Global Reality Channel 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 Shaw Media

Shaw Media

Shaw Media is the television broadcasting division of Shaw Communications. Shaw Media owns the Global Television Network, which broadcasts via 11 television stations, as well as various specialty channels including HGTV Canada, Showcase, Food Network Canada, and History Television.Despite also...

. The channel broadcasts reality television series and related programming. It is an offshoot of the Shaw-owned Global Television Network

Global Television Network

Global Television Network is an English language privately owned television network in Canada, owned by Calgary-based Shaw Communications, as part of its Shaw Media division...

.

History

Canwest Global Communications, the channel's original owner, first attempted to launch a reality TV-based channel in the mid-2000s when the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) granted Canwest approval to launch Reality TV, a channel "devoted exclusively to reality-based programming." However, the channel did not commence operations within the allotted time limit stated by the CRTC and the licence expired.

Determined to launch the channel, Canwest applied to the CRTC (through a joint subsidiary, Canwest Television Limited Partnership) for another reality TV-based channel also called Reality TV that was approved on October 14, 2009. The channel was described, through its nature of service, as "a national, English-language Category 2 specialty programming service devoted exclusively to reality-based programming, including competition-based reality and do-it-yourself makeover programs."

Before the channel was even approved by the CRTC, Canwest, due to financial difficulties, filed for creditor protection in early October 2009. In February 2010, Shaw Communications

Shaw Communications

Shaw Communications is Canada's largest telecommunications company that provides telephone, Canada's fastest Internet and television services as well as broadcasting and soon Wifi. Shaw is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta...

 announced it was purchasing Canwest's broadcasting assets.

The channel eventually launched on July 1, 2010 as Global Reality Channel. On October 27 that year, Shaw finalized its purchase of Canwest, renaming the company Shaw Media, and took control of Global Reality Channel.

Programming

Main article: List of programs broadcast by Global Reality Channel

Global Reality Channel features a lineup devoted to primarily reality television

Reality television

Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...

series. The channel also broadcasts gameshows and documentary-style series related to reality television.