CanWest

Owned by Alliance Atlantis, HGTV was licensed in September 1996 and launched the following year. Its content reflects its name, dealing as it does with all aspects of home life, as well as construction, design and renovation, and with the year-round business of gardening in all climates, both Canadian and international. Debbie Travis’ Facelift series on HGTV has gained wider acclaim than many conventional television series.

CanWest Media Networks acquired Alliance Atlantis in December 2007, and with it ownership of HGTV.

On November 1st 2010, CanWest launched Twist TV, a rebranding of their former Discovery Health specialty channel. " Twist TV", said CanWest, "is all about real life with a twist; capturing the experiences of everyday people facing extraordinary situations. The channel's diverse cast of characters and their colourful stories - from unique personal challenges, to difficult family issues, to unusual medical circumstances - are always relatable and often outrageous".

In May 2014 Shaw Media, who had earlier acquired Twist, rebranded the channel as FYI.

In November 2000 Alliance Atlantis was granted a licence for The Luxe Network, a lifestyle specialty channel for those who liked to indulge their sybaritic tendencies in the pursuit of personal pleasure, whether in the fields of possessions, travel, good food and wine or hedonistic living, or just in seeking to enjoy life’s simple pleasures through being made aware of the best life had to offer. While the original licence expired in 2003, and the Luxe Network was not yet broadcasting, the CRTC gave Alliance an extension to November 24th 2004.

In November 2000 the Global Television Network received a licence for a new speciality channel to be called The Jazz Channel.  CanWestGlobal Chairman Izzy Asper was known to be a jazz enthusiast himself, and was a better-than-average piano player.  By the time the channel launched on September 4th 2003, it had been renamed COOL-TV – and, sadly, while Asper lived to see his new channel begin broadcasting, he died only a few weeks later.