Action (Canadian TV channel)

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Action
Owned by Corus Entertainment
Country Canada
Headquarters Toronto, Ontario

Action (formerly known as Showcase Action) was a Canadian English language specialty channel owned by Corus Entertainment. The channel was established as a spin-off of Showcase focused on action genre films and television series. Following a rebrand in 2009, the channel would eventually shift to general-interest, male-targeting programming.

The channel was first launched on September 7, 2001; it was shut down on April 1, 2019, at midnight ET and was replaced by Adult Swim.

History

In November 2000, Showcase Television Inc., a division of Alliance Atlantis, was granted approval by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to launch a television channel called Action Television, described as "a national English-language Category 2 specialty television service devoted to action movies and series primarily driven by a fast-paced fictional plot featuring car chases, explosions, special effects, or martial arts."[1] The channel launched on September 7, 2001, as Showcase Action,[2] a spin-off of another Alliance Atlantis television channel, Showcase. Showcase Action's slogan, on-air and in advertising, was "Get Some."

On January 18, 2008,[3] a joint venture between Canwest and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners known as CW Media,[4] acquired control of Showcase Action through its purchase of Alliance Atlantis' broadcasting assets, which were placed in a trust in August 2007.[5] The channel was renamed Action on August 31, 2009.[6] On October 27, 2010, ownership changed once again as Shaw Communications gained control of Action as a result of its acquisition of Canwest and Goldman Sachs' interest in CW Media.[7][8]

In 2011, Action would begin airing two original programs, The Drunk and On Drugs Happy Funtime Hour and Kenny Hotz's Triumph of the Will, both of which were cancelled after one season.[9] By this time, Action's programming would begin to diverge from its format and incorporate reality shows acquired from U.S. network TruTV. Another original series, But I'm Chris Jericho, starring Canadian-born professional wrestler Chris Jericho, premiered as a webseries in 2013 on Action's YouTube channel. But I'm Chris Jericho would later be acquired and renewed for a second season by CBC Television's digital outlet CBC Comedy.[10]

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On May 1, 2015, an HD feed of Action was launched. During this time, the channel was made available as a free preview.[11]

On April 1, 2016, Action's parent company Shaw Media was sold to Corus Entertainment.

On March 4, 2019, it was announced that Corus would launch a Canadian version of Adult Swim on April 1, 2019, replacing Action under its license, and marking the first time that the brand has been used for a 24-hour channel. The channel launched with a two-month free preview on linear television, and an on-demand free preview to the end of 2019. Cartoon Network and Teletoon concurrently dropped their respective adult programming blocks (Adult Swim and Teletoon at Night) to accommodate the new channel.[12]

References

  1. ↑ Decision CRTC 2000-675 CRTC 2000-12-14
  2. ↑ CTV, Score Media Challenge New Specialty Channel Applications Archived May 13, 2012, at the Wayback Machine The Wire Report 2010-06-03
  3. ↑ Canwest Global receives final CRTC approval for acquisition of Alliance Atlantis CNW press release 2008-01-18
  4. ↑ Goldman's happy ending at CanWest The Globe and Mail 2010-05-03
  5. ↑ CanWest Completes Acquisition of Alliance Atlantis Archived 2012-04-23 at the Wayback Machine Investor Point 2007-08-15
  6. ↑ Showcase Action Unveils its Fall 2009 Programming Highlights Archived May 27, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Channel Canada 2009-07-26
  7. ↑ Shaw Communications closes purchase of Canwest TV assets, rebrands as Shaw Media Archived 2011-07-08 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ↑ CRTC approves Shaw’s purchase of the Canwest Global television properties Archived 2013-12-20 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ http://media.shawmedia.ca/uploadedfiles/shawmedia/content/insidetrack/2015/04_23/action_free_preview.pdf[bare URL PDF]
  12. ↑ First Ever 24-Hour Adult Swim Channel Coming to Canada This Spring Newswire 2019-03-04
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