Monday, May 07, 2007

BREAKING NEWS: ADV's The Anime Network is Coming to Canada!

Great news Canada! Over the past 2-3 years there has been a surge among Canadian cable TV providers. Before it only used to be YTV (and to a smaller extent Teletoon) that would keep anime as a part of their regular programming schedule. Later with the addition of G4 TechTV Canada and Razer to Canada's channel lineups as well as the expansion of programming blocks on YTV, Bandai, Funimation, and Geneon programming can now be seen in Canada. However one important Anime distributor was missing from the Great White North's TV Landscape: ADV. Today, they announced on The Anime Network that their they have signed a carriage agreement for their subscription video-on-demand service with the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance (CCSA) . The CCSA represents more than 85 cable companies across Canada, and nearly a million subscribers! Fans interested in knowing if their provider is a member should check out this list.

This is a huge gain for Canada because there are quite a few places that do not receive services from the bigger cable providers Rogers, Cogeco, or Shaw (which already carry the VOD service). I can't begin to tell you how many anime fans I personally have met over the years that have voiced concerns about how it seems like Ontario and British Columbia seem to get all the anime and the rest of Canada is sometimes forgotten. Now smaller cities in other provinces can have more access to anime on their TV sets, and don't have to necessarily put "watch anime on tv" on their travel plans when they travel to bigger cities! Now, nearly everyone in Canada can look forward to watching Slayers, Noir, Robotech, Full Metal Panic, Saiyuki, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Wedding Peach and a whole whack of other shows on demand! It is unknown when the service will actually start in Canada (or how much it will cost), but we predict the end of this year at the earliest for launch.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm the biggest anime fan in my town. But, unfortunately, I can watch it only on my DVD, cause my local TV company is not so cool. So I think that anime on Canadian TV is the great present for canadian anime fans.