Zoomer Media Group

Vision received its first licence in 1987, and began its service the following year.  It was owned by a not-for profit charitable organization. It claimed to be the only multi-faith and multi-cultural broadcaster in the world, and supplied “…a wide range of programs…..that explore spirituality, morality and cultural diversity.”  Its basic program core, known as ‘cornerstone’, was produced or acquired by the network and represented close to half its schedule.  The remaining programming, described as ‘mosaic’, was airtime bought by groups from a variety of religious denominations.

Vision TV was granted a specialty cable channel licence in November 2000 for a program service, then planned to be called Wisdom: Canada’s Body, Mind and Spirit Channel.  The application promised that Wisdom would “focus on a holistic approach to wellness, offering programming that will address the interests of a large number of Canadians in new and alternative ways.” The channel launched as ONE – The Body, Mind and Spirit Channel in September 2001. Vision TV later became S-VOX, and Alliance Atlantis and Radio Nord Inc. later came on board as minority partners in the venture.

The Christian Channel was Canada’s first nationally licensed digital television service programmed specifically for Christian viewers.  In December 2000 it was licensed to Vision TV (which later rebranded as S-VOX, and also owned One: the Body Mind and Spirit Channel) but did not launch until October 2005.