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TORONTO (Hollywood Reporter) – Sundance Channel finally got around protectionist barriers to launch in Canada on Monday, almost a decade after it first applied for entry.
Sundance Channel Canada broke out of the gates here with a screening of Quebec director Robert Lepage's 2000 indie feature "Possible Worlds," starring Tilda Swinton and Sean McCann.
To circumvent barriers to entry for the U.S. service, Canadian broadcaster Corus Entertainment rebranded its former Drive-In Classics cable channel as a Canadianized Sundance Channel with a schedule built around six programing blocks of genre-focused movies and TV series.
The Sundance Channel, which launched in the United States in 1996, was five years later denied entry into the Canadian market by regulators on grounds it would compete with existing Canadian movie channels.
Sundance Channel Canada broke out of the gates here with a screening of Quebec director Robert Lepage's 2000 indie feature "Possible Worlds," starring Tilda Swinton and Sean McCann.
To circumvent barriers to entry for the U.S. service, Canadian broadcaster Corus Entertainment rebranded its former Drive-In Classics cable channel as a Canadianized Sundance Channel with a schedule built around six programing blocks of genre-focused movies and TV series.
The Sundance Channel, which launched in the United States in 1996, was five years later denied entry into the Canadian market by regulators on grounds it would compete with existing Canadian movie channels.