Source: Winnipeg Free Press

Canadian Press

TORONTO - Corus Entertainment's female-oriented W Movie specialty channel will launch March 1 with a first-month lineup of films that includes "You've Got Mail," "When Harry Met Sally," and "Shakespeare in Love."

The channel replaces SexTV, which Corus acquired last year from CTV Globemedia and almost immediately announced it would rebrand. Drive-In Classics, the other channel it bought from CTV in the deal for $40 million, also is getting a new face as a Canadian version of the Sundance Channel.

"With women's movie services representing one of the fastest growing genres in the U.S., we are thrilled to be able to offer Canadian audiences the first dedicated movie channel for women," Susan Ross, Corus's executive vice-president and general manager of specialty and pay television, said in announcing W Movies.

CW Media's Showcase Diva specialty channel also targets a female audience but blends movies with serial TV shows.

"With the phenomenal success of women-oriented films at the box office, coupled with the huge popularity of our film blocks on W Network, we know that women have a real appetite for movies," added Ross.

Corus says the 24-hour-a-day channel will cater to Women 25 to 54.

Corus Entertainment Inc. operates YTV, Treehouse, CosmoTV, VIVA, Movie Central, HBO Canada, Nelvana, Kids Can Press and radio stations including CKNW, CKOI and Q107.

It was only the most recent broadcaster to operate SexTV, which was started in 2001 by CHUM as a channel for "love, romance, marriage, relationship-themed game shows, sexuality and gender issues, family planning, relationship breakdown and magazine-style programming featuring romantic vacation resorts."

© Winnipeg Free Press