 | |
| Country | Canada |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Nationwide |
| Headquarters | Toronto,Ontario |
| Programming | |
| Picture format | 1080iHDTV (downscaled toletterboxed480i for theSDTV feed) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Bell Media (branding licensed fromVersant /Comcast) |
| History | |
| Launched | September 10, 1999 (25 years ago) |
| Former names | Star! (1999–2010) |
| Links | |
| Website | eonline |
E! is aCanadianEnglish languagediscretionaryspecialty channel owned byBell Media. It primarily airs entertainment programming and series relating to celebrities andpopular culture.
The network was originally launched in 1999 asStar!, under the ownership ofCHUM Limited. In 2010, then-ownerCTVglobemedia announced an agreement withComcast to license the branding and programming of similar U.S. networkE!, resulting in its rebranding on November 29, 2010.
The channel was licensed in 1996 by theCanadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission and was launched on September 10, 1999 asStar!, which was originally owned byCHUM Limited.
In July 2006,Bell Globemedia (later renamed CTVglobemedia) announced that it would purchase CHUM for an estimated $1.7 billionCAD, including Star!. The sale was subject to CRTC approval and was approved in June 2007 (under the condition that it divest CHUM'sCitytv stations),[1] with the transaction completed on June 22, 2007. Following the change in ownership, the channel's entertainment news programStar! Daily was cancelled in defense ofCTV'seTalk Daily.[2]
Until 2007, Star! had acquired some of its programming from the similar U.S. cable networkE!; in 2007, ownerComcast announced an agreement withCanwest Global, under which it would acquire the Canadian rights to E! programming, and rebrand its broadcasttelevision system CH as aCanadian version of E!.[3] In August 2009, amid Canwest's bankruptcy, the E! system was shut down, and its stations were either divested to new owners, switched to parent networkGlobal, or shut down.[4][5] During that time, Star's schedule consisted mostly of second-runtalk shows and entertainment news shows repeated fromCTV and its secondary A system (formerly A-Channel, nowCTV Two), includingFashionTelevision,The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,The Ellen DeGeneres Show, andTMZ.
In November 2010, CTVglobemedia announced it had signed a multi-year and multi-platform deal withComcast to return the E! brand back to Canada. Under the agreement, Star! was relaunched asE! on November 29, 2010, returning that network's programming to the schedule.[6] Ownership changed hands again, when on April 1, 2011,Bell Canada gained control of CTVglobemedia, with the merged company becoming known asBell Media.
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While E! is very similar to its American counterpart, it also incorporates reruns of shows that have aired on other Bell Media services (and which often were shot in Canada, allowing them to fulfillCanadian content quotas) includingthe original iteration ofCSI,Reign,Being Human, andSupernatural.
43°38′59″N79°23′25″W / 43.649701°N 79.390233°W /43.649701; -79.390233
