather than reality shows and sensationalist pseudoscientific garbage like 'Ancient Aliens'?
I really liked History Television back in the late 90s and early 2000s. They had History On Film every night hosted by Ann Medina, and there was also It Seems Like Yesterday, which was hosted by Rick Mercer. My favourite, though, was History Bites, which basically showed what television might look like if it existed at different points in history.
- Jody Thornton
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Re: Two Old City TV-Created Cable Channels Are Officially No More
You can source a news report from ABC News in 1975 of Ann Medina reporting on a major fire in the WTC's South Tower. ...... (went looking for it and found some of it)
Cheers,
Jody Thornton
- paterson1
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Re: Two Old City TV-Created Cable Channels Are Officially No More
Amazing that the World Trade Center was built without a sprinkler system.. It was always felt that with all of the concreate fires could be contained. Sort of like the Titanic "she's unskinkable" attitude. Guess Anne must have moved to Toronto not long after this report. She married a Canadian and took up residence here in 1975. Always really liked her on The National. One of the best in my opinion.
- Prod Guy
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Re: Two Old City TV-Created Cable Channels Are Officially No More
Anyone want to buy some cheap ads for a few days?
I went to the website for the channel to see what actually airs on it and there's contact info for Bell Media in Toronto and Vancouver but the coverage map is for Europe.
Last edited by Prod Guy (January 22, 2021 1:39 am)
- Scorpio42
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Re: Two Old City TV-Created Cable Channels Are Officially No More
I remember when Much Music (known today as "Much") played music videos beginning in the 1980's until recent years. Now they air some comedy stuff like The Simpsons, South Park, Seinfeld, etc. similar to what the Comedy channel does. It's not the same anymore!
- Ale Ont
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Re: Two Old City TV-Created Cable Channels Are Officially No More
I had Book television for years and the only thing they showed I was interested in was "The Untouchables," the original series with Robert Stack.
- Radiowiz
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Book Television was indeed a waste of a channel, but I am surprised Fashion Television has no future.
RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person.
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.
- kosmo
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Fashion TV has zero future because Bell put zero work into it. When the station began content was provided by showing raw footage and out takes from the old CITY Fashion Television show which was semi interesting until they ran out of that. Since then Bell has created no new fashion content whatsoever and the station seems to be a dumping ground for programs Bell already has the rights to, mainly it seems Buffy the vampire slayer and Supernatural, both having a rather fleeting relationship with the fashion industry.The fashion heads in my household cut this turkey loose a loooooong time ago.