The Movie Network (TMN) is Eastern Canada's English-language pay-TV motion picture channel. Part of Harold Greenberg's Astral Communications, TMN is supported entirely through subscriber fees, as collected by local cable operators. It operates 24 hours a day and specializes in unedited and uninterrupted movies. HBO and Cinemax are the principle models for TMN, though, as with all Canadian broadcasting services, it must comply with Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) imposed licensing criteria, which includes Canadian content quotas.

TMN received its licence initially in 1982, after considerable public and governmental debate. Despite the success of similar services in the United States, the CRTC and others expressed concern about the impact pay-movie channels would have on Canadian culture. Was the market substantial enough for the proposed services to survive? Or would they become yet another vehicle for the importation of inexpensive U.S. film and made-for-cable products? Ultimately, both concerns have been borne out.

In 1982, the CRTC awarded licenses to a number of pay-tv channels. C Channel, the service devoted to Canadian culture, lasted only five months and collapsed with insufficient viewer support to cover its costs. Star Channel, serving the Atlantic region, went bankrupt shortly thereafter. When the smoke had cleared, only First Choice (to be renamed The Movie Network in 1993),SuperChannel, and Super Ecran, serving the French-language market, were left. TMN operates East of the Manitoba/Ontario border, while SuperChannel operates in the West, thus giving them defacto regional monopolies.

As expected, the remaining movie channels began to ask for reduced Canadian content requirements, arguing that programming "control" was necessary to their survival. The CRTC complied and starting in 1986, the chanels were required only to show 20% Canadian programming overall; their expenditures on Canadian content were reduced from 45% to 20% of subscriber revenue. TMN's financial support for Canadian production was almost $7.5 million (CDN) in 1988-89, and just under $10 million (CDN) in 1992-93. In 1993, TMN was showing 30% Canadian content in primetime, and 25% otherwise. While TMN remains primarily a carrier of popular U.S. films, it has become a key source of sales for Canadian film and television producers. TMN's Foundation to Underwrite New Drama for Pay-TV (FUND) competition awards interest-free loans for scripts at various stages of development.

In 1992, TMN became the first network in North America of offer "multiplexing." Through digital video compression technology, TMN subscribers receive an additional three channels (TMN2, TMN3, and TMN4) at no extra cost. These channels show essentially a re-organized broadcast schedule, based upon that of the main TMN. Catering exclusively to primetime viewing, multiplexing intends to provide additional choice and convenience to the subscribing customer by multiplying the number of showings of a film and the number of start times.

Through their common parent company, Astral Communications, TMN operates in conjunction with Viewer's Choice Canada Pay Per View and Moviepix, which specializes in films from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Astral sees the common ownership of these pay-TV channels as a way to assure they compliment one another in the relatively small Canadian market. Critics, however, see this as a concentration of media venues which has contributed to the creation of a tiny powerful media elite in Canada.

-Charles R. Acland