August 9, 2001 — From XTRA magazine

THE QT ON THE QT — CityTV's groundbreaking gay and lesbian series QT (QueerTelevision) is going on indefinite hiatus.

CHUM Television, which owns City, applied to the CRTC for a gay channel. But when the broadcast regulator awarded 21 channels last November, the only "tier one" gay channel in English, called Pride Vision, went to Hamilton-based Levfam (which broadcasts Headline Sports).

Levfam Holdings is owned by John Levy and Alliance Atlantis.

Digital channels will only be available to cable and satellite subscribers; many sart up this fall.

A newsletter states that CHUM put QT on ice because of an earlier decision by host Irshad Manji to leave the show and because of the costs required to set up the number of new digital channels for which CHUM did win licences.

Producers hope QT will rise again. "I've buckled myself in 'cause this ride is so not over," says associate producer Andrew Fedosov. Most of the show's staff are still at the station, he says, and they can return to the show if QT is resurrected. That would require monies to be freed up from CHUM or new sponsorships. "We're still looking for other business partners," says Fedosov.

In 1998, CityTV became one of the first commercial broadcasters to air a regularly scheduled queer series. It was then called Q-Files and broadcast on CP24.

In 2000, Q-Files evolved into QT and broadcast internationally via the web through the US-based gay media outlet PlanetOut (archives of the first season are still available on-line at www.planetout.com).

New episodes of QT run until early September at midnight on Sundays and 11:35pm on Mondays. And one of CHUM's new digital channels, Sextv: The Channel, will re-air the first two seasons of QT.

October 19, 2000

QueerTelevision a finalist for Most Popular Website

QTonline.com has been nominated for "Most Popular Website" by The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, in association with the Gemini Awards. Although no Gemini will actually be awarded, this is the first year that a website will be recognized by the industry.

The competition will be judged by you, the viewers, so please visit the site and vote for QTonline. A big kiss to everyone who already voted in the earlier rounds. We are in the top 5 and there is only one week to go. You can vote again in this final round, so please help us to show the Canadian Television industry that we are not a "topic" or an "issue". We are an audience who deserves programming made with us in mind! As always, Thank-Q.

August 16, 2000

Irshad Manji and other CHUM executives were in Ottawa to address the CRTC, the regulatory body that makes the Big Decision about QueerTelevision's proposal for a 24-hour channel. Irshad argued for a "Category 1" license, which would guarantee that the cable companies provide Q! Television to every Canadian with a digital set-top box. If you would like to see excerpts from their presentations, check out our information on QueerTelevision - The Channel.

June 19th, 2000

Broad Minds and Broadband Converge... Again!

"Pride & Joy 2000" QT- QueerTelevision's 2nd Annual Live Webcast of the Toronto Lesbian and Gay Pride Day Parade

Sunday, June 25th, 4:00pm-5:00pm ET on www.QTonline.com

Last year, they logged on from as far away as Sudbury, Newfoundland, Texas and Australia. This year, "QT-QueerTelevision" and ChumCity Interactive are doing it again...

On Sunday, June 25th at 4:00pm EDT, QTonline.com will webcast live coverage of the Toronto Lesbian and Gay Pride Day Parade to the four corners of the world. If you can't make it to the parade, ChumCity Interactive will bring you along for the Pride!!!

Visit QTonline.com for a LIVE, high-quality video stream of "Pride & Joy 2000", our one-hour live broadcast of Toronto's Lesbian and Gay Pride Day Parade, hosted by "QT-QueerTelevision" Host/Producer Irshad Manji and Star! Personality Maggie Cassella. They'll be covering the parade, the street party, the vendors and the close to 1,000,000 people partying in the streets of Toronto! Get ready to watch the insanity! And at QTonline.com, you'll also find streaming video coverage of this year's choice Pride events, all the recipes you'll need to host the perfect Pride Day Brunch, and much, much more.

It's the party you won't want to miss! "Pride & Joy 2000" airs Sunday, June 25th at 4:00pm-5:00pm Live on Citytv, CablePulse24, Star! and QTonline.com.

This 2nd annual webcast reinforces CHUM Television's commitment to one of Canada's most vibrant communities -- a community that has inspired CHUM's recent application for QueerTelevision - The Channel, the world's first 24-hour specialty service for gay, lesbian, bi, trans and open-minded straight people.

March 2, 2000

QueerTelevision, the world's first TV/internet magazine program for gay, lesbian, trans and open-minded straight people, invites you to an on-line chat with production partners Citytv and PlanetOut.

Citytv president and executive producer Moses Znaimer, and planetout.com founder and chairman Tom Rielly, will answer questions about this ground-breaking marriage of broadband and broad minds.

• Date: Thursday, March 2, 2000.
• Time: 4:30 pm EST/1:30 pm PST.
• Chat hosted by planetout.com.
• go to www.planetout.com and follow the link to the Live Chat and Press Briefing
• choose - Chat As A Guest to gain access

QueerTelevision premieres on Citytv on Sunday, March 5 at midnight and repeats on Monday at 11:35 pm EST. QueerTelevision will be streamed exclusively and entirely on planetout.com starting the week of March 6.