About Uvagut TV

Uvagut TV

Overview

Uvagut TV (Inuktitut: ᐅᕙᒍᑦ, "our TV") is a Canadian specialty television channel broadcasting exclusively in Inuktut — the Inuit languages, including Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun and Inuvialuktun. The channel is owned by the Nunavut Independent Television Network (NITV), an Inuit-owned, non-profit production and broadcasting organization, and carries cultural, public affairs, children's and entertainment programming made by and for Inuit across Inuit Nunangat, the Inuit homeland in Canada's Arctic. At its launch, Uvagut TV was promoted as the first specialty channel in Canada to broadcast programming exclusively in Indigenous languages.

Uvagut TV launched on January 18, 2021, as a licence-exempt service, and in October 2024 the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) granted it a full discretionary service licence together with a mandatory distribution order: since January 20, 2025, every television provider in Canada has been required to carry Uvagut TV on its basic service, for a term running to August 31, 2029. Broadcasting 24 hours a day, the channel's stated mission is to help preserve Inuit language and culture for future generations as the elder generation that carries them passes on.

History

Uvagut TV's owner, the Nunavut Independent Television Network, traces its roots to 1991, when it was founded in Igloolik, Nunavut, as the Tarriaksuk Video Centre. Described by IsumaTV as Canada's first artist-run media centre in a remote Inuit community, NITV adapted Inuit oral traditions to modern media, training youth, women and elders in video production and distributing Inuktut programming through community television channels in Igloolik and other Nunavut communities, and online through the IsumaTV platform. Its broadcast activities also made it an "eligible broadcaster" with the Canada Media Fund, helping to finance feature films, series and documentaries by Inuit production companies such as Isuma, Kingulliit, Arnait Video, Artcirq and Taqqut Productions.

Building on that community-television base, NITV launched Uvagut TV as a full-time channel on January 18, 2021. The new service was initially carried on Arctic Co-op Cable in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories and nationally by Shaw Direct, and it streamed online. Programming at launch was supplied in partnership with the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation — whose archives formed a major part of the schedule — along with Isuma and Taqqut Productions. NITV executive director Lucy Tulugarjuk explained at the launch that the channel was meant to preserve Inuit culture and languages, "in particular the endangered dialects of Inuinnaqtun and Inuvialuktun," for future generations.

The channel's national breakthrough came on October 22, 2024, when the CRTC issued Broadcasting Decision 2024-251 and Distribution Order 2024-252. The Commission licensed Uvagut TV as a national discretionary service and, by majority decision, approved NITV's request for mandatory distribution under paragraph 9.1(1)(h) of the Broadcasting Act, at a wholesale rate of nine cents per subscriber per month. In the same decision, the rival Inuit TV — a separate channel operated by the Inuit TV Network and on the air since May 2022 — was also granted a licence but was denied mandatory distribution, the Commission reasoning that Uvagut TV's established 24-hour schedule made it the stronger candidate and that carrying both services on basic packages could harm both. Commissioner Claire Anderson dissented on the refusal to grant Inuit TV the same status. "This is a historic moment for all Inuit," Tulugarjuk said in response to the decision. "As our elders pass away one by one, we are fighting against time to keep our culture, our beliefs and language alive for our children and grandchildren."

Programming and Content

Uvagut TV's 24-hour schedule is built entirely from programming in Inuktut, much of it made by Inuit producers. Published program guides for the channel through late 2025 show a mix of children's programming, documentary and lifestyle series, feature films, news and public affairs. Children's blocks air under the banner Inuktut Children's Programming, featuring series such as Anaana's Tent, Iglaq, Ukaliq & Kalla and Innarijatini Unikatuat. The schedule's documentary and cultural titles include Nunavummi Mamarijavut, a food series travelling to communities such as Baker Lake and Rankin Inlet; Uakallanga!, on traditional making and craft; Sanajiit (Inuit Makers), a slow-TV series following Inuit makers at work; Hunting With My Ancestors; Arnaapik; and Tamapta, about the Inuvialuit people. Archive programming from the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation, including the Igloolik cultural series Qimaivik, also features prominently.

The channel's public-affairs role was built into its launch: Uvagut TV carried live coverage of the Nunavut Impact Review Board's public hearings into the proposed Baffinland Iron Mine Phase 2 expansion, beaming a proceeding of direct concern to North Baffin communities to Inuit, national and global audiences. Its guides also list Uvagut News in prime time. Since December 2023, the channel has carried Inuktut-language weather forecasts produced with The Weather Network — three-minute forecasts tailored to Nunavut, Nunavik, the Inuvialuit Settlement Region and Nunatsiavut, presented in local dialects, with weather terminology adapted for each. Feature films in Inuktut, such as Zacharias Kunuk's Searchers (Maliglutit) and his documentary My Father's Land (Ataatama Nunanga), round out the evening schedule.

Audience and Reach

Uvagut TV is aimed first at the roughly 40,000 Inuktut speakers of Inuit Nunangat — Nunavut, Nunavik in northern Quebec, the Inuvialuit Settlement Region of the Northwest Territories and Nunatsiavut in Labrador — and at Inuit living in southern Canada. Since January 20, 2025, however, its potential audience has been national: the CRTC's distribution order requires licensed distributors across Canada to include the channel in the digital basic service, and exempt distributors serving more than 2,000 subscribers must carry it as well. Trade publication Media in Canada reported at the time of the decision that basic carriage would put the channel before some 10 million cable subscribers. The service is supported by the nine-cent monthly per-subscriber wholesale fee set by the CRTC for the licence term. No audience ratings are published for the channel, and none are claimed here.

Digital Presence

From its launch, Uvagut TV has streamed online at uvagut.tv, making the channel available to viewers without cable or satellite access — an important route for northern households — and NITV programming is also hosted on IsumaTV, the Inuit media platform through which NITV has distributed video for years. Program guides published for the channel show the full 24-hour schedule continuing through the autumn of 2025, including its children's blocks, Uvagut News and Inuktut feature films. The channel maintains social media accounts under the handle @Uvaguttv on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, as published in its launch materials, where it promotes programming and live coverage of northern public proceedings.

Ownership and Organisation

Uvagut TV is owned and operated by the Nunavut Independent Television Network (NITV), an Inuit-owned and controlled non-profit organization founded in Igloolik in 1991 as the Tarriaksuk Video Centre. NITV describes itself as a northern online distributor and eligible broadcaster dedicated to the enhancement and preservation of Inuktut and Inuit culture through the creation and exhibition of Inuit video art, linking Nunavut communities through internet television channels and local access television, media training and digital literacy work, and the production and distribution of Inuktut film and television. Its executive director is Lucy Tulugarjuk, the actor and filmmaker who has been the channel's public voice at its launch and at the CRTC's 2024 decision. Uvagut TV should not be confused with Inuit TV, a separate Inuktut-language channel operated by the Inuit TV Network: both were licensed by the CRTC in October 2024, but only Uvagut TV received mandatory distribution on basic service.

Contact and Availability

Uvagut TV is available across Canada as part of the basic service of all licensed television distributors, as required by CRTC Distribution Order 2024-252, in effect from January 20, 2025 to August 31, 2029. In the North it is carried by Arctic Co-op Cable, and nationally by satellite providers including Shaw Direct. The channel also streams live, free of charge, at uvagut.tv. At its 2021 launch, NITV published a contact telephone number, (613) 237-5550, and an Ottawa office address at the Bronson Centre, 211 Bronson Avenue. No public business email address is listed for the channel.