About T+E

T+E

Overview

T+E is a Canadian English-language specialty television channel owned by Blue Ant Media and based in Toronto, Ontario. The channel today is devoted primarily to paranormal and true crime programming: ghost investigations, UFO and unexplained-phenomena series, and crime documentary strands fill its schedule. That focus is the product of a long evolution. T+E began life in 2001 as CTV Travel, a travel channel, spent a decade as Travel + Escape, and only adopted its current name and format in 2018, when the initials T+E were reworked into the backronym "Totally Entertaining." It is one of the Canadian specialty channels in the Blue Ant Media portfolio, alongside sister services such as BBC Earth, BBC First, Cottage Life, Love Nature, Makeful and Smithsonian Channel. The channel broadcasts in high definition, with a downscaled standard-definition feed, and is also available through the RiverTV streaming service.

History

The channel's licence dates to the first wave of Canadian digital specialty services. On November 24, 2000, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved an application from a general partnership of BCE Media Inc. and Groupe TVA Inc. (51 percent) and CTV Television Inc. (49 percent) to launch a Category 1 specialty service, then called Travel TV, devoted to travel and travel-related programming, including adventure, outdoor, sporting, cultural and historical interests. The licence described a national English-language service "consisting exclusively of travel or travel-related programming" that would explore the world within and beyond Canada's borders; Category 1 services were later reclassified as Category A, the protected class of Canadian specialty channels. The channel launched on September 7, 2001, as CTV Travel, under the sole ownership of CTV Television Inc., the broadcaster whose parent later became CTVglobemedia and eventually part of Bell Media. Its early schedule was built from travel documentary series such as Jet Set, Exotic Islands, Places of Mystery and Full Circle with Michael Palin.

On October 30, 2006, CTV Travel was renamed Travel + Escape. The owner described the rebrand as giving the channel a new, "edgier" look and feel, matching a shift already under way toward personality- and experience-based travel series rather than conventional travelogues; new additions included Dead Famous, The Pleasure Zone, Hunt for Supertwister and Mayhem at the Manor, alongside reruns of The Amazing Race. In June 2010, CTVglobemedia announced it would sell the channel to Glassbox Television; the CRTC approved the sale on October 26, 2010, and it closed shortly afterwards.

Blue Ant Media entered the picture on April 11, 2011, acquiring a 29.9 percent stake in Glassbox Television with an option to raise its holding to a controlling 75 percent. That autumn, Glassbox relaunched Travel + Escape on November 1, 2011, with a new logo, a new on-air presentation and a heavily refreshed prime-time slate — the company said the enhanced schedule would feature over 70 percent new programming in prime time, drawn from more than 300 hours of fresh programming — and a high-definition feed followed on December 15, 2011. Until that relaunch, the channel had styled its name in lowercase as "travel + escape." Blue Ant completed its acquisition of Glassbox in the summer of 2012. Under Blue Ant, the channel's emphasis continued to move away from travel series toward general-interest adventure and exploration programming, and then increasingly toward the paranormal. In March 2018, Travel + Escape shortened its name to T+E — presented as short for "Totally Entertaining" — finalizing the shift to a schedule based on paranormal-themed programming. Blue Ant supported the relaunch with an eight-week national free preview that, in the company's own March 2018 announcement, would bring the channel's new supernatural lineup to nine million Canadians.

Programming and Content

T+E's present-day schedule, as published on its own website, mixes paranormal and unexplained-phenomena series with true crime. Recurring titles include The UnXplained with William Shatner, Paranormal Mysteries, Haunted Discoveries: Family Spirits, Alien Files Reopened, UFO Chronicles, Roswell: The Final Evidence and We Are Not Alone, together with crime and justice strands such as Cold Justice, Silent Witness, 24 Hours in Police Custody, Bodycam Cops, City Confidential, Murder by Medic and Missing Persons Investigation. The channel also commissions Canadian originals. Hotel Paranormal, narrated by Dan Aykroyd and produced by Saloon Media, a Blue Ant Studios company, premiered in May 2020 and dramatizes reported supernatural encounters in hotels and inns. Another original, the two-part docuseries Haunted Gold Rush, was billed as the first all-female paranormal investigation series when it premiered on the channel. The channel has run an annual Halloween-season programming stunt, Creep Week, each October; the 2021 edition ran from October 9 to 17 and included the premieres of Eli Roth Presents: A Ghost Ruined My Life and The Haunted Museum, both of which were subsequently renewed. Looking ahead, Blue Ant Media's announced 2026-27 unscripted slate includes the new original series Paranormal Nation: Guardians, which is set to debut on T+E — a sign the channel remains part of the company's commissioning plans for its Canadian specialty networks.

Audience and Reach

T+E is distributed nationally on Canadian cable, satellite and IPTV services as a discretionary specialty channel, and streams through RiverTV. Historically, its owners promoted wide sampling through free-preview periods: the channel was made available in more than 8.8 million households during a three-month free preview tied to its November 2011 relaunch, and Blue Ant's March 2018 relaunch release put the eight-week preview's reach at nine million Canadians; both figures are the owners' own claims from those dates. No independently published audience ratings for the channel are available, and none are asserted here.

Digital Presence

The channel's online home is tandetv.com, which publishes its current lineup with day-and-time listings for featured series, show information pages and viewing details. T+E maintains social media accounts under the @TEonTV handle, used to promote premieres and seasonal events such as Creep Week. Some of the channel's originals also reach streaming audiences beyond Canada: Haunted Gold Rush, for example, was made available on HauntTV, Blue Ant's paranormal streaming service, in the United States. Blue Ant Media also distributes programming internationally through its Blue Ant Rights arm, and company executives have described a model in which originals premiere in Canada on its specialty networks before rolling out across its own streaming platforms and international sales channels.

Ownership and Organisation

T+E is owned by Blue Ant Media, the Toronto-based media company founded by Michael MacMillan, whose Canadian portfolio spans specialty television channels, streaming services and a studios and distribution business. The channel passed through three ownership eras: CTV (2001-2010, latterly as CTVglobemedia), Glassbox Television (2010-2012), and Blue Ant Media, which took a minority stake in Glassbox in April 2011, moved to control, and acquired the company outright in the summer of 2012. In announcing its 2026-27 slate, Blue Ant described itself as a public company continuing to build momentum, with Craig Junner, senior vice-president of programming and content strategy for global channels and streaming, presenting the slate. Original programming for the channel is overseen within Blue Ant's Canadian channels group; at the time of Hotel Paranormal, Sam Linton served as head of original content for Blue Ant Media's Canadian channels.

Contact and Availability

T+E can be found on major Canadian television providers as a discretionary specialty channel, in 1080i high definition with a standard-definition feed, and via RiverTV. Program information, schedules and show details are published at tandetv.com. The channel does not publish a general public business email address on its website, so none is listed here.