OTTAWA – Children’s channel BBC Kids has been officially sold to Knowledge-West Communications Corporation (KWCC) after the CRTC approved the transaction Friday.
KWCC is a subsidiary of Knowledge Network Corporation, British Columbia’s educational broadcaster. While KWCC paid $500,000 to Jasper Junior Broadcasting Inc., a division of Shaw Media, for the channel, the Commission agreed to waive any tangible benefits associated with the transaction, noting that the channel “has never achieved profitability” and that its distribution agreements with Canadian BDUs “had either expired or were on the verge of expiration”. The CRTC also acknowledged that KWCC “needs significant cash resources to rebuild the program inventory for the channel”.
The Commission did, however, impose a condition of licence requiring that BBC Kids be provided on a commercial-free basis, and renewed its licence for a five year term which will expire on August 31, 2015.
The first-ever BBC-branded children’s channel, BBC Kids offers unique, high-quality programs from across the U.K. and around the world.
