History of Hospitality Network
Proud of Our Past – Even More Excited About Our Future!
Since its inception in 1967 Hospitality Network has grown to become Canada’s leading provider of hospital patient TV and Telephone rental systems and services; serving more than 40 000 customers in over 275 healthcare locations nationwide!
During this period of growth Hospitality Network has been directly involved in the design and development of numerous new innovative TV products and services, including interactive TV and phone rental systems, automated closed circuit education delivery systems and new flat screen LCD TV products, all designed exclusively for use in the healthcare marketplace. 
When patient TV was first introduced into Canadian Hospitals, it was an American product that was deployed, but one that utilized a single low-voltage power supply that plugged into the electrical outlet at each bedside. Increasingly, as electrical outlets were being required for medical purposes, access to these electrical outlets became restricted for medical use only. At that time, a small Canadian owned company called Sterivision, pioneered and developed the central low-voltage system, thus eliminating the need to use electrical outlets in the patient environment.
The Sterivision system, now Hospitality Network’s, soon became the standard for all hospitals. And the business model whereby Sterivision would assume the entire capital cost for the system and TV installation, while also sharing with the hospital a portion of the collected revenue, also became the standard. Hospitals saw the opportunity to enhance patient comfort as well as the revenue potential and soon crews of installers were assembled and dispatched across Canada.
Like today, the entire hospital was equipped with low-voltage system and wall brackets. However, in the Sterivision days, only 5” and 7” Black & White TVs were available and only in quantity to meet the rental demand of patients. Customer service representatives would move the TV from one bed to another based on rental requests.
Colour TV was introduced to hospitals in the mid-70s. For many patients, their first time watching a colour TV was while as a patient in hospital. It wasn’t until the early 80’s that B&W televisions were phased out and replaced by proprietary colour TVs that Sterivision had specifically designed and had manufactured for hospital use. By then, the majority of Hospitals in Canada had a Sterivision system installed.
In 1982 and working with our hospital partners, Sterivision pioneered an automated education programming delivery system that would play BETA recorded tapes through the Sterivision system on select channels. To support the delivery of programming to the patients, TVs were installed at each bedside. Increasingly, hospitals viewed the Sterivision System as a pathway to the bedside and today’s systems utilize this concept.
In 1985, Granada acquired Sterivision, having already acquired the hospital TV rental business from a number of large and small providers in the United Sates. With a solid Canadian hospital rental service operation, Granada felt that Sterivision was a perfect fit.
As Granada, the company continued with the expansion and upgrades of the TV systems throughout Canada to accept the increased channel capacity which was increasing from channels up to 30 on the dial to new channels in the 40s and 50s range. The 5-inch colour televisions were being replaced by larger 10 inch colour television with channel capacity into the high 90’s. As well, significant investment was being made into automated rental systems whereby patients could order TV or telephone service through the TV.
While the Granada hospital division continued to expand, they opted to refocus efforts on their business in the UK, and sold the hospital division to Telerent, an American Company that leased TVs in the lodging market. In 1996, Telerent saw the opportunity to move into the healthcare market, purchased the Granada hospital division and established their Canadian presence in the hospital patient television rental services as TeleHealth Services.
During this time, there was increasing competition into the healthcare sector as more companies viewed their high-tech solutions as viable in a healthcare setting. Two key players emerged: TeleHealth Services and Hospitality Network (as subsidiary of SaskTel) - both with a solid history of providing quality technology and customer service in the industry. In order to fully realize the benefits of focusing on developing new and better products for the hospital market, these two players joined forces and in 2000, Telehealth Services became Hospitality Network.
Today Hospitality Network continues to move forward. Combined with over 40 years of history in providing hospitals with patient entertainment/ education systems, Hospitality Network continues to develop and source new technology that will meet the ever increasing needs of hospitals, seniors care home facilities and their patients and residents. We’re proud of our past, but even more excited about our future!
