Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN; , ) is a group of Canadian specialty television channels; the channels broadcast programming produced by or highlighting Indigenous peoples in Canada, including arts, cultural, documentary, entertainment, and news and current affairs programming. Its headquarters are located at 399 Portage Avenue in Downtown Winnipeg.

Established in 1992 as Television Northern Canada (TVNC) to broadcast in Canada's northern territories, TVNC received a CRTC licence as a television network in 1999—requiring that it be carried by all television providers nationwide. It relaunched as APTN on September 1, 1999.

APTN was previously structured as a regionalized service, being carried on terrestrial television in Northern Canada and the Inuit communities of Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec, national North, East, and West feeds on television providers, and a national high definition feed. APTN HD was initially a straight simulcast of the East feed, but was later restructured to allow more flexibility in scheduling.

Historically, APTN has carried programming in English and French, as well as programming produced in Indigenous languages and subtitled in either English or French. In September 2024, APTN restructured its operations into two channels, with Indigenous language programming spun off onto the new channel APTN Languages (APTNL).

History

Establishment

In 1980, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) issued the Therrien Committee Report. In that report, the committee concluded that northern Indigenous peoples had increasing interest in developing their own media services and that the government has a responsibility to ensure support in broadcasting of Indigenous cultures and languages. The committee recommended measures to enable northern native people to use broadcasting to support their languages and cultures.

The Canadian government created the Northern Broadcasting Policy, issued on March 10, 1983. It laid out principles to develop Northern native-produced programming. The policy included support for what was called the Northern Native Broadcast Access Program, a funded program to produce radio and/or television programs in First Peoples' languages to reflect their cultural perspectives.

Soon after the program's creation, problems were recognized in the planned program distribution via satellite. In January 1987, Canadian aboriginal and Northern broadcasters met in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories to form a non-profit consortium to establish a Pan-Northern television distribution service. In 1988, the Canadian government gave the organizers $10 million to establish the network. The application for the new service, initially known as Television Northern Canada (TVNC), was approved by the CRTC in 1991. The network officially launched on over-the-air signals to the Canadian territories and far northern areas of the provinces on January 21, 1992.

National expansion and re-launch After several years broadcasting in the territories, TVNC began lobbying the CRTC to amend their licence to allow TVNC to be broadcast nationally; they promoted the "uniqueness" and "significance" of a national Aboriginal service. On February 22, 1999, the CRTC granted TVNC a licence for a national broadcast network.

On September 1, 1999, the network also re-branded as the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN). It was added to all television providers across Canada. APTN was the first national public television network for indigenous peoples. The licensing gave APTN the same status as CBC Television, Radio-Canada and TVA. All Canadian cable and satellite television providers have been required to include it in their basic service. However, many cable companies outside the Arctic placed it above channel 60 on their systems, rendering it inaccessible to older cable-ready television sets that do not go above channel 60. The CRTC considered requiring cable companies to move APTN to a lower channel, but decided in 2005 that it would not do so.Broadcasting Public Notice CRTC 2005–89, September 9, 2005

In March 2008, APTN launched a high definition channel known as APTN HD; initially, APTN HD was a straight simulcast of APTN's Eastern cable feed, complying with the requirement that a specialty channel's HD simulcast must be 95% identical in programming and scheduling to its standard-definition feeds. In May 2017, the CRTC amended APTN's licence so that APTN HD's programming would no longer necessarily have to mirror the scheduling of the SD feeds, as long as 95% of its programming had aired at some point on one of APTN's SD feeds. The network argued that this change would allow it more flexibility in scheduling programming on APTN HD to reach a broader audience.

In 2019, APTN launched APTN Lumi, a streaming service distributing APTN programming on the internet and streaming television devices."APTN enters competitive streaming market with paid service, APTN Lumi". CityNews, September 17, 2019.

Transition to two-channel service In June 2023, as part of a CRTC licence renewal, APTN proposed a restructuring of its linear services. It proposed a switch to two national feeds in high definition, with one predominantly carrying English- and French-language programming, and the other predominantly airing programming in Indigenous languages. APTN stated that the new structure would allow it to significantly increase its output of Indigenous-language programming to as many as 157.5 hours per-week, and provide more airtime to language groups that were underrepresented under its existing schedule and structure.

In May 2024, the CRTC approved the licence renewal and distribution changes, which took effect September 1, 2024: APTN was split into channels, branded as APTN and APTN Languages."APTN to launch new channel with programming in Indigenous languages". The Globe and Mail, August 30, 2024. APTN carries English and French-language programming (with the CRTC requiring a minimum of 20 hours per-week of French programming), while APTN Languages carries at least 100 hours of programming per-week in at least 15 Indigenous languages, along with additional airings of its English and French-language news and public affairs programming. To facilitate the new service, the CRTC also approved an increase in APTN's wholesale carriage fee from $0.35 per-subscriber to $0.38.

In October 2025, APTN launched the free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channel "APTN Beyond", which carries APTN library programming with a focus on paranormal and spiritual themes. The following month, APTN Lumi was rebranded as "APTN+".

Programming APTN primarily airs programming highlighting Indigenous peoples in Canada, including arts and cultural programs, factual programming such as documentaries and docuseries, drama and comedy series, and news and current affairs programming. The channel also occasionally broadcasts mainstream feature films; in 2002, the network experimented with adding a sweepstakes known as Bingo and a Movie during commercial breaks.

APTN primarily broadcasts programming produced in English, French, and Indigenous languages, such as Cree and Inuktitut. All Indigenous-language programming is presented with subtitles in either English or French.

Programs which have aired on APTN include:

Acting Good APTN National News APTN Contact Arbor Live! Bears' Lair Blackstone Bro'Town Bones of Crows Bordertown By The Rapids The Candy Show Cashing In Caution: May Contain Nuts Chuck and the First Peoples Kitchen Cooking With the Wolfman Cultural Craftsmanship: Moccasins D dot H Dr. Savannah: Wild Rose Vet The Deerskins Delmer & Marta DJ Burnt Bannock Don't Even First Across the Line First Contact First Music and Arts Finding Our Talk: A Journey Through Aboriginal LanguagesFinding Our Talk, Mushkeg Media the world's first series in Mohawk language, three seasons (2001, 2002, 2009) Friday Night Thunder Fugget About It Future History Get Your Fish On Gespe'gewa'gi: The Last LandEric Dicaire, "New docuseries opens a window into the lives of eastern Mi'kmaw fishers". CBC News Montreal, February 14, 2021. Ghost Hunters of the Grand River Going Native Guides and Gurus Guilt Free Zone Hard Rock Medical Haudenosaunee Canoe Journey Horse Warriors Icons Inconvenient Indian Jason Little Big CommunityNicky Taylor, "Onkwehón:we reclaim narrative in new series". The Eastern Door, May 9, 2023. Little Bird Maamuitaau Making A Scene Medicine Woman Merchants of the Wild Michif Country Mixed Blessings Moccasin Flats Mohawk Girls Moosemeat & Marmalade My TV Nations at War Native New Yorker nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up North of 60 North of North Northern Exposure On The Front Line One Dish One Spoon One With Nature La piqure Petroglyphs to Pixels Pow Wow Chow Queen of the Oil Patch QuerenciaCraig Takeuchi, "APTN series Querencia follows romance between two Indigiqueer women". Now, May 31, 2021. Quest Out West: Wild Food Rabbit Fall Red Earth Uncovered Rez Bluez Secret History Shadow of the Rougarou Shortland Street Skindigenous Spirit Talker Storytellers in Motion Tales from the Rez The Feather News The Other Side The Sharing Circle Treaty Road Tribal"First Nations crime series Tribal comes to APTN". The Globe and Mail, February 20, 2020. Warriors: TKO Water Worlds Wentworth Wild Archaeology Wild Rose Vets Yukon Harvest

Children's programming APTN airs children's programming, primarily as part of the APTN Kids block and branding. This block ranges from ages 3-11.

Original programming Anaana's Tent Anash and the Legacy of the Sun-Rock Animism: The Gods' Lake Artie the Ant The Adventures of Artie the Ant Bizou CG Kids Chic Choc Chums Coyote's Crazy Smart Science Show Doggy Day School The Adventures of Dudley the Dragon (both English and French dubs) The Eggs Fire Quest Fruity Tales Guardians Evolution Indigenous Art Adventures Inuk Kagagi: The Raven La Crosse Goals Lil Glooscap and the Legends of Turtle IslandJordan Gill, "Wolastoqey-language cartoon Lil Glooscap debuting this weekend". CBC News New Brunswick, May 7, 2022. The Link Little Bear Louis Says Missy Milly Mouki Nehiyawetan The New Adventures of Lucky Luke Planet Echo Qanurli The Raccoons Raven Tales renegadepress.com Road Scholars Stories of Our Elders Takuginai Tamanevugut Tiga Talk Tipi Tales That's AWSM! The Nature Show Total Drama: Pahkitew Island Wakanheja Wapos Bay Warrior Up! Wawatay Kids TV Wumpa's World Yvon of the Yukon

Sports programming On March 24, 2019, APTN simulcast a Sportsnet-produced NHL game between the Montreal Canadiens and Carolina Hurricanes with commentary in Plains Cree, as part of the Rogers Hometown Hockey package. As a tie-in for the broadcast, Sportsnet also originated that week's Hometown Hockey on-location broadcast from Enoch Cree Nation 135 outside of Edmonton. On December 13, 2019, APTN and Rogers announced that they would broadcast six Hometown Hockey games per-season in the language over the next three years. After a hiatus, the broadcasts returned in 2022 during the 2021–22 NHL season, with most of the games now drawn from Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts. APTN began to add a package of Inuktitut broadcasts in 2025.

Budget In 2023, APTN had an annual budget of $47 million.

Distribution