TORONTO – Corus Entertainment and the CBC announced today that the public broadcaster will purchase Corus’ 53% ownership in The Documentary Channel.
As CBC/Radio-Canada currently owns 29% of The Documentary Channel, this agreement will give it majority interest and control of this digital service, currently available in approximately 950,000 Canadian homes. The National Film Board of Canada (14%) and four Canadian production companies – Omni Film (1%), Cinenova Productions (1%), Barna-Alper Productions (1%) and a numbered company (1%) – also have minority positions in the service.
"This is excellent news for CBC/Radio-Canada. Documentary programming is a core part of our mandate as a public broadcaster and this agreement provides CBC/Radio-Canada with an opportunity to further enhance the profile and access to documentary programming in Canada at a time when audience interest in the genre is growing exponentially," said Robert Rabinovitch, president and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada, in a release.
Among specialty services, besides this channel, CBC/Radio-Canada also owns control of digi-net Country Canada, as well as, of course, CBC Newsworld and RDI and music service Galaxie. It owns a minority position in ARTV as well.
The Documentary Channel was launched in September 2001 as part of the first group of newly licensed digital channels available in Canada.
"We believe that with the evolving broadcast landscape, successful services will be those that leverage their programming strengths," said John Cassaday, president and CEO of Corus. "The Documentary Channel is a natural fit for the CBC, which has a long tradition of strong documentary programming. The transfer of majority interest and control of The Documentary Channel to the CBC will allow Corus to focus our programming expertise on our core services."
The deal is subject to CRTC approval.
In a separate agreement, CBC and Corus have agreed to extend their current television affiliation agreements in Kingston (CKWS) and Peterborough (CHEX). This renewed agreement will ensure that Canadians in those areas will continue to enjoy the local programming provided by the Corus stations as well as from CBC.
