ESPN Classic was a Canadian English language discretionary sports specialty channel owned by CTV Specialty Television Inc., a joint venture between Bell Media (80%) and ESPN (20%). Intended as the Canadian equivalent of the American channel of the same name, it broadcast a range of archive sports coverage, talk shows, documentaries and films.
History
ESPN Classic was licensed as Classic Sports in November 2000 by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), and was launched on September 7, 2001 as ESPN Classic Canada.[1] A few years after its launch, "Canada" was dropped from its name and logo to "ESPN Classic". ESPN Classic was the only ESPN-branded channel broadcasting in Canada, although in addition to owning a stake in the Canadian version of ESPN Classic, ESPN is part-owner of TSN (which uses on-air branding similar to the flagship ESPN channel in the U.S.), along with Bell Media.
The European version of the channel closed in 2013 and the American