Movie Central

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Movie Central is a Canadian premium television service available in Western Canada and the territories which was launched on April 1, 2001, and is owned by Corus Entertainment. It is the equivalent of The Movie Network, which is available in the rest of Canada.

1 Channels and Content
2 History
3 Duopoly Issue
4 External links

[edit] Channels and Content

Movie Central operates 6 mulitplex channels:

Movie Central: the main "flagship" feed; blockbuster movies and major original series.	MC 2 - Movies only with a focus on action, thriller, horror and comedy genres.	MC 3 - Movies only with a focus on drama and romance. Also airs independent and foreign films.	MC 4 - Original series along with current theatrically released movies.
Movie Central HD and Movie Central 2 HD: 2 high definition channel feeds, both alternating between simulcasts of Movie Central and its various multiplex channels (other than Encore Avenue & EA 2).	Movie Central On Demand: a video on demand service delivering content from Movie Central.	Encore Avenue - PG-rated films from the 70s, 80s & 90s.	EA 2 - Films from the 70s, 80s & 90s. This channel is available as a non-premium channel on Shaw.

Movie Central offers an extensive variety of first-run movies and television programs such as Six Feet Under, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Fat Actress, Dead Like Me, The Comeback, Entourage, The Sopranos, Rome and others, mostly from HBO or Showtime as well as original content such as G-Spot, Terminal City, Stuntdawgs, and more. Most original content is co-produced in partnership with The Movie Network.

Movies air on Movie Central approximately 10-12 months after they were in theatres, 3-6 months after pay-per-view and over 1½ years before regular television. Sports coverage is permitted, but in such limited amounts that it is rarely seen, in contrast to HBO and Showtime.

In December 2004, Movie Central launched a high definition channel called Movie Central HD which delivers simulcasted content from Movie Centrals various multiplex channels excluding EA and EA2. In 2006 it launched a second HD service called Movie Central 2 HD which delivers an alternative schedulae of HD content from Movie Central HD.

Movie Central introduced a video on demand service called Movie Central On Demand for digital cable and satellite subscribers.

Encore Avenue and Encore Avenue 2 (formerly Comic Strip) are technically part of a separate licence (the former MovieMax! licence) from the other four, and are sometimes sold separately. Encore Avenue 2 is now available as part of an analogue tier package on Shaw, replacing CNBC, which has moved to digital channel 143, although the decision to bring Encore Avenue to an analogue tier package was originally rejected by the CRTC. [1] As well, Shaw has made both Encore Avenue channels available for free on digital cable, mainly due to the addition of EA2 to analogue cable.

Superchannel pay-tv logo

[edit] History

Movie Central was originally known as Superchannel and was, in fact, the descendant of three regional pay services licensed in 1982: Aim Satellite Broadcasting (British Columbia and Yukon), Allarcom Pay Television (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and what is now the Northwest Territories and Nunavut) - which had incorporated the Saskatchewan-based Teletheatre service a few years earlier - and Ontario Independent Pay Television.

In 1984 these three services were merged under the ownership of Allarcom and exited the Ontario market, while the formerly national service First Choice, which also used the First Choice-Superchannel name, agreed to serve only Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada. It is possible that even prior to the merger, the three services worked together in some form, perhaps under the Superchannel name. [2]

Superchannel converted to a predominantly movie-based service, as did First Choice. Allarcom was later acquired by Western International Communications, which launched a parallel classic-movie service, MovieMax!, in the Superchannel service area in 1994. Originally featuring movies from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, the channel later expanded to earlier movies (its licence actually allows the channel to air movies that are older than five years). When digital cable and satellite TV became available, Superchannel 2 and 3 were introduced (which were Superchannel 1 on two and four hour delays, respectively), plus MovieMax! 2 on satellite only (a two hour delay of MovieMax!). During the WIC years, there was a noticeable difference in quality between the WIC services and their eastern counterparts, due largely to a 1996 lawsuit against HBO for allegedly promoting the grey-market availability of U.S.-based satellite television providers. WIC was at the time also a significant shareholder in ExpressVu. In retaliation HBO refused to license any of its programmes to Superchannel. [3]

The duelling takeover bids for, and eventual split of, WIC resulted in Superchannel and MovieMax! being transferred to Corus Entertainment, which settled the HBO lawsuit and began to license programmes such as The Sopranos. On April 1, 2001, Superchannel and MovieMax! were rebranded under the umbrella brand Movie Central, which consisted of six diverse channels: Movie Central, Adrenaline Drive, Heartland Road, Shadow Lane, Encore Avenue, and Comic Strip. On March 1, 2006, the sub-brands were dropped (as customers were not understanding their meanings and found the names confusing), changing into four channels called Movie Central, and two channels called Encore Avenue, each of which are still diverse in their schedules. On the Encore Avenue stations, the films that are aired are now only from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, possibly due to the introduction of Turner Classic Movies in Canada.

[edit] Duopoly Issue

Currently, there is a debate over the current duopoly of The Movie Network and Movie Central. No other premium networks broadcast within Canada. Critics argue this limits competition and consumer choice, while proponents of the current system say there is very little in content or functionality that it is not already offered by the existing services.

In July, 2005, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission or CRTC, the Canadian federal broadcast regulator, announced that public hearings would begin on October 24, 2005 on four broadcast group applications for new national pay TV licences. Each applicant said they would commit towards the creation of more Canadian program content.

The four applicants were:

Spotlight Television, a joint venture between George Burger, a former executive at Alliance Television, and pro-sports mogul Larry Tanenbaum, chairman of the private investment company Kilmer Van Nostrand.

The Canadian Film Channel, from Channel Zero, operators of the current digital specialty channels Movieola and Silver Screen Classics. It is proposing all Canadian movies all the time but only as a supplementary service to existing pay channels.

Allarco Entertainment, from the Alberta-based Allard broadcast family that pioneered pay TV with the former Superchannel before it was sold to Shaw Communications and then to Corus Entertainment as Movie Central.

BOOMTV from Archambault Group, an Eastern Canadian music and DVD retail chain and a division of Quebecor Media Inc., which operates Sun Media, Vidéotron and the SUNTV station.

On May 18, 2006, it was announced that the Allarco Entertainment application was accepted, while the other three were rejected. [4] This approved application effectively ends the Movie Network/Movie Central duopoly.