HGTV (Canadian TV channel)


HGTV is a Canadian English-language Category A cable and satellite specialty channel that is owned as a joint venture between Corus Entertainment and Discovery Inc.. HGTV broadcasts programs relating to real estate, home and garden design, and renovations.
The network's programming draws primarily from the U.S. version of the channel, but it also carries original, Canadian-produced series that have, in turn, also been picked up for broadcast by the U.S. network, as well as a smaller selection of home renovation programming acquired from other channels in the United States or the United Kingdom.

History

In September 1996, Your Channel Television Inc., a company majority owned by Atlantis Communications with minority partner E. W. Scripps Company, was granted a television broadcasting licence by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission for a channel called HGTV-TV Canada, described at the time as broadcasting "programming that presents practical, hands-on advice and instruction about homes and gardens. The programming will revolve around five key themes: building and remodelling, decorating and interior design, gardening and landscaping, crafts and hobbies and special interests."
The channel was launched as HGTV on October 17, 1997. Channels also launched that day were History Television, Teletoon, and Prime, just to name a few. In June 1998, Atlantis Communications announced that it planned to merge with Alliance Communications, another fellow television and film producer and broadcaster, owners of History Television and Showcase at the time, to form a new company called Alliance Atlantis Communications. The CRTC approved the merger in May 1999.
On January 18, 2008, a joint venture between Canwest and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners known as CW Media acquired control of HGTV through its purchase of Alliance Atlantis' broadcasting assets, which were placed in a trust in August 2007.
On October 27, 2010, the channel's ownership changed again as Shaw Communications gained control of HGTV as a result of its acquisition of Canwest and Goldman Sachs' interest in CW Media. Shaw Media has since been subsumed by its sister company Corus Entertainment, who owns the channel to this day.
A high definition feed launched on January 31, 2011. It is available through all major television providers.

Programming

Noted personalities who have been featured in HGTV Canada programming have included Mike Holmes, Drew and Jonathan Scott, Bryan Baeumler, Chris Hyndman and Steven Sabados, Sarah Richardson, Sebastian Clovis, Scott McGillivray and Damon Bennett, among others.
Some of its original Canadian-produced series have also been acquired by the U.S. version of the network; in particular, Property Brothers has been among the U.S. version's top programs.