I believe that Bravo is possibly the only channel in Canada to have had three owners. CHUM launched theirs in 1995, then Bell took ownership in 2006 and now Rogers has it. It will be interesting to see how they handle it as Rogers doesn’t do that well with non-sports channels.

I was involved in the original "Bravo" from pre-licensing....I was "in the room" - so as to speak... so here is an explanation.  In the 1990's, CHUM entered into a trademark and hefty programming output deal with the US parent co of Bravo - Cablevision and the Dolan family- when Moses was at CHUM/CITY - under which CHUM received the right to use the Bravo trademark - which they modified to Bravo! (exclamation point).   At that time, the programming on the U.S. Bravo was "artsy".  This was in synch with the mission statement and conditions of licence for Cdn. Bravo!  Since there was a high cancon quota (60ish %) for Canadian Bravo!, the deal seemed to make sense...in terms of what was acquired from the Dolans...till it didn't make sense. US. Bravo content degenerated (my view) into housewives of X, and other schlock.   The deal was very expensive for programming that didn't fit the CRTC licensing criteria for Canadian Bravo at the time...so eventually the deal was severed.  You may recall that each Cdn specialty channel won in a competitive hearing - had very narrow conditions of licence and an identifying mission statement which was part of the licensing process.   After Bell bought CHUM, either they severed the deal, or the Dolans/Cablevision terminated the deal and that's why the channel was re-named - CTV Drama (Bell lost or relinquished the rights to the trademark Bravo).  I was long gone by then.  If Rogers is going to launch a "Bravo" channel, they must have negotiated a deal with the current owners of U.S. Bravo, in order to use the trademark in Canada.  That would be NBC Universal.  I would bet that there is a program output deal for all of the stuff currently on U.S. bravo.  It would also make sense, since the Cancon level for Cdn specialty TV channels has dropped to around 30 (or 35%) so an output deal would work, for the U.S. bravo shows. The mainstay of the US channel are almost all houswives of X....shows (U.S. bravo this weekend is almost all Housewives shows)  and million dollar listing and top chef.  There isn't much else on the US channel.  Re-branding of OLN to Bravo   takes no regulatory approval....given the wide conditions of licence that now exist for most Cdn specialty services. 

Last edited by tvguy (July 27, 2024 1:24 pm)

I just checked the Bravo schedule for today on TV-Passport. Except for Kelly Clarkson [1AM]  and Karamo [2AM] the entire lineup is The Real Houeswives of [Various Locations] I have never seen an episode of this series, nor do I have a desire to.