BiteTV
| BiteTV | |
|---|---|
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| BiteTV logo | |
| Launched | March 15, 2005 |
| Owned by | Glassbox Television Inc. |
| Country | Canada |
| Broadcast area | National |
| Headquarters | Mississauga, Ontario |
| 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 | |
| Bell Aliant TV | Channel 213 |
| Bell Fibe TV | Channel 530 |
| MTS | Channel 322 |
| Optik TV | Channel 186 |
| SaskTel | Channel 162 |
BiteTV (often referred to as simply Bite) is a Canadian English language Category B specialty channel. BiteTV is a comedy-focused channel including sitcoms, sketch comedy, stand-up, films, comedy shorts, and more. BiteTV is owned by Glassbox Television.
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[edit] History
In December 2001, Glassbox Television was given approval from 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 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 a 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]
[edit] On-screen and interactive features
Before rebranding as a comedy channel in October 2010, BiteTV utilized 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 faced criticism 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.
[edit] 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]
[edit] Programming
[edit] Logos
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| Original logo | Second logo | Third logo | Current logo |
[edit] References
- ^ Decision CRTC 2001-770, CRTC, 2001-12-20
- ^ Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2010-362, CRTC, 2010-06-10
- ^ BITE TAKES FUNNY SERIOUSLY WITH NEW LOOK AND HIT COMEDY TV PROGRAMMING, CNW, 2010-10-18
- ^ Canadian firms scoop interactive Emmy awards; CBC; 2007-04-20
- ^ BITE TV WINNER IN SIXTH-ANNUAL CANADIAN NEW MEDIA AWARDS; Glassbox Television; 2006-05-31
