Documentary Channel

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Documentary Channel

Type	Digital cable specialty channel
Country	Canada
Availability	National
Owner	Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (82% & managing partner) NFB (14%) 4 independent producers (1% each)^[1]
Launch date	September 7, 2001
Website	documentarychannel.ca

Documentary Channel is a Canadian category 1 digital cable specialty channel owned by the CBC, the National Film Board of Canada and four other independent producers. Its programming is devoted to featuring documentary films with select feature length films as well.

Licensed as The Canadian Documentary Channel on November 24, 2000 by the CRTC; it launched as Documentary Channel on September 7, 2001.

On May 11, 2006, it was announced that the CBC will buy Corus Entertainment's majority stake in the channel. Robert Rabinovitch, CBC president and chief executive, said the public broadcaster will use its majority stake to enhance its presence in documentary programming: "Documentary programming is a core part of our mandate as a public broadcaster, and this agreement provides CBC/Radio-Canada with an opportunity to further enhance the profile and access to documentary programming in Canada at a time when audience interest in the genre is growing exponentially," he said in a statement.^[2]. The transfer of ownership has yet to take place.

[edit] References & Notes

^ The 4 independent producers are: Omni Film Productions Inc., Cinenova Productions Inc., Barna-Alper Productions Inc. and Galafilm Inc.
^ "CBC buys Documentary Channel", cbc.ca, May 11, 2006.