CTV continues to freshen up its stable of specialty offerings with plans to rebrand TV Land Canada as Comedy Gold, beginning Aug. 2, the broadcaster announced on Monday.

The channel – which offered classic movies and TV shows – needed a new focus, says Isme Bennie, who heads up Bravo! and is currently interim VP at The Comedy Network and Space.

‘[TV Land] has somewhat onerous conditions of license — the scripted programming has to be 15 years old and the movies, 25 years old. So TV Land has just been a mixture of all kinds of programming. It’s not really [sending] a clear message,’ she tells Playback Daily.

The older-skewing Comedy Gold is meant to complement CTV’s existing Comedy Network, the latter which offers edgier programming and stand-up comedy, while Gold’s schedule will be comprised of classic sitcoms from the 70s, 80s, and 90s including The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, SCTV and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

‘Calling one Comedy [Network] and the other Comedy Gold just gives us additional synergy to cross promote and to possibly offer subscribers a packaged deal,’ explains Bennie, who says CTV’s research has indicated there’s a demand for the older sitcoms.

Comedy Gold is the fourth specialty channel to be rejigged this year following a deal with Discovery earlier this month, in which CTV will debut three new services including Discovery World HD (also debuting Aug. 2), Investigation Discovery (Aug. 30) and Discovery Science (Sept. 27). The new Discovery channels are also replacing existing services.

Comedy Gold will kick off on Aug. 2 with a special launch marathon that will feature great women of sitcom including Mary Tyler Moore and Murphy Brown.