Launched January 12, 1981 | Country Canada Motto BC's Public Broadcaster | |
Slogan BC's Public Broadcaster Broadcast area British ColumbiaNational (via satellite) Founded 12 January 1981, Burnaby, Canada Profiles | ||
Knowledge Network (branded as British Columbia's Knowledge Network) is a Canadian English-language public educational cable television network in the province of British Columbia. It is owned by Knowledge Network Corporation, a crown corporation of the Government of British Columbia; it gained this status in 2008. The station began broadcasting on January 12, 1981. Rudy Buttignol is president and CEO of British Columbia's Knowledge Network and also president of Canadian subscription television channel BBC Kids.
Knowledge Network’s broadcast licence is for satellite-to-cable programming, although it also broadcasts over-the-air in remote locations throughout British Columbia. These repeater sites are operated by local volunteers in the few areas of the province where cable television is not available. The network is also available on the Bell TV satellite service, on channel 268, on Shaw Direct channel 354, and on TELUS Optik TV channel 117.
Knowledge Network also has a children's block, Knowledge Kids, that features characters Luna, Chip and Inkie.
Knowledge receives funding both from the British Columbia government and from public donations.
Overview
Knowledge Network is British Columbia's public educational broadcaster and is required to be distributed as part of the basic cable service in British Columbia.
When Knowledge first signed on in 1981, its broadcast schedule originally ran from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. In later years, it broadcast from 6:55 a.m.-Midnight until July 2007, when programming hours were expanded to 6:00 a.m.-1:00 a.m. In late 2007, Knowledge Network began changing its logo from the green tree to its new wordmark logo, and as of June 2008 the green tree logo has been removed. The channel is currently a 24-hour broadcaster.
The network obtains an average of 1.5 million viewers, or over one-third of British Columbians per week. Currently, within the province, the station holds the number one position on weekday mornings for kids age two to six. Also, it has experienced an increase in viewers age 29 to 49 for its prime time programs.
In its programming, Knowledge Network covers a range of topics including politics, history and culture, arts and music, health, parenting, and science.
With funding from the provincial government and over 35,000 individual donors, Knowledge Network acquires and commissions over 750 hours of original programming per year.
In-house production was discontinued in 2007 to work exclusively in partnership with independent producers from British Columbia and Canada on the creation of original content.
In 2011, Knowledge Network acquired Shaw Media's stake in the children's television service BBC Kids, and converted it into a commercial-free service.
Knowledge Network launched an HD feed on September 25, 2013. It became available to customers of Shaw Cable and Shaw Direct on October 8, 2013.