Animal Planet (Canadian TV channel)


Animal Planet is a Canadian English language specialty television channel. Animal Planet broadcasts a variety of programming featuring animals.
The channel is owned by Animal Planet Canada Company, which is a consortium consisting of CTV Speciality Television Inc. which owns 80% of the company, and Canadian AP Ventures Company who owns 20%. Through this ownership structure, this effectively gives Bell Media 64% ownership and control, with ESPN 16%, BBC Studios 10%, and Discovery Inc. 10% ownership.

History

In November 2000, CTV Inc. was granted approval by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to launch Animal Planet, a service described as being "broadly based on family entertainment that will combine high-quality Canadian programming and attractive series and documentaries from Animal Planet in the United States."
The channel was launched under its current ownership structure on September 7, 2001.
On June 30, 2008, Animal Planet unveiled a new on-air appearance, including a new logo and graphics, to align itself with the American service which had updated its appearance earlier that year.
On September 10, 2010, BCE announced that it planned to acquire 100% interest in CTVglobemedia for a total debt and equity transaction cost of $3.2 billion CAD. The deal which required CRTC approval, was approved on March 7, 2011 and closed on April 1 of that year, on which CTVglobemedia was rebranded Bell Media.

Animal Planet HD

On June 17, 2011, Bell Media announced that it would launch Animal Planet HD, a high definition simulcast of the standard definition feed, by the end of 2011. The channel launched on December 15, 2011 initially on Bell Fibe TV and Shaw Cable and launched at a later date on Telus TV. Shaw Direct added it and 5 other HD channels on September 21, 2017.

Logos