TORONTO – After eliminating U.S. channel HDNet from its channel lineup in late 2010, Bell TV parsed a few more from its list of available specialties this week.
As of Sunday, Baby First TV, EWTN and Movieola are no longer available on Bell Satellite TV. There have been rumours that the carrier has or is about to drop some other independent channels, but the company insists that has not happened.
EWTN is a ministry-owned independent Catholic cable channel operated out of Irondale, Alabama. Baby First TV is another independently-held U.S. service based in Los Angeles that features 24/7 programming for the under-3 set. Movieola is a Canadian short film channel owned by Channel Zero of Toronto – which also owns Silver Screen Classics, CHCH TV Hamilton and CJNT TV Montreal.
“Bell must continually make programming choices and adjustments to match consumer demand with the channel capacity we have available. Channels with very low viewership or subscriber totals, such as EWTN, are removed to free up capacity for more popular programming,” a company spokesperson said in response to why these particular channels were targeted.
– Greg O’Brien
