https://imissbionix.wordpress.com/2019/08/29/comedy-gold-set-to-go-dark-as-wow-waits-for-the-money/
Like the final five minutes of Planet Namek, Wow! Unlimited’s rebrand of Comedy Gold has felt as though it’s taken an eternity. The Canadian animation company announced plans to acquire a linear television service from Bell Media back in June 2017. The following October it was revealed that the broadcast license for retro sitcom channel Comedy Gold would be the one sold off. With some caveats, the CRTC approved the sale in July 2018 and the deal was finalized that September. Wow! was set to receive the channel’s broadcast license on April 1st of this year, but pushed that date back August 30th.
It is now late August and something is amiss.
There is zero information about any channel rebrand. No teasers, no social media or web presence. Not even a press release. Worse off, a number of service providers (including Bell) began reporting early in the month that Comedy Gold would be shut down at the end of August. Not rebranded, but shuttered. In fact, viewers watching the channel on Rogers will see a message scroll across the bottom of the screen, telling them that Comedy Gold will no longer be available after August 30th at 11:59PM. Bell Media’s own website for the channel has no programming listed beyond a 5:30AM Tosh.0 rerun on September 1st.