The channel was announced on March 20, 2009. There had been some uncertainty as for the distribution for the channel, as neither YouSee nor Telia Stofa and Boxer had expressed interest in distributing the channel.[1] On March 25 it was announced that Canal Digital will broadcast the channel exclusively on satellite.[2][3] The channel will cost 23,95 DKK, which is slightly less than its competitor TV 2 Sport.
Canal 9 launched on July 17, 2009 with the Danish action movie In China They Eat Dogs. From the start, it was available from Canal Digital, ComX, Smile Content and several community antennas and fiber networks.
Canal 9 became available terrestrially in July when it temporarily replaced Kanal København in Copenhagen where it will broadcast until October 31, 2009. After this, it will broadcast from Boxer's transmitters nationwide.[4] On September 15, it was added to YouSee's cable network, where it initially be available digitally on the Middle package.[5]
On May 10, 2010, Canal 9 has secured the rights for two of Denmark's national teams qualifying matches for the UEFA Euro 2012 against Iceland June 4, 2011 and against Cyprus October 7, 2011[12]
On May 15, 2010 it was announced that the owners of Canal 9, TV4 Group has secured the right to UEFA Euro 2012 in Denmark, but it is still uncertain whether the tournament will be shown on Canal 9 because of the low ratings.
[13]
On August 2, 2010 it was announced that Canal 9 has the rights to The Championship for the 2010/11 season.[14]
On June 22, 2011 it was announced that Canal 9 will show some of the matches from the 2011 Copa América but most of the tournament will be shown on Canal+ Sport 1.[18]
On July 5, 2011, it was announced that Canal+ Sport 1 & Canal 9 has secured the rights to UEFA Europa League for 3 years from the 2012/13 season.[20]
On July 12, 2011, it was announced that Canal+ Sport 1 & Canal 9 has extended the rights to La Liga for four more years till 2015.[21]
On July 27, 2011, it was announced that the TV miniseries The Kennedys will get Danish TV premiere on Canal 9.[22]
On August 13, 2011 www.kampanje.com start writing about that Canal 9 will be launched in a Norwegian version on October 1, 2011 and vill replace TV4 Fakta in Norway.[23]
The 2011–12 season of The Championship and Serie A was originally scheduled only on Canal+ Sport 1 but after wild protests from viewers on their Facebook page, they decided to show a match at 4 p.m. from The Championship, followed by a match from Serie A at 6 p.m. on Saturday when possible; big matches from Danish Superliga and La Liga will still have priority in the time period, this was announced on their Facebook page on August 25, 2011.
On September 12, 2011, it was announced that Canal 9 had lost one of their strongest football rights, The Danish Superliga from the 2012–13 season, to Viasat and TV2 Sport.[24]
On September 21, 2011, it was announced that Canal 9 has bought back 66 matches per season from The Danish Superliga from Viasat, valid from season 2012/13 to 2014/15.[25]
Back in May 2010 it was announced that the Canal 9 and TV4 Group has secured the right to UEFA Euro 2012 in Denmark, but it was uncertain whether the tournament will be shown on Canal 9 because of the low ratings and the following strong focus on the problem in the media that Canal 9 had the rights as well as the two qualifying matches against Iceland and Cyprus, specially the Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet has been after Canal 9 and called them "The Secret Channel", and several angry viewers have driven campaignings "Denmark national football team's matches back on national TV and not on Pay-TV" on Ekstra Bladet's webpage "Nationen" and on Facebook.[26]
So on October 10, 2011, it was announced that Canal 9 and TV4 Group has sold the rights to the two national Danish TV-Stations TV2 and DR.[25]
Through late 2010 and 2011 became Canal9 every Monday to Friday more a documentary channel like the Swedish TV4 Fakta and has the same rights, while the weekend was still dedicated to football and movies including UFC on Friday nights.
Sports rights as Handball, wrestling, Powerboat, tennis and ice hockey were dropped to get a more strong focus on football and the channel changed the slogan from Denmark's new sports channel to Denmark's new football channel – we live football.
