Founded in 1999 and controlled by the Shaw family, Corus Entertainment
is one of the "Big 3" broadcasting companies in Canada (alongside Rogers and Bell Media). In addition to the Global Television Network and their radio station group, Corus owns a portfolio of brands that mainly target women, children, and families: including animation studio Nelvana and publisher Kids Can Press.
Corus was first created as a spin-off of Shaw Communications' media assets. Shaw later acquired Canwest when they went bankrupt in 2010, and operated their assets as Shaw Media. Shaw Media itself was composed of assets that were previously owned by Canwest, as well as firms acquired by Canwest, including assets from Western International Communicationsnote and Alliance Atlantisnote On April 1, 2016, Shaw Media was re-organized and merged into Corus Entertainment in exchange for cash and stock to budget Shaw Communications's purchase of the wireless carrier Wind Mobile (now known as Freedom Mobile).
Canadian Multichannel Networks owned by Corus include (channels previously owned by Shaw Media, Canwest, WIC or Alliance Atlantis after 1999 are marked with a *):
Current television networks:
- ABC Spark*: A Canadian version of what is now known as Freeform.
- DejaView*: A channel that airs "retro" television series.
- DTour*: A lifestyle channel which primarily airs shows sourced from Travel Channel. DTour originally launched as Prime, a general-interest entertainment channel targeting Baby Bloomers. Prime later relaunched as TVtropolis, which focused on iconic television series...originally. TVtropolis was the originator of Wipeout Canada.
- The Global Television Network (Global)*: The flagship broadcast network, initially formed in 1974 but not a major player in the industry until the late 1990s.
- Historia*: Originally served as a French-language counterpart to History Television, until that network relaunched as a Canadian version of the American History channel in 2012. Historia would follow suite in 2015, after Corus obtained French-language rights to History's programming.
- La chaîne Disney: The French-Canadian version of the Disney Channel, which also airs program blocks for Disney Junior and Disney XD (known as XD Zone) shows.
- Movietime*: A channel that airs contemporary movies and film-related programming. Originally launched in 2001 as Lonestar, a network for Western-genre films and shows.
- SériesPlus*: A French-language channel focusing on comedies and dramas. Prior to 2020 (exactly twenty year after it launched in 2000), it was known as Séries+, which is really a different name with the same pronunciation.
- Showcase Television*: An entertainment channel best known for original series such as Trailer Park Boys and Kenny vs. Spenny. Showcase shares somewhat of a relationship with Syfy. The channel aired some of Syfy's original series; two of Showcase's own originals, Lost Girl & Continuum, were exported to Syfy; and Haven was co-produced with then-parent company Shaw Media.
- Slice*: A lifestyle channel aimed at women that primarily airs reality series from Bravo (U.S). Slice was also the originator of Big Brother Canada, which moved to Global for its third season. Originally launched in 1995 as Life Network, which is not to be confused with The Life Channel.
- Télétoon*: The French-language version of what was formerly known as Teletoon, which also airs a few programs from YTV and Treehouse. Also has a late-night program block aimed at adults named Télétoon la nuit.
- Treehouse: A preschool-targeting network named after the former YTV programming block.
- W Network: Previously a general entertainment network airing a mix of lifestyle, reality, and scripted programming aimed at women. Since Fall 2017, W Network was revamped to focus more on scripted dramas, similar to Showcase. Best known for Property Brothers and Love It Or List It, which are seen on HGTV in the U.S. Originally known as the Women's Television Network (WTN), before it was sold to Shaw Communications in 2000, sold again to Corus in 2001, and relaunched completely in 2002.
- YTV: A youth network targeting kids and pre-teens. YTV is known for its longtime association with Nickelodeon, having imported and, eventually, co-commissioned several shows with the network alongside its own original commissions.
Radio networks includes:
- Big FM
- Boom FM (Ontario stations, except Toronto)
- Country
- Fresh Radio
- Global News Radio
- Q107
Former or defunct networks include:
- Action*: A male-oriented entertainment channel originally known as Showcase Action that, years after its 2009 rebrand, became known for airing reality series from TruTV. Ten years later, it was replaced by the 24-hour [adult swim] channel.
- BBC Canada*: A joint venture that airs programming from The BBC and other UK imports. It closed down at the end of 2020. Shortly after, another company, Blue Ant Media, announced that they'll rebrand one of their channels, HIFI, into a Canadian version of BBC First.
- Drive-In Classics: A channel that focused on showing B-movies popular at drive-in theatres in the 1950s to 1970s, as well as some television series of the same genre. On March 1, 2010, it became a Canadian version of Sundance Channel, and it was eventually shut down on March 27, 2018.
- Dusk*: Originally named Scream, a network for horror, thriller, and suspense programming that was owned as a joint venture between Corus and Alliance Atlantis. It later decayed into a more supernatural and suspense-oriented channel after adopting its latter name in September 2009, but Dusk only lasted more than two years before it was shut down and replaced by ABC Spark.
- Edge TV: An ill-fated alternative rock music channel inspired by CFNY-FM, 102.1 The Edge, in Toronto.
- Movie Central*: One of Canada's designated premium Pay-TV services. It was originally known as Superchannel and was marketed under the First Choice Superchannel banner, alongside what was then known as First Choice, later known as The Movie Network, and now known as Crave. In 1989, both services split: Superchannel was broadcast in Western Canada, while The Movie Network was broadcast in Eastern Canada. In 2016, Movie Central was shut down, allowing The Movie Network to expand westward.
- Encore Avenue*: Similar to Moviepix (later known as TMN Encore), this service focused on classic movies.
- Teletoon*: Canada's national animation channel. Teletoon started out as a joint venture between many family-oriented broadcasters and companies before Corus ultimately bought out Astral Media's 50% ownership stake in January 2014. In addition to its own output of commissioned shows, Teletoon has also co-commissioned several series with Cartoon Network, having aired many on CN’s own shows too. On March 27, 2023, the channel was relaunched as a new Canadian incarnation of Cartoon Network. Teletoon had previously launched a Canadian version of Cartoon Network as a sister channel in 2012; that channel concurrently relaunched as a version of Boomerang.
- Teletoon Retro: A spinoff of Teletoon based on the program block of the same name. With the channel's launch in 2007, Teletoon also briefly brought back the block on weeknights before the late-night Detour block. Despite having over 9 million subscribers and being more popular with viewers than Teletoon itself, it was shut down in September 2015 to expand Cartoon Network's coverage and make room for Disney Channel.
- Télétoon Rétro, French-language version of Teletoon Retro.
- TLN, aka Telelatino Network. Corus sold its stake in TLN and its sibling channels in 2019.
- TeleBimbi
- TeleNinos
- W Movies: Originally known as SexTV: The Channel, which was based on the Citytv program. On December 12, 2016, it was re-branded as a Canadian version of Cooking Channel.
Corus Entertainment also owns or has owned Canadian versions of [adult swim] (Relaunched as a 24-hour channel in 2019), Boomerang, Cartoon Network (Relaunched under Teletoon's channel space in 2023), CMT, Cooking Channel, Cosmopolitan TV (Defunct), Crime and Investigation Network*, Discovery Kids (Defunct), Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, Food Network*, FYI* (Defunct), HGTV*, History*, History2*, IFC* (Defunct), Lifetime*, Magnolia Network*, Mediaset Italia (Italian; sold to TLN), National Geographic Channel*, Nat Geo Wild*, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr. (which exists as a daily program block), Oprah Winfrey Network, Sky TG24 (Sold to TLN), Sundance Channel (SundanceTV; defunct), and Univision (Spanish; sold to TLN).
