About Silver Screen Classics

Silver Screen Classics

Overview

Silver Screen Classics is a Canadian English-language discretionary specialty channel devoted entirely to classic cinema. It is the only Canadian television channel dedicated exclusively to classic films, drawing its schedule primarily from Hollywood's Golden Age of the 1930s through the 1960s. Feature films sit alongside silent pictures, chapter-play serials, short subjects and B-movies, presented under the channel's long-standing tagline, "The Faces You Remember in the Films You Can't Forget!"

The channel is owned by Channel Zero, an independent Toronto-based broadcasting group, and the broadcasting licence is held by its subsidiary 1490525 Ontario Inc. Silver Screen Classics has been on the air since September 2003, making it one of the longer-lived services to emerge from the wave of digital specialty channels licensed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in the early 2000s. It is distributed nationally by cable, satellite and IPTV providers, generally as part of optional movie or classic-television packages, and is also available through the RiverTV streaming service.

History

In September 2003, the CRTC granted Channel Zero Inc. a licence for a new cable specialty channel to be called Silver Screen Classics. Channel Zero already operated Movieola, which had launched in September 2001 as a channel devoted exclusively to short films, and the approved nature of service for the new channel promised a schedule of "Golden Oldies feature films and B Movies spanning all genres." The channel launched on September 2, 2003, with Northwestel in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, as the first cable system to carry it; Bell ExpressVu added the service for satellite subscribers two days later, on September 4, 2003. Contemporary trade coverage in Broadcaster Magazine promoted the launch to the industry in late August 2003.

Silver Screen Classics arrived as part of the large cohort of digital specialty channels created under the CRTC's licensing framework for new digital pay and specialty services, which produced dozens of niche channels in the early 2000s. Many of those services were later consolidated into the portfolios of the large media groups or shut down; Silver Screen Classics is unusual in having remained independent, under the same Toronto ownership, for more than two decades.

In its early years the channel also carried Condensed Classics with Dave Shaw, a hosted movie program in the revived "horror host" tradition that had begun on Movieola and moved to Silver Screen Classics in 2004; a revised version, NEW Condensed Classics, followed in 2005.

The channel's regulatory history has not been entirely smooth. In Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2014-421, the Commission approved a restructuring of Channel Zero's ownership — regularizing changes in the group's control that had not previously been authorized — and renewed the licences of Silver Screen Classics and Movieola on a short-term basis, to August 31, 2017, after finding compliance issues during the 2008–2013 licence term relating to the minimum 35% Canadian programming requirement, program categories and closed captioning. The 2014 proceeding valued the effective transfer of the departing shareholders' interests at just over $1.2 million, with tangible benefits of $121,060 payable over three years, directed to the Canada Media Fund. The same period saw sister channel Movieola rebranded as Rewind in December 2012, a change made before its licence had been amended to permit the new format. In August 2018 the CRTC renewed the licence for five years, to August 31, 2023 (Decision 2018-290). During that proceeding Channel Zero proposed a Canadian programming expenditure requirement of 5% of gross revenues, arguing that Canadian films from the 1940s to 1960s were scarce and that the channel competes with out-of-market services such as Turner Classic Movies; the Commission instead set the expenditure requirement at 10%. Most recently, in Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2023-256, issued August 16, 2023, the CRTC renewed the licence held by 1490525 Ontario Inc. for a further five years, from September 1, 2023 to August 31, 2028.

A high-definition feed followed much later in the channel's life: Silver Screen Classics launched in HD in September 2018, initially through the Quebec regional provider IHR Telecom.

Programming and Content

The schedule is built around studio-era Hollywood: westerns, dramas, comedies, musicals and film noir from the 1930s to the 1960s, featuring performers such as John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Charlie Chaplin, Elizabeth Taylor, Kirk Douglas, Spencer Tracy, Marlon Brando and Barbara Stanwyck, and directors including Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, Fritz Lang, Michael Curtiz and John Sturges. Listings for the channel in 2026 show titles such as Destry Rides Again, D.W. Griffith's Way Down East and Broken Blossoms, Mario Bava's Black Sunday and Black Sabbath, and Joseph Losey's The Servant, alongside B-westerns and serial chapters.

Because the channel must meet Canadian content requirements while drawing on a largely American classic library, its schedule is rounded out with Canadian strands. Recurring blocks in current listings include True North Classics (short films from the 1930s to the 1960s), Postcards From Canada (vintage Canadian scenic footage), Retrola: Canada's Time Machine, Classroom Classics (vintage educational films) and presentations of vintage radio drama under the Lux Radio Theatre and Radio Classics banners. Paid programming also appears in some overnight periods, as is common for small discretionary services.

Silver Screen Classics is deliberately complementary to its sister channel Rewind: where Silver Screen Classics covers pre-1970s cinema, Rewind is devoted to films of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. The two services are frequently promoted and packaged together by distributors; VMedia, for example, ran a joint free preview of Silver Screen Classics and Rewind in December 2018, the same year the channel's high-definition feed began rolling out.

Audience and Reach

No ratings or audience figures for Silver Screen Classics are published by the channel or its owner, and none are claimed here. Its reach is best described in distribution terms. Documented carriage includes Bell Satellite TV (channel 337), TELUS Optik TV (channel 460), Shaw Direct (channel 492) and VMedia TV, with the channel typically sold within movie and classic-television theme packages rather than on basic tiers. Channel positions vary by provider and region. The 2023 licence renewal confirms the service operates nationally, and current program listings published for 2026 confirm it continues to broadcast a full daily schedule.

Digital Presence

The channel's official website is silverscreenclassics.com, which presents the service and its classic-film positioning. Since June 2020, Silver Screen Classics has also been available on RiverTV, the over-the-top live television service operated by VMedia and described at its launch as Canada's first virtual multichannel video programming distributor; RiverTV bundles Silver Screen Classics together with other Channel Zero properties, including CHCH and Rewind. The channel does not operate a standalone streaming app of its own.

Ownership and Organisation

Silver Screen Classics is part of Channel Zero, an independent Canadian broadcasting and media group headquartered in Toronto and founded in 2000. The group is held through 2308740 Ontario Inc., which is controlled by C.J. ("Cal") Millar (39.3%), Romen Podzyhun (39.3%) and Christopher J. Fuoco (21.4%). Podzyhun, a co-founder of the company, serves as chairman and chief executive officer, while Millar is president and chief operating officer.

Under the ownership structure approved by the CRTC in 2014, the Silver Screen Classics licence is held by 1490525 Ontario Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of 2308740 Ontario Inc. Channel Zero's other television properties include CHCH-DT, the independent over-the-air station in Hamilton acquired from Canwest in 2009; the movie channel Rewind, which began life in 2001 as Movieola – The Short Film Channel and was rebranded in December 2012; and Halla Bol! Kids TV. The group also operates Ouat Media, a Toronto-based distributor of short and feature films founded in 2006.

Contact and Availability

Silver Screen Classics is available across Canada through participating cable, satellite and IPTV providers, including Bell Satellite TV, TELUS Optik TV, Shaw Direct and VMedia, and online through RiverTV. Viewers can consult the channel's website, silverscreenclassics.com, for information about the service; subscription is handled through television providers, usually as part of a movie or classics package. Channel Zero's head office is in Toronto, Ontario.