On January 11, 2012, it was announced that Canal 9 will bring back the TV soap The Bold and the Beautiful in March 2012 after Kanal 4 dropped the series in November 2011 because of low ratings, fans of the series started a massive campaign on Facebook trying to get back the series on Danish television and it succeed with Canal 9 after two months. And Canal 9 has scheduled the series to 5:30 P.M.[35]
Back in February 2011, it was announced that Canal 9 had secured the rights to ice hockey IIHF World Championships from 2012 to 2017 but on February 7, 2012, it was announced that Canal 9 had sold the rights to TV2 Sport for a three-year period from 2012–2014.[36]
On February 21, 2012, it was announced that Canal+ Sport 1 has extended the rights to Serie A for there more years till 2015, and Canal 9 will still show one weekly match with this new deal.[37]
On July 3, 2012, it was announced that Canal 9 would get a new sister channel called Canal 8 Sport, and will be dedicated to sports and will start August 13, 2012, Still there will be football on Canal 9 in the weekends from La Liga, Serie A and Danish Superliga.
UEFA Europa League on Thursday nights, and UFC replays on Friday nights.
And on July 4, 2012, it was announced that the new Canal 8 Sport will replace Canal+ Sport 1 in Denmark. and on the same day Canal 9 HD was announced, and will start also on August 15, 2012, and Canal 8 Sport HD was also announced, and will start in the beginning of 2013.
On July 5, Canal 9 announced on their Facebook page that they have not extended their right to English football (The Championship & League Cup) because of low ratings, they tried with regular airtime and gave it another chance in the 2011/12 season after wild protest on their Facebook page from the viewers, when they talked about already in 2011 that they would not extend the rights, but it was still no success in the 2011/12 season.
Canal 9 HD launched on August 15, 2012. From the start, it was available from Canal Digital, Stofa, YouSee & TDC TV several community antennas and fiber networks.
On December 17, 2012, the channel became available in Viasat's sports package on satellite and on IPTV Network Waoo together with Canal 8 Sport[38]
2013
In late February 2013 it was announced that the channel after only one year dropped the TV soap The Bold and the Beautiful because of low ratings and again fans of the series started a massive campaign on Facebook trying to get back the series on Danish television until now with no success.[39]
2014
Because of UFC started their own streaming service UFC Fight Pass could Canal 9 & Canal 8 Sport not get the extension of their rights to the UFC PPV and UFC Fight Night, but they would still be able to show the UFC's TV shows like UFC Unleashed, UFC Main Event & classics WEC Events. This was announced on their Facebook page on January 4, 2014.
On March 1, 2014 it was announced that C More & Canal 9 & Canal 8 Sport in Denmark has made a new deal with UFC, they get the rights to the UFC PPV and UFC Fight Night for 2014 & 2015. This was announced on their Facebook page.
Later on June 26, 2014, it was announced that Discovery Networks Northern Europe and C More Entertainment has entered into an agreement that Discovery Networks Northern Europe has the option to purchase Canal 8 Sport and Canal 9 of C More Entertainment in 2015.
The Agreement is an extension of the SBS Discovery Media has just signed a six-year agreement for the rights to two weekly matches from The Danish Superliga. The two matches as SBS Discovery Media bought is the 2nd and 5th match the selection from every round (the matches that Canal 9 has been showing since 2009] and the agreement will take effect from season 2015/16 and will run for six years. And the plan is to continue The Danish Superliga on Canal 8 Sport and Canal 9 after summer 2015.
On July 18, 2014, Canal 9 & Canal 8 Sport announced on their Facebook page that they had not extended their right to Eredivisie.
On September 26, 2014, Discovery Networks Northern Europe announced that they would use the option and buy Canal 8 Sport and Canal 9, the purchase must be approved by the Danish competition authorities and the purchase is expected to take in place during 2015.[43]
2015
On May 27, 2015, The Danish competition authorities announced that they have approved Discovery Networks Northern Europe purchase of Canal 8 Sport & Canal 9, they take over the channels from July 1, 2015.[44]