World Fishing Network is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 English language

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 Category B specialty channel

Specialty channel

A specialty channel can be a commercial broadcasting or non-commercial television channel which consists of television programming focused on a single genre, subject or targeted television market at a specific demographic....

 owned by Insight Sports Ltd. WFN broadcasts fishing

Fishing

Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....

-related programming, including both recreational and sport fishing and lifestyle programming.

History

In April 2005, Insight Sports, through its subsidiary Global Fishing Network Ltd., was granted approval from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to launch a channel called Global Fishing network, described as "a national English-language Category 2 specialty programming undertaking devoted to fishing and fishing enthusiasts."

The channel launched eight months later on December 2, 2005 as World Fishing Network in standard definition

Standard-definition television

Sorete-definition television is a television system that uses a resolution that is not considered to be either enhanced-definition television or high-definition television . The term is usually used in reference to digital television, in particular when broadcasting at the same resolution as...

 initially on Rogers Cable

Rogers Cable

Rogers Cable Inc., a subsidiary of Rogers Communications Inc., is Canada's largest cable television service provider with about 2.25 million television customers, and over 930,000 Internet subscribers, in Manitoba, Southern & Eastern Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador.The...

.

International and HD

WFN reached its first international distribution agreement in November 2007 with Verizon FiOS

Verizon FiOS

Verizon FiOS is a bundled Internet access, telephone, and television service which operates over a fiber-optic communications network. It is offered in some areas of the United States by Verizon Communications. Verizon was one of the first major U.S...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. A few months later, in May 2008, WFN launched a high definition

High-definition television

High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...

 (HD) channel on the American satellite television service Dish Network

Dish Network

Dish Network Corporation is the second largest pay TV provider in the United States, providing direct broadcast satellite service—including satellite television, audio programming, and interactive television services—to 14.337 million commercial and residential customers in the United States. Dish...

, called World Fishing Network HD, a channel with a separate schedule from its standard definition counterpart. The HD channel was then subsequently added to Verizon FiOS that year. Since WFN's launch on both Verizon and Dish Network, it has been added to several other U.S. television providers such as Charter Communications, and television providers in the Caribbean, including Flow Cable in Jamaica.

An HD feed, simulcasting the Canadian standard-definition feed, launched on September 2, 2010. Rogers Cable

Rogers Cable

Rogers Cable Inc., a subsidiary of Rogers Communications Inc., is Canada's largest cable television service provider with about 2.25 million television customers, and over 930,000 Internet subscribers, in Manitoba, Southern & Eastern Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador.The...

 was the first to carry the HD feed at launch.

On January 10, 2011, WFN announced that it had sold a 50% stake in its U.S. operations to Altitude Sports and Entertainment

Altitude Sports and Entertainment

Altitude Sports and Entertainment is a regional sports network that serves the Rocky Mountain region, specifically Denver. It officially launched on Sept...

. Its Canadian operations remain unaffected and are wholly owned by Insight Sports.

Noted series

• Addictive Fishing
• Fish TV
• Getting School'd with JP DeRose
• Hookin' Up with Mariko Izumi
• Reel Road Trip
• Simply Fishing
• The Lodge
• Lunkerville
  Lunkerville
  Lunkerville is a television series dedicated to bass fishing enthusiasts across the U.S.A. and Canada. The host, Michael de Avila, referred to on the show simply as "Mike D," travels around the country fishing with local experts learning their secrets for fishing in their favorite spots.The show...
  
  
• The New Fly Fisher
• WFN Green
• WFN News
• Facts of Fishing with Dave Mercer

• Note: series list is current as of September 2010.

External links

• World Fishing Network