BookTelevision
The channel was originally established in 2001 by Learning and Skills Television of Alberta Ltd., then partially owned by CHUM Limited, airing programming relating to books, literature, and various media.In November 2000, Learning and Skills Television of Alberta, a company majority owned by CHUM Limited (60%), was awarded a category 1 television broadcasting licence by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) called BookTelevision - The Channel, described as "a national English-language Category 1 specialty television service that will feature magazines and talk shows, dramas and documentaries that are exclusively based upon printed and published works, and offered with additional programming that provides an educational context and promotes reading.[2] A year later, in July 2006, Bell Globemedia (later renamed CTVglobemedia) announced that it would purchase CHUM for an estimated $1.7 billion CAD, included in the sale was LSTA and its interest in BookTelevision.[8] Along with Fashion Television, the channel later abandoned its original format, and began to primarily air reruns of library programming from other Bell Media networks, and after CRTC category restrictions were repealed in 2015, reruns of dramas such as JAG and Matlock, properties that had no literary inspiration.In January 2021, the CRTC approved a request by Bell to revoke BookTelevision and Fashion Television's licenses, stating that it planned to shut both channels down on February 21.