Sundance Channel (Canada)

Sundance Channel is a Canadian English language Category B specialty channel owned by Corus Entertainment. Sundance Channel airs programming focused on independent films, documentaries, music series, dramas and more.

History

As Drive-In Classics

In June 2001, CHUM Limited was given approval from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to launch a national category 2 specialty channel known as "The Drive-In Channel", with programming described as being centred on "Drive-In B movies and series, as well as occasional magazine-style shows focusing on the genre".

The channel was launched only three months later, on September 7, 2001 at 9:00 p.m. EST under the name "Drive-In Classics", which focused on showing primarily films from the B movie genre, focusing on films popular at the drive-in theatres in the 1950s to 1970s, and a number of television series including The Hilarious House of Frightenstein and Xena: Warrior Princess.

Programming on Drive-In Classics were organized into themes including: Martial Arts Mondays - fight-themed movies, Western Wednesdays - Western movies, Steamy Windshields (Fridays) - teenage-themed movies, Horror Marathon (Saturdays) - horror films and Salem's Lot, various films picked by host Rob Salem, which was ended on August 30, 2009.