Chinavision Canada
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Chinavision was a Canadian television broadcasting company.
It was launched in 1984 by Francis Cheung of Toronto, Ontario to provide a first pay-TV station for Chinese language viewers in Toronto and Vancouver, British Columbia. The station's content was roughly 90% Cantonese and 10% Mandarin.
The station expanded to
Content
Contingent on the application to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) Chinavision was required to have minimum of 30% Canadian made programs with the remainder from sources outside of Canada (mainly Hong Kong, China).
Broadcasting time
Chinavision's broadcaster hours were limited to two periods:[1]
- 4:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. weekdays
- 2:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. on weekends
Original broadcast time was from 5pm to 1am daily.
Programming in Toronto was replayed in Vancouver and other markets.[2]
Studios
Studios in Toronto were located within the city (160 Duncan Mills Road)[3] and moved after the sale to Fairchild to Richmond Hill, Ontario.
Subscription
Viewers of Chinavision, namely in Toronto area had to obtain a converted box that had to connected to their existing cable boxes to decode signals for the channel.[4] Thus Chinavision was only available to cable subscribers only.
In 1991 Chinavision had about 110,000 subscribers across Canada (Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary).[5]
Chinavision was involved in an investigation by
Sale
After 1990 Chinavision was in facing financial difficulties and was sought out by two buyers, but eventually sold to Fairchild Group in 1993, who transformed the channel to Fairchild TV.[5]
A number of TVB staff and other Hong Kong personalities were hired or worked with the station from 1984 to 1990s:
- Louise Li - Hong Kong actress was newspresenter in Torontoin the 1980s (1986-1989)
- Lau Dan - Hong Kong actor who briefly worked for the station when his family moved to Canada (son Harwick Lau attended school in Toronto until 1994)
- Ivan Ho - Hong Kong actor who briefly worked for the station
- Teresa Cheung, Hong Kong socialite, was cultural ambassador for the channel and daughter of the owner Francis Cheung[7]
- Jean Lumb, corporate director; Toronto restaurateur and community activist
References
- ^ "ARCHIVED - Licence application - Chinavision Canada Corporation". 24 May 1984.
- ^ "ARCHIVED - Licence renewal - Chinavision Canada Corporation". 27 October 1988.
- ^ http://godataca.com/corporation.php?id=1527398 [dead link]
- ^ "Vintage Channel Guide for Rogers Cable Toronto - January 1987".
- ^ a b "Sidewinder: Chinese Intelligence Services and Triads Financial Links in Canada".
- ^ "Toronto Globe and Mail (Front page article): CSIS warned Ottawa of Beijing media plot | Uphold Justice".
- ^ "Loading..." (PDF). www.teresa.cc.