Comedy Gold set to go dark as Wow! waits for the money
This meme is still fresher than the channel’s lineup.
Like the final five minutes of Planet Namek, Wow! Unlimited’s rebrand of Comedy Gold has felt as though it’s taken an eternity. The Canadian animation company announced plans to acquire a linear television service from Bell Media back in June 2017. The following October it was revealed that the broadcast license for retro sitcom channel Comedy Gold would be the one sold off. With some caveats, the CRTC approved the sale in July 2018 and the deal was finalized that September. Wow! was set to receive the channel’s broadcast license on April 1st of this year, but pushed that date back to August 30th.
It is now late August and something is amiss.
What a way to go out.
There is zero information about any channel rebrand. No teasers, no social media or web presence. Not even a press release. Worse off, a number of service providers (including Bell) began reporting early in the month that Comedy Gold would be shut down at the end of August. Not rebranded, but shuttered. In fact, viewers watching the channel on Rogers will see a message scroll across the bottom of the screen, telling them that Comedy Gold will no longer be available after August 30th at 11:59PM. Bell Media’s own website for the channel has no programming listed beyond a 5:30AM Tosh.0 rerun on September 1st.
Neither Bell or Wow! have been open to talking publicly about the channel’s status. What is going on? Another delay? Did Wow! decide to abandon plans for a linear channel? Was the channel going to be a Sega Saturn/Toon-A-Vision-esque stealth launch?
News finally came through Wow’s second-quarter 2019 financial results, which were published yesterday. The company reiterated that come August 30th, they’ll be the new owner of Comedy Gold’s broadcast license. It was also re-stated that they were “exploring strategic partnerships to structure a financially attractive business plan for a potential WOW!-branded linear channel.” This was expanded upon further in their MD&A comments:
Given the existing dynamics of the cable and satellite industry in Canada and the United States, the Company intends to secure financial partnerships prior to launching a WOW! branded linear channel and, to that end, the Company continues to seek investment and strategic candidates across multiple regions.
…
The exploitation of the Category B specialty service broadcast license as discussed above would require an investment in programming and operating costs and accordingly, the Company is deferring the launch of a linear channel until significant financial partnerships are in place.
In layman, linear television is a struggling business. Wow! has decided to hold off on launching their channel until they can find partners with the money to support it.
It’s important to note that this is the first time Wow’s described it as a “potential” channel. It sounds like even they’re not sure it will happen anymore.
Where does this leave Comedy Gold? There is no reason to believe those various service providers are lying to their customers. The channel is shutting down. That makes sense as Wow! only purchased the broadcast license and not the branding or the content Comedy Gold runs. Those are still the property of Bell Media, who will no longer own the channel after August 30th. The implication here is that Wow! is allowing Comedy Gold to go dark, to (maybe) one day launch a new channel using its broadcast license. That would seemingly negate the key benefit of rebranding an existing service over launching an entirely new one, as they would presumably start with lesser carriage than Comedy Gold had.
There was more to their agreement with Bell Media than just the linear channel. Wow! was also on tap to supply youth content for Bell’s Crave and Snackable TV video-on-demand platforms. For the first time in the year since they launched their initial offerings, Crave is set to add no children’s content next month. According to Wow! CEO Michael Hirsh, they’re in the midst of renegotiating their deal with Bell to continue providing Crave with programming. He expects an announcement to be made on that front within the near future.
As for Wow’s finances, the company’s Q2 results continued to show revenue growth as the company generated $26 million in the quarter, versus $16 million the year prior. Through the first two quarters, the company has done $46 million in business, compared to $31 million over the same period in 2018. Despite that growth, the combination of Frederator and Rainmaker is still failing to post a profit. By the end of June, Wow! had lost $5.7 million, whereas losses at this point last year stood at $2.2 million.
Comedy Gold was first launched by Craig Media in September 2001 as the Canadian version of retro U.S. cable channel TV Land. In 2004, Craig was acquired by CHUM. Two years later, CHUM itself would be purchased by what is now known as Bell Media. The channel was rebranded as Comedy Gold in 2010. While it was already in decline prior to this, Bell stopped caring once the sale to Wow! Unlimited was announced. Comedy Gold’s final schedule consists of just nine shows (Adam Ruins Everything, Anger Management, Comedy Now, Corner Gas, Fameless, Impastor, The Jim Gaffigan Show, Ridiculousness, Tosh.0) and not one fits the bill of a retro format.
While the future of this channel’s license is up in the air, the same can’t be said for two others. Corus Entertainment will close IFC Canada and CosmoTV on September 30th. Once again, service providers broke this story but Cartt.ca was able to get direct confirmation from Corus. The company didn’t try to sell either channel, instead opting to just shutter them. IFC Canada launched in August 2001 and among other things, ran anime at one point. In recent years, the channel has focused on more commercial films and was unable to air the U.S. channel’s original productions as other broadcasters (mainly Bell) snatched those up. Corus acquired the channel through its 2016 purchase of Shaw Media. CosmoTV launched in February 2008 and served as a sort of W-2 until Corus gave up on it.
I Miss Bionix 
I know that once the deal is approved and Comedy Gold meets its fate, WOW! Unlimited will gain control of the channel. Does anyone agree?
Wow! Unlimited gains control of the channel after August 30th regardless of them securing any financial partnerships. Comedy Gold is shutting down. This does not mean Wow! is launching a new channel on September 1st. It will almost certainly be dead air until they find financing to launch their new channel. There is no timeline for that. It may never happen.
But what if it does happen? I just hope WOW! Unlimited doesn’t cancel their agreement.
So does this mean Wow! Unlimited will be launching a new channel sometime in the future?
When does WOW! launch a new channel? I do hope its sometime in the near future. Does anybody agree?
There is no release window on when (it’s now an if) Wow! will launch their channel anymore.
So does this mean the company will hold off their channel launch even further. Don’t you agree with me?
Does anyone want to know if or when Wow! Unlimited launches a new channel?
I’ve already told you, no one knows when (or even if) the channel will launch. Do this again and I’m deleting comments.
May I at least stop asking that question?
So far, No announcement for a new linear kids channel launch. I just hope to god WOW Unlimited doesn’t hold off on their launch any longer.