William Craig (broadcaster)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William (Bill) Craig is a Canadian broadcaster (not affiliated with the Canadian company Craig Media).
Craig began his career as a researcher for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's This Hour Has Seven Days. He subsequently joined the programming departments at the CBC, TVOntario and Rogers Cable. He was also a policy analyst for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission in the 1970s.
In the 1990s, Craig launched four regional sports networks in the United States. In 1999, he launched iCraveTV, a controversial website which offered streaming broadcasts of television stations. He shut down the website the following year after a copyright infringement lawsuit from the American broadcasters whose signals were available on the service.
He acquired PrideVision in 2004 and announced plans to improve the channel's cable distribution by separating its adult entertainment and general interest programming onto two distinct channels. In 2005, the CRTC approved Craig's license for OUTtv, which took over PrideVision's general interest programming, while PrideVision has continued to operate as an adult subscriber channel renamed HARD on PrideVision.
In 2006, Craig sold his interest in OUTtv and HARD on PrideVision to Shavick Entertainment and Pink Triangle Press.