Specialty channel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A specialty channel is a television channel, generally not available through conventional broadcast television, which consists of programming focused on a single type or targeted at a specific demographic.
Types of specialty services may include, but by no means are limited to:
- news channels
- sports channels
- shopping channels
- movie channels
- men's interest channels
- women's interest channels
- children's interest channels
- adult channels
- quiz channels
(Note: These are not necessarily industry-accepted terms for these types of services)
[edit] Canadian specialty channels
The term "specialty channel" has been used most frequently in Canada, due to its use as a marketing term by the cable industry in relation to the various channel launches of the 1990s. The official CRTC term for such a channel is specialty service (or even more explicitly "specialty television programming undertaking"), referring to virtually any non-premium television service which is not carried over the airwaves or otherwise deemed exempt by the CRTC. They are primarily carried, therefore, on cable television and satellite television.
All such services are specifically limited in regard to the types, and often the amount of said types, of programming that can be carried. For instance, TSN can only air sports or sports-related programming, while Bravo! cannot air any sports. This differs from the U.S., where several cable/satellite services such as USA Network or Turner Network Television regularly air programs from nearly all categories, and where there are no restrictions on "specialty" services such as MSNBC from airing sports, as that particular service has on occasion.
