Knowledge converts to digital

On Sunday (September 28), Knowledge (formerly known as the Knowledge Network) will become an all-digital, 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week, commercial-free educational service.

Knowledge CEO Rudy Buttignol told the Straight by phone that viewers can expect a higher broadcast quality, better access to programs, and possibly some multiplatform content in the future. “By going digital, it allows us to go into all the other platforms.”¦We’re in the process of acquiring rights to video content to do that.”

A new endowment fund dedicated to commissioning, developing, and prebuying new programs was also unveiled at Knowledge’s launch party on September 17. The fund was kick-started by an independent donation of $250,000. Buttignol hopes it will break its first million dollars within the next 18 months.

The B.C. government granted $2.7 million to assist Knowledge’s digital conversion, sweetening the deal with Crown corporation status. According to Buttignol, this broadens Knowledge’s public mandate and will improve communication with the provincial government.

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