| CTV Wild Channel | |
| Picture Format: | 1080i (HDTV) (2011–present) 480i (SDTV) (2001–present) |
| Owner: | Animal Planet Canada Inc. |
| Country: | Canada |
| Area: | National |
| Headquarters: | 9 Channel Nine Court, Scarborough, Ontario |
| Former Names: | Animal Planet (2001–2024) |
| Sister Channels: | CTV CTV2 CTV Comedy Channel CTV Drama Channel CTV Life Channel CTV Nature Channel CTV News Channel CTV Sci-Fi Channel CTV Speed Channel Oxygen USA Network |
CTV Wild Channel is a Canadian English language discretionary specialty channel majority-owned by Bell Media. The channel primarily broadcasts factual series and documentaries relating to animals.
The network was originally established in 2001 as a Canadian version of the U.S. cable network Animal Planet, expanding upon CTV's existing relationship with Discovery Communications for Discovery Channel. Today CTV Wild Channel is owned by the Animal Planet Canada Company, which is a consortium consisting of CTV Speciality Television Inc. which owns 80% of the company (CTV Speciality Television Inc. is a division of Bell Media who owns 70% and ESPN owning 30%; stemming from its ownership of TSN, although it is not believed to be involved in the channel's operations), with a further 20% stake held by Canadian AP Ventures Company (a joint venture between Discovery Communications, LLC and BBC Worldwide, stemming from the American version of Animal Planet originally having BBC Worldwide as an investor)[1] [2]
In January 2025, the channel was rebranded as CTV Wild Channel, due to Bell losing its rights to Warner Bros. Discovery factual brands and related programming to Rogers Sports & Media. Rogers does not plan to launch a new linear channel for Animal Planet, with its programming to instead be distributed via digital platforms.
In November 2000, CTV Inc. was granted approval by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to launch Animal Planet, a service described as being "broadly based on family entertainment that will combine high-quality Canadian programming and attractive series and documentaries from the U.S. counterpart, in the United States.
The channel was launched under its current ownership structure (with the exception of Bell Media, wherein Bell Globemedia, later renamed CTVglobemedia, owned its shares at the time) on September 7, 2001.[3]
On June 30, 2008, Animal Planet unveiled a new on-air appearance, including a new logo and graphics, to align itself with the American service which had updated its appearance earlier that year.[4]
Ownership changed once again when BCE (a minority shareholder in CTVglobemedia) acquired 100% interest in CTVglobemedia and was renamed to Bell Media on April 1, 2011.[5] [6] [7]
See also: 2024 Canadian specialty television realignment.
On June 10, 2024, Rogers Sports & Media announced it had reached an agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) for Canadian rights to its lifestyle brands beginning in January 2025, which were subsequently confirmed to include Animal Planet.[8] [9] This led to a lawsuit by Bell, which claimed the move would violate previous non-compete clauses with WBD; the matter was settled out of court in October.[10] [11] Rogers announced that Animal Planet content would move to its on-demand and streaming platforms including Citytv+, rather than a new linear channel.[12] On October 17, 2024, Bell Media announced the channel would rebrand as CTV Wild Channel on January 1, 2025. The channel will carry over certain Canadian series previously commissioned by Bell for Animal Planet Canada, as well as other animal-related content from third-party distributors.[13]
The CRTC lists AP Ventures, Inc. (an joint venture of WBD and BBC Studios) as holding a 50% stake in the CTV Speciality subsidiary that holds CTV Wild Channel's license;[14] it is not yet known if WBD and BBC Studios will divest their stakes in the channel due to its change of Canadian partner.
On June 17, 2011, Bell Media announced that it would launch Animal Planet HD, a high definition (HD) simulcast of the standard definition feed, by the end of 2011.[15] The channel launched on December 15, 2011, initially on Bell Fibe TV and Shaw Cable and launched at a later date on Telus TV.[16] About six years later, Shaw Direct added it and 5 other HD channels (Business News Network, Cooking Channel, Crime & Investigation, OWN, and Travel + Escape) to the channel listing on September 21, 2017.