Viewers Choice | |
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Viewers Choice logo | |
Launched | 1991 |
Owned by | Viewers Choice Canada Inc. (Astral Media 50.1% & managing partner CTV Speciality Television Inc. 24.95% Rogers Media 24.95%) |
Picture format | 480i SDTV 1080i HDTV |
Slogan | See it all![1] |
Country | Canada |
Broadcast area | Eastern Canada |
Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario |
Website | Viewers Choice |
Availability | |
Cable | |
Available on many Canadian cable systems | Check local listings |
Viewers Choice is a Canadian English language regional pay-per-view and Near Video on Demand service that is designated to operate east of the Manitoba-Ontario border, excluding the territories.
Viewers Choice is owned by Viewers Choice Canada Inc., which is majority owned by Astral Media, with minority partners CTV Specialty Television Inc. and Rogers Media.
The Viewers Choice pay-per-view service consists of 45 standard definition channels and two high-definition television channels. Programming on Viewers Choice includes movies, concerts, live boxing, UFC, WWE and TNA wrestling, World Series of Poker and other special events. Adult content is also available through the Adam and Eden services. Adam features content for gay men while Eden features content of interest to straight men.
In an effort to compete with the video on demand services offered by cable companies, Viewers Choice has launched "All Day Ticket". It allows the viewer to purchase a movie for a 24-hour time period until 6 a.m. the next day. They are allowed to view it as often as they wish until the time period expires.
Viewers Choice is carried by various Canadian digital television companies including Rogers Digital Cable and Vidéotron.
Until 2007, the pay-per-view service now owned by Shaw Communications, which was originally restricted to Western Canada, shared the Viewers Choice name and used the same satellite feeds. On December 27, 2007, Shaw Broadcast Services switched all of their pay-per-view feeds to their own proprietary pay-per-view service, which is now licensed to operate nationally, displacing Viewers Choice from Shaw and Star Choice (now Shaw Direct), as well as any other system that receives their pay-per-view feeds via Shaw Broadcast. As a result, and since the only other satellite distributor, Bell TV, offers its own pay-per-view service (known as Vu!), carriage of Viewers Choice is now restricted to cable systems and other providers with a terrestrial fibre connection to Viewers Choice master control.
Viewers Choice Canada Inc. was originally the largest shareholder and managing partner (40%) in the French language pay-per-view service, Canal Indigo. However, on March 20, 2008, Groupe TVA announced they will be purchasing Viewers Choice and the remaining stakeholders interest's in the service. The sale was approved by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) later that year and Viewers Choice now no longer holds any interest in the service.
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