Launched November 9, 2004 Owned by Ethnic Channels Group Country Canada | Closed November 2009 Picture format 4:3 (480i, SDTV) Broadcast area National | |
RTVi+ was a Canadian category 2 Russian language digital cable specialty channel and is owned by Ethnic Channels Group. It broadcast Russian movies, TV dramas, cartoons as well as local Canadian content.
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TV Center
On November 9, 2004, the Ethnic Channels Group (ECG) launched an ethnic Category 2 Specialty television service under the licence Russian TV Two issued by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). The channel was branded as TV Center and initially broadcast programming of a Russian satellite TV service known as Moscow – Open World (Москва — Открытый мир). That time, Moscow - Open World held the exclusive rights to bring the programming of Russian terrestrial TV network TV Center (ТВ Центр) outside Russia. However, due to a conflict between the partners, in summer 2005, TV Center launched its own international version of the channel, TVCI (TV Center International), intended for Russian Diasporas around the world. As a result, Moscow - Open World became defunct and ECG switched the channel programming to TVCI.
RTVi+
In Fall 2005, ECG re-branded the channel to be known as RTVi+ and switched its programming to the respective Russian satellite movie channel, RTVi+, targeting Russian-speaking communities outside Russia. In November, 2009, all television providers who carried the channel had dropped it. It is currently unknown if the channel has plans to relaunch on other television providers.