VisionTV

History and viewership[edit]

Licensed in December 1987 by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), the channel was launched on September 1, 1988 under the ownership of a nonprofit organization that eventually evolved into S-VOX. It was initially one of Canada's more popular cable channels. However, with the proliferation of new cable channels, it has been moved up the dial by carriers and become less available to audiences, causing a drop in its viewership. VisionTV lacked clout with cable carriers as it was then a one-channel operation owned by a not-for-profit organization rather than a large commercial entity operating many channels.


Notably, Rogers Cable was criticized in 1997 for moving Vision to Channel 59 on its Toronto system, rendering it inaccessible to many apartment residents because 59 is the channel most commonly overridden by the lobby camera service in apartment buildings. After Vision protested, Rogers offered to put Vision on channel 78 as well, but Vision turned that down because many of its viewers' sets can't reach that far.^[1]


Network vice-president Rita Deverell, who hosted interstitial segments between programs, was the network's most prominent on-air personality from its launch until she left in 2002 to work for APTN.


In June 2009, S-VOX announced it would sell its broadcasting assets to ZoomerMedia, a company controlled by Moses Znaimer.^[2] The sale was approved by the CRTC on March 30, 2010.^[3] ZoomerMedia assumed control of S-VOX's broadcasting assets on June 30, 2010.^[4]


In December 2010, ZoomerMedia introduced a new logo and on-air identity for the channel with the tagline, "Zoomer Television" (Zoomer being a word coined by Znaimer meaning "boomers with zip"), emphasizing its focus on more general entertainment programming for the 45 and older demographic.


In August 2013, the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) denied Vision's application to continue mandatory carriage which had required all Canadian cable systems to carry the channel.^[5]