Super Channel (Canada)

Super Channel is an English language Canadian Category A premium television service. It is owned by the Allard family through Allarco Entertainment Inc.

The current Super Channel service launched in 2007, and is not affiliated with the two pre-existing English-language premium operators which used the name at various times prior to 2001, which are now known as Movie Central (Western Canada) and The Movie Network (Eastern Canada). The Allards were the original owners of what is now Movie Central, and later re-acquired rights to the Superchannel trademark. Unlike these two regional services, Super Channel is authorized to operate across Canada, making it Canada's only national general-interest pay TV service.

Super Channel is currently available on nearly all major cable and satellite providers including Bell TV, Shaw Direct, Access Communications, Cogeco, Rogers Cable, Shaw Cable, Eastlink and more. Super Channel was granted as a "must carry" service by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), meaning all television service providers must carry the service on their systems.

Channels and content

Super Channel consists of a total of six multiplex channels; four standard definition and two high definition channels, as well as SVOD

Super Channel has positioned itself as a complementary service to The Movie Network and Movie Central. In addition to exclusive movie^[1] output deals with major Hollywood studios such as 20th Century Fox, Lionsgate and MGM, they also offer a diverse selection of premium series^[2] and niche programming. Their current lineup includes various top British and American series, live concerts, anime, foreign films and documentaries. They also air live championship boxing from Showtime and Hennessy Sports under their "Super Channel Fights" brand.^[3][4]

The network also has program supply deals with Starz, Channel 4, Maple Pictures and many others.^[5][6]

Unlike The Movie Network and Movie Central, Super Channel has pledged to reinvest 100 per cent of its profits in Canadian programming, in addition to 32 per cent of revenues annually, and will be spending $1 million a year on marketing these programs.^[7]

• Super Channel 1: the flagship feed; general interest films and television series.
• Super Channel 2: action, horror, science fiction, anime, gaming, music, extreme sports.
• Super Channel 3: documentaries, film festival selections, world cinema, comedy, television series.
• Super Channel 4: Canadian content
• Super Channel HD 1: a high definition feed, simulcast of SC1.
• Super Channel HD 2: a secondary high definition feed, including multiple genres.
• Super Channel On Demand: a video on demand service delivering content from Super Channel.

Noted series

• Apparitions
• The Big C
• Burn Notice
• The Closer
• Head Case
• The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret
• Justified
• Memphis Beat
• Men of a Certain Age
• Mistresses
• Party Down
• Passions
• Peep Show
• Rizzoli & Isles
• Satisfaction
• Skins
• Sons of Anarchy (current seasons only; FX Canada now owns repeat rights to early seasons)^[8][9]
• Sordid Lives
• Southland
• Spaceballs: The Animated Series
• Trust Me
• The Whitest Kids U' Know
• Inbetweeners

History

Allarco was one of four applicants for new pay licences that was considered at a CRTC public hearing on October 24, 2005.^[10] Its competitors were:

• BOOMTV, to be operated by the Archambault unit of Quebecor Media. While it was expected to compete directly with the existing general-interest services – The Movie Network and Movie Central (hereafter "TMN/MC") in English Canada and Super Écran in French Canada – Archambault indicated that its services would have regularly favoured first-run dramatic series. Archambault was also the only applicant for a French-language service, but indicated that this licence would be worthless without an English counterpart.^[11]
• The Canadian Film Channel, proposed by Channel Zero Inc. It proposed to exhibit 100% Canadian content and be funded entirely by the operators of TMN/MC, in an amount equal to 12.9% of these services' gross revenues, to be required by condition of licence. Neither incumbent indicated approval for such a use of its revenues.^[12]
• Spotlight Television, to be controlled by George Burger, a former executive at Alliance Television, and pro-sports mogul Larry Tanenbaum, chairman of the private investment company Kilmer Van Nostrand, which proposed a premium service much in the same vein as TMN/MC.^[13] It is believed that, had Spotlight's application been successful, it would have been branded as a Canadian version of the American service HBO; an "HBO Canada" channel eventually launched in 2008 under the auspices of TMN/MC.^[14]

The Allarco application was approved on May 18, 2006, while the other three applicants were rejected.^[15]

The Allard family were also the original owners of Movie Central, which during their stewardship (and indeed up until 2001) was known as "Superchannel" (single word). (For a time in the 1980s, First Choice / The Movie Network had also used the "Superchannel" name under a co-branding agreement.) The "Movie Central" name was adopted shortly after Corus Entertainment acquired the service, but Corus maintained ownership of the "Superchannel" trademark. Just before the new channel's launch, the Allards re-acquired the rights to the "Superchannel" name under undisclosed terms.^[16]

Super Channel was launched on November 2, 2007 on Bell TV with all six channels. In February 2008, Super Channel launched an On Demand channel on Cogeco Ontario systems, since that time, other television providers have added Super Channel On Demand.

Super Channel's parent company, Allarco Entertainment, had entered into creditor protection on June 18, 2009 due to mounting debts incurred since Super Channel's launch in November 2007.^[17] On August 31, 2010, its creditors unanimously approved a restructuring plan for the company under Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act. The restructuring plan still needs approval of the court, which the hearing will take place on September 3, 2010.^[18]

References

External links

• Super Channel