Meanwhile, Talktv was launched on September 1, 2000 and primarily carried repeats of CTV talk shows. Talktv had been licensed as an analogue channel, allowing cable companies to offer it without requiring a digital converter box, and was one of the last specialty channels to be launched with that status (all specialty channels licensed since 2001 have been specifically limited to digital distribution). However, it was not explicitly required to receive analog carriage either, provided the provider had already launched digital services. Due to this, combined with the channel's late launch and cable systems approaching capacity for analog channels, Talktv was only available on digital programming tiers, aside from a handful of major markets such as Toronto. In 2002, the CRTC had granted the channel the right to charge 7¢ per subscriber when carried on basic cable, whereas it was previously made available to these viewers free of charge; the new charge had been expected to help sustain the channel's live programming.