CTV 2
 | |
| Type | Broadcast television system |
|---|---|
| Country | |
| Availability | Semi-national (Eastern and Southern Ontario, southwestern B.C./Lower Mainland, Atlantic Canada); also available in adjacent parts of Northern United States via antenna or cable television service |
| Owner | CTVglobemedia CTV Limited |
Key people | Ivan Fecan |
Launch date | September 1, 1995 (as NewNet) August 2, 2005 (as A-Channel) August 11, 2008 (as A) |
Former names | NewNet, A-Channel |
Official website | A |
A is a privately-owned English language television system in Canada, owned by CTVglobemedia. The A television system consists of five television stations in Ontario and one in British Columbia, as well as a regional cable-only channel in Atlantic Canada. The CTV-owned educational channel in Alberta, Access, also uses the A-style branding, including a modified version of the A logo, and airs much of the A primetime schedule; however, it is considered a secondary carrier, not an O&O, of the A television system.
The A television system provides complementary programming to CTVglobemedia's larger CTV network – primarily newer or younger-skewing series which have smaller audiences than those on the mainline CTV network. As well, the A television stations in Victoria and Southern Ontario provide local newscasts for secondary markets that CTV proper does not.
Although the A system currently has higher ratings than Canada's other second-tier terrestrial systems such as Citytv and E!,[1] CTVglobemedia says that the A stations have been and continue to be unprofitable, and that these issues have been exacerbated by the recent global economic crisis. Accordingly, the company announced in February 2009 that two of its Southwestern Ontario A stations, CKNX in Wingham and CHWI in Windsor, will permanently cease operations as of August 31, 2009. In addition, CTV has threatened a similar fate for its CBC affiliate CKX-TV in Brandon, Manitoba if a buyer is not found by the spring of 2009.
CTV announced further cost-cutting measures at the remaining A stations in early March 2009, including the cancellation of evening newscasts in Ottawa, and morning programs in Barrie, London and Victoria.[2] The company says that additional closures are possible in 2010.[3]
History
Beginning as NewNet
The system began to develop in September 1995, when CHUM Limited disaffiliated CKVR, its longtime CBC Television affiliate in Barrie, Ontario, and tried to give it a more youthful image in order to generate interest from viewers in the neighbouring Toronto market, where CKVR had long been available on basic cable. This included relaunching its newscast in a CityPulse-type format, replacing its various classic TV shows with more contemporary series, and acquiring partial broadcasting rights to Toronto's then-new National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise. The resulting station became known as The New VR.
The experiment apparently worked. When CHUM acquired several other stations, including CHRO in Pembroke, CFPL in London, CKNX in Wingham, and CHWI in Wheatley in 1997 as part of a trade with Baton Broadcasting, these stations were similarly rebranded and adopted a similar schedule. Most of these stations were also former CBC affiliates, and all were in markets where CHUM's Citytv Toronto was already available on basic cable. CIVI in Victoria, British Columbia was added into the system by CHUM at its launch date in October 2001.
CHUM informally referred to these stations as the NewNet. That name was never used on-air on any of these stations; rather it served as a common identifier for the stations to advertising buyers (it was also used on news vehicles in Southwestern Ontario). On-air, each station was known as "The New XX," where XX was the last two letters of the station's callsign (e.g., "The New VR" for CKVR, "The New RO" for CHRO, "The New PL" for CFPL, etc.)
Rebranding to A-Channel
On March 15, 2005, CHUM announced that the NewNet stations would be relaunched as A-Channel by that fall; the date was later decided for August 2, 2005, the same date when the former A-Channel stations in Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary, recently acquired by CHUM from Craig Media, were relaunched as Citytv.[4] The change reflected a shift towards a more traditional broadcasting model at these stations.
Acquisition by CTVglobemedia
On July 12, 2006, CTVglobemedia (CTVgm, formerly known as Bell Globemedia) announced a friendly takeover bid to buy CHUM Limited. CTVgm initially intended to keep CHUM's Citytv system, while divesting the A-Channel and Access stations in order for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to approve the acquisition. [5]
On April 9, 2007, Rogers Communications announced an agreement to purchase the A-Channel stations, along with CKX-TV and several cable channels being put up for sale as part of the CTV transaction. [6]
On June 8, 2007, the CRTC announced its approval of CTVglobemedia's purchase of CHUM Limited, but added a condition that CTVglobemedia must sell off CHUM's Citytv stations to another buyer. At the same time, it was permitted to keep the A-Channel stations, in effect cancelling the planned sale of A-Channel to Rogers Communications. [7][8]
On June 22, 2007, CTVglobemedia finalized its purchase of the CHUM Limited stations, while the Citytv stations were sold to Rogers Communications. The company initially intended to keep the A-Channel stations' branding and programming independent from the CTV Television Network. However, as with the relationship between Global and E!, CTV radically adjusted A-Channel's announced schedule over the summer of 2007 to make room for several series that could not be accommodated on the main network's fall schedule. Notably, A-Channel picked up CTV's rights to 30 Rock, Scrubs, Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory and Jeff Ltd.. In October, CTV also moved Dirty Sexy Money and Big Shots, both of which had originally premiered on the main network, to A-Channel.
Later in the fall, CTV also replaced A-Channel's daily entertainment newscast, Star! Daily, with MTV e2 and strip reruns of Degrassi: The Next Generation, although new episodes of that series continue to air on CTV.
On July 26, 2007, CTVglobemedia named Richard Gray the head of news for the A-Channel stations and CKX-TV. Gray will report to the CTVgm corporate group, not CTV News, to preserve independent news presentation and management. Gray now oversees the news departments for CKVR, CHRO, CFPL, CKNX, CHWI, CIVI and CKX.[9]
Rebranding to A
Shortly after CTV took control of A-Channel and most of the other assets owned by CHUM, media analysts began to speculate that the A-Channel stations would be rebranded in 2008.[10] Viewer surveys in 2007 and 2008 suggested that the names "Much TV"[11] and "CHUM TV" were under consideration.
At its fall upfronts presentation on June 2, 2008, CTV officially announced that A-Channel would be relaunched as A. A rebranding campaign also began in the same month in A-Channel's press materials and on local newscasts being referred to by the stations' employees as A News. The official on-air relaunch from A-Channel to A took place on August 11, 2008. On that same date, Atlantic Canada's Atlantic Satellite Network also joined the A television system as A Atlantic and now features the entire A program lineup, and Alberta's Access also adopted a new A-styled logo and began to feature the A line-up in certain prime time hours.[12]
Effects of economic crisis
On February 25, 2009, CTV announced that, given the ongoing structural problems facing the conventional television sector in Canada and the current global economic crisis, it will not be applying to the CRTC for renewal of the CHWI-TV Wheatley licences (and its rebroadcaster in Windsor) and CKNX-TV Wingham. [13]. It is expected that both stations will not be converted to rebroadcasters of London's A station, CFPL when their current licences expire in August 2009, however, CTV has said news coverage for both areas will be provided by CFPL and CKCO.
In addition, CTV also announced on February 19, 2009, that it will not be applying to the CRTC for renewal of the CKX-TV licence in Brandon, Manitoba beyond its current expiration of August 31, 2009. The company says that the CBC was unwilling