BiteTV

BiteTV
BiteTV logo
Launched	March 15, 2005
Owned by	Blue Ant Media
Picture format	480i (SDTV)
Slogan	Simply Funny
Country	Canada
Broadcast area	National
Headquarters	Toronto, Ontario
Sister channel(s)	Cottage Life Oasis HD Travel + Escape HIFI radX Smithsonian Channel Aux
Website	BiteTV
Availability
Satellite
Bell TV	Channel 530
Shaw Direct	Channel 368 / 68
Cable
Cable Cable	Channel 472
Cogeco	Channel 123
EastLink	Channel 220
Rogers Cable	Channel 106
Shaw Cable	Channels Vary
Source Cable	Channel 163
IPTV
FibreOP	Channel 213
Bell Fibe TV	Channel 530
MTS	Channel 322
Optik TV	Channel 186
SaskTel	Channel 162

BiteTV (often referred to as simply Bite and stylized as biTe) is a Canadian English language Category B specialty channel. BiteTV is a comedy-focused channel including sitcoms, sketch comedy, stand-up, films, comedy and shorts. BiteTV is owned by Blue Ant Media.

History

In December 2001, Glassbox Television was given approval by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to launch a digital specialty channel tentatively called Short TV, a channel described as "devoted entirely to short form films shot on film, video or created with computer animation. Short TV will showcase Canadian and international cutting edge short form films, from 1 to 40 minutes in length."^[1]

The channel was launched on March 15, 2005 as BiteTV, a youth-oriented channel aimed at a male audience that broadcast short form programming including comedy, videography and gaming, animation, and professional and amateur productions. BiteTV was also built on being an interactive television channel that delivered on-air interaction, online participation, wireless downloading, and PC and mobile chat-to-screen directly on the television.

In June 2010, the CRTC gave Glassbox Television approval for an amendment to its nature of service, allowing it to deemphasize its focus on short form programming; instead of BiteTV consisting entirely of short form programming, rather, BiteTV must "predominantly" feature short form programming. The CRTC also granted BiteTV the ability to add sitcoms, feature films, among other programming.^[2] In response to the CRTC decision, on October 22, 2010, BiteTV underwent a format and logo change, focusing entirely on comedy programming, incorporating sitcoms and feature films to its schedule, including additional sketch comedy and stand-up programs.^[3]

On-screen and interactive features

Before rebranding as a comedy channel in October 2010, BiteTV used a slightly smaller viewing screen than most other television channels, with the remaining space used to display on-air promotions and upcoming shows, a BiteTV office webcam, a status bar to show the remaining time left in the show, and a feature called The Crawl that contained pointless facts, weird laws, updates on programming, and the PC Chat 2 Screen function.

The PC Chat 2 Screen was a function created by BiteTV that let viewers interact with the channel and other viewers by letting them have their say on the channel within minutes of typing it. The viewer typed in their message and it appeared on The Crawl.

The feature was criticised because viewers could spam The Crawl with various website URLs, leading to The Crawl and PC Chat 2 Screen being manually shut down for the remainder of the night. To avert this, BiteTV set up features that include certain words automatically banned from entering The Crawl through the PC Chat 2 Screen function.

Awards

In April 2007, BiteTV won an International Emmy in the category of "Interactive Channel".^[4] In May 2006, BiteTV won the Pixel award from the 2006 Canadian New Media Award in the category of Excellence in Cross-Platform.^[5]

Programming

BiteTV airs feature films under the Bite Box Office banner.

Originals

• Comedy Bar
• Contra Friends
• The Conventioneers
• The Cutting Room
• E-Town
• Felt Up
• Free-Loading
• Guidance
• The Yukin’ Funny Comedy Show

Logos

2005–200?	200?–200?	200?–2010	2010-2013

References

External links

• BiteTV
• Glassbox TV
• Official Myspace.com page