ShopTV Canada

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ShopTV Canada
250px
ShopTV Canada logo
Launched 1996
Closed November 2013
Owned by Torstar Media Group Television
Picture format 480i (SDTV)
Country Canada
Broadcast area National
Headquarters Toronto, Ontario
Formerly called Direct To You (1996 – 1997)
Toronto Star TV (1997 - 2003)
Website ShopTV Canada

ShopTV Canada was a Canadian English language cable television direct response television shopping service owned by Torstar Media Group Television.

Programming

ShopTV Canada featured direct response advertising in short and long form with lengths ranging from 30 seconds to 28.5 minutes from a wide range of categories including automotive, beauty & personal care, entertainment, health & fitness, home improvement, and real estate.

History

The channel was launched in 1996[1] by Rogers Cable under the name Direct To You, with the tagline "The Infomercial Channel".

In March 1997, Torstar announced that it would purchase the channel from Rogers Cable for $1.7 million, with the intention of rebranding the channel to align it with the Toronto Star newspaper, the flagship brand of Torstar Corporation.[2]

In October 1997, Torstar renamed the network Toronto Star TV. While under the direction of Rogers Cable, the channel exclusively aired infomercials, however, with the name change to Toronto Star TV, Torstar injected news and information into its schedule, blurring the lines between a shopping channel and a news channel. This was done so in an effort to boost subscriptions to the Toronto Star, by offering a glimpse of what readers could expect from the newspaper itself. The channel also began producing in-house infomercial content for third party clients.[3]

In April 2003, Torstar rebranded the network, this time as ShopTV Canada,[4] in an effort to better reflect the type of programming the channel broadcasts.

File:Toronto StarTV.png
Logo while under the name Toronto Star TV

On November 6, 2013, it was noted that the channel had been shut down either that day or very shortly before.[5] On Rogers' cable systems in the Toronto area (the only providers carrying it at that point), its channel position was replaced for digital cable customers with a free-preview channel (initially carrying Nickelodeon), and was not replaced for analog customers.

Licensing

ShopTV Canada was classified as a teleshopping service by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) and, thus, was exempted from requiring a CRTC-issued licence to operate and most other CRTC requirements to which pay TV and specialty channels are subject.[6]

References

  1. Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2010-590 CRTC 2010-08-18
  2. Torstar Corporation - Company Update. Torstar press release via The Free Library 1997-03-04
  3. TSTV offers sales pitch for Toronto Star Strategy Magazine 1999-08-30
  4. Torstar Media Group Television Launches New Brand TSMG press release 2003-04-14
  5. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. EXEMPTION ORDER RESPECTING TELESHOPPING PROGRAMMING SERVICE UNDERTAKINGS, CRTC, 1995-01-26

External links