Crave (TV network)

The Movie Network (TMN) is a general-interest pay TV service available in Canada, specifically east of the Ontario-Manitoba border, excluding the territories. (The equivalent service available in Western Canada and the territories is Movie Central.) The Movie Network is owned by Astral Media.

The Movie Network is carried by various Canadian digital television companies including Bell ExpressVu, Rogers Digital Cable and Star Choice.

Movies air on The Movie Network approximately 10-12 months after they were in theatres, 3-6 months after pay-per-view and over 1½ years before regular television.

Channels and Content

TMN operates seven multiplex channels, the main five ones being:

• The Movie Network or TMN: the main "flagship" feed; blockbuster movies and major original series
• MMore: a secondary channel with similar content to The Movie Network
• MExcess: action and adventure movies, and adult movies
• MFest: film festival and internationl movies
• MFun!: lighter movies including comedies

MPix and MEscape, which air older movies, are considered a separate package but are generally sold together with the above services. Programming is also provided under the brands MZoo (various channels on weekends) and MAfterhours (on MExcess overnight).

TMN offers an extensive variety of first-run movies and original television programs such as Six Feet Under, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Fat Actress, Dead Like Me, The Comeback, Entourage, The Sopranos and others, mostly from HBO or Showtime.

History

When The Movie Network launched in 1983, it was originally known as First Choice, a national pay-TV service. After a disappointing run for pay services in general, the industry was restructured and First Choice was restricted to eastern Canada, with the newly-formed Super Channel (now Movie Central) taking territorial rights elsewhere. It took the slogan "Canada's Movie Network", which eventually led to its current name in 1993.

Duopoly Issue

Currently, there is a debate over the current duopoly of The Movie Network and Movie Central. No other major movie networks broadcast within Canada. Critics argue this limits competition and consumer choice, while proponents of the current system say there is very little in content or functionality that it is not already offered by the existing services.

On July, 2005, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission or CRTC, the Canadian federal broadcast regulator, announced that public hearings would begin on October 24, 2005 on four broadcast group applications for new national pay TV licences.

If any are approved, it would end the current duopoly. Each applicant has said they would commit to towards the creation of more Canadian program content.

The four applicants are:

• Spotlight, a joint venture between George Burger, a former executive at Alliance Television, and pro-sports mogul Larry Tanenbaum, chairman of the private investment company Kilmer Van Nostrand.

• The Canadian Film Channel, from Channel Zero, operators of the current digital specialty channels Moviola and Silver Screen Classics. It is proposing all Canadian movies all the time but only as a supplementary service to existing pay channels.

• Allarco Entertainment, the Alberta-based Allard broadcast family that pioneered pay TV with the former SuperChannel before it was sold to Shaw Communications and then to Corus Entertainment as Movie Central.

• BOOMTV from Archambault Group, an Eastern Canadian music and DVD retail chain and a division of Quebecor Media Inc., which operates Sun Media, Vidéotron and the Toronto 1 TV station.

Related Links

• The Movie Network website
• Astral media website
• Movie Central website
• CRTC website
• Viewer's Choice Canada
• List of Canadian television channels