Knowledge Network is British Columbia's public educational broadcaster and is required to be distributed on the
basic cable tiers of all cable providers in British Columbia. When Knowledge first signed on in 1981, its broadcast schedule originally ran from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. In later years, it broadcast from 7 a.m. to midnight. until July 2007, when programming hours were expanded to 6 a.m.–1 a.m. In late 2007, Knowledge Network began changing its logo from the green tree to its new
wordmark logo, and as of June 2008 the green tree logo has been removed. The channel is currently a 24-hour broadcaster. The network obtains an average of 1.5 million viewers, or over one-third of British Columbians per week. Currently, within the province, the station holds the number one position on weekday mornings for kids age two to six. Also, it has experienced an increase in viewers age 29 to 49 for its prime time programs. In its programming, Knowledge Network covers a range of topics including politics, history and culture, arts and music, health, parenting, and science. It has a children's block, Knowledge Kids, that features characters Luna, Chip and Inkie. With funding from the provincial government and over 40,000 individual donors, Knowledge Network acquires and commissions over 750 hours of original programming per year. In 2011, Knowledge Network acquired
Shaw Media's stake in the children's television service
BBC Kids, and converted it into a commercial-free service. Knowledge Network launched an HD feed on September 25, 2013. It became available to provincial customers of
Shaw Cable and
Shaw Direct on October 8, 2013. ==Controversy==