Makeful

BiteTV

In December 2001, Glassbox Television was given approval by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to launch a Category 2 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."

The channel was 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 an 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 de-emphasize its focus on short-form programming; with the amendment, BiteTV's programming would instead of consisting entirely of short-form programming, must "predominantly" feature such programming. The CRTC also granted BiteTV the ability to add sitcoms and feature films, among other programs. 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.

In 2013, Bite teamed up with Mondo Media and YouTube to create Bite on Mondo, a program in which content creators pitched ideas for new shows. The pitches are funded through Mondo and use YouTube's popularity to decide whether or not they will be picked up. The winning pitches were broadcast on Bite on August 29th, 2014. In October 2014, parent company Blue Ant Media, Mondo Media, and Corus Entertainment announced that Teletoon would air a new series featuring shorts from the program. It was expected to premiere in 2016 on Teletoon at Night, but instead premiered on September 4, 2015 as Night Sweats on Adult Swim.

In its final years, Bite aired more general-interest shows such as Cops, Destination Fear, and Party Down South.

On-screen and interactive features

Before rebranding as a comedy channel, BiteTV maintained a multi-panel visual format that differed from most other television channels, with content surrounding programs being broadcast on the channel consisting a display of 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 make comment that would appear on-air within minutes. However like the early days of school cancellation tickers where businesses would take advantage of low vetting standards to give out prank cancellation announcements or have guerrilla marketing through the ticker, the early versions of The Crawl ad PC Chat 2 Screen would be spammed with links, either with un-vetted businesses or inappropriate links, which could take down the ticker and forced the network too apply text and link filters to keep the feature both broadcast-safe and control spam.

Awards

In May 2006, BiteTV won the Pixel award from the 2006 Canadian New Media Award in the category of Excellence in Cross-Platform. In April 2007, BiteTV won an International Emmy in the category of "Interactive Channel".

Makeful (2015–present)

In July 2015, Cogeco's website reported that the channel (as Bite TV) would end operations on August 24, 2015. On August 18, 2015, it was announced that Bite would be rebranded as Makeful, described as "a new lifestyle specialty channel celebrating the maker community and the creation of one-of-a-kind, handmade goods." The channel rebranded as scheduled on August 24, beginning with a programming slate including Miguel's Feast, Fix It & Finish It, and French Collection.