About Wild TV

Wild TV

Overview

Wild TV is a Canadian English-language specialty television channel devoted to hunting, fishing, shooting and the outdoors. Headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta, it broadcasts outdoor programming 24 hours a day under the slogan "Canada's Hunting and Fishing TV Network" and is the flagship service of the Wild TV Group of Companies, which also operates the Canadian versions of RFD-TV and The Cowboy Channel and the Water Television Network. Wild TV launched in September 2004 and was the first Canadian channel devoted entirely to outdoor programming of this kind; the group describes it as Canada's number one hunting, fishing and outdoor lifestyle channel and as the country's longest-running outdoor channel. It is owned by Wild TV Inc., the Edmonton company built by the Kohler family, and its programming is also available through the subscription streaming service Wild TV+.

History

Wild TV began with a licence application by Dieter Kohler, who in May 2003 received approval from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to launch a specialty channel, then planned under the name The Hunting Channel. The CRTC described the proposed service as devoted to all aspects of hunting and fishing, including programming on conservation and the future of wildlife, food preparation, and safety in the use of firearms and archery equipment. The Kohler family announced the channel, renamed Wild TV, in August 2004 and launched it that September, initially in western Canada; the family's launch announcement billed it as Canada's first 24-hour hunting and fishing channel, and Dieter Kohler presented it as a milestone in a commitment to bring the best outdoor programming to Canadian sportsmen and sportswomen. At first it was carried only by a few smaller television providers, such as Access Communications and Westman Communications, but it expanded over time to all of Canada's major cable, satellite and IPTV distributors.

In March 2019, Wild TV entered a partnership with the U.S. service Pursuit Channel and rebranded as the Wild Pursuit Network; the partnership ended in late summer 2019 and the channel resumed the Wild TV name. The following year the group broadened considerably. On February 1, 2020, working with the U.S.-based Rural Media Group, it launched Canadian versions of The Cowboy Channel and RFD-TV, and on July 16, 2020, it launched the Water Television Network, devoted to boating, sailing, paddling and angling on the water. The sister channels subsequently expanded their own distribution, including a launch on Bell Fibe TV, and in 2023 Rural Media Group signed a multi-year agreement to carry Canadian Professional Rodeo Association events, including the Canadian Finals Rodeo, on The Cowboy Channel Canada through the end of 2027. The group also developed its own streaming platform, Wild TV+, extending the channel's programming to on-demand viewing. In November 2024 the network marked its twentieth anniversary with a season of retrospective programming, contests and subscription promotions across its platforms, and its production arm, Recoil Creative Group, marked fifteen years of operation in the same period.

Programming and Content

Wild TV's schedule is assembled largely from series produced by independent Canadian and international outdoor producers, together with programmes from its own production company, Recoil Creative Group. Recoil's titles include The EDGE, distributed internationally, How to Hunt with Ryan Kohler, Bowzone Live, set in Edmonton's archery-only bow zone, Prairie Pursuit and Wild Talk. A published programme guide for the channel in August 2026 showed a typical day built from series such as Outdoor Quest, The Canadian Tradition, Dean Partridge's Canadian Whitetail, Non-Typical Nation, Gettin' Outdoors and Beyond the Blind Hunts, covering big-game and waterfowl hunting, archery, fishing and outdoor adventure. The channel's website also carries programme pages for series such as Water Ways, hosted by Steven Bull, whose fourth season is listed for 2025, and Recoil's The EDGE is hosted by Joe Eppele. On the Water Television Network, the line-up promoted by the group includes the paddling series Facing Waves with Ken Whiting and the travel series Travel by Dart. Across the group, the sister channels divide the rural and outdoor audience by theme: The Cowboy Channel Canada covers rodeo and western sports, RFD-TV Canada covers agriculture and rural lifestyle, and the Water Television Network covers life on the water.

Audience and Reach

Wild TV is a discretionary specialty service, and no independently audited ratings or circulation figures for the channel are published; none are claimed here. Its reach is primarily a story of distribution and longevity. The channel is carried nationally by major providers; published listings have placed it, for example, on Bell Satellite TV channel 389, Shaw Direct channels 131 and 456, Bell Fibe TV channels 424 (SD) and 1424 (HD), Telus Optik TV channel 359 (HD), SaskTel channels 164 (SD) and 464 (HD) and VMedia channel 393, with positions varying by provider and over time. In its own corporate profile, the Wild TV Group lists distribution partnerships with Shaw Communications, Shaw Direct, Bell, Rogers, Telus, Videotron, Cogeco, MTS, SaskTel and Eastlink, as well as with all members of the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance, the association of smaller independent distributors. In its 2004 launch material, the company described its potential audience as the country's six million hunting and fishing enthusiasts; that was the company's own description of the enthusiast community at the time, not a measured audience figure. Television listings for the channel remain current — a full day's schedule was published for August 2026 — and the Wild TV+ app extends its programmes to streaming viewers in Canada and, per the company, to expanding international territories.

Digital Presence

The channel's website, wildtv.ca, publishes its programme line-up, "now playing" information for the linear channel and links into the Wild TV+ streaming service, which offers the group's outdoor programming on demand by subscription at wildtvplus.ca. The group maintains active social media channels promoting its series, hosts and streaming offers, and its 20th-anniversary release described its digital channels and the Wild TV+ service as central to its growth. Wild TV's sister services operate their own sites, including thecowboychannel.ca and rfdtvcanada.ca.

Ownership and Organisation

Wild TV is owned by Wild TV Inc. of Edmonton, Alberta, a private company built by the Kohler family. Dieter Kohler obtained the original CRTC approval and served as the channel's president and chief executive at launch; his son Ryan Kohler, a co-founder of the network, serves as president of the Wild businesses and is the group's public face, while Scott Stirling has served as a vice president of the Wild TV Group of Companies. The group's in-house production company, Recoil Creative Group, produces several of the channel's series. Wild TV Inc. owns four Canadian channels in total: Wild TV itself, RFD-TV Canada, The Cowboy Channel Canada — the latter two launched in partnership with Rural Media Group, which licenses the brands and much of their content from the corresponding U.S. networks — and the Water Television Network.

Contact and Availability

Wild TV is based in Edmonton, Alberta, and is available across Canada on cable, satellite and IPTV services in standard and high definition; viewers should check their provider's listings for current channel positions. Its programmes can also be streamed through Wild TV+ at wildtvplus.ca. Published contact points for the group include Ryan Kohler, president, at ryan.kohler@wildtv.ca and (780) 619-9453, as given in a Wild TV Group distribution release; its 20th-anniversary release listed partnership contacts Kim Fjellner at +1 (780) 803-3025 and Joe Eppele at +1 (647) 986-3859. The channel's official website is wildtv.ca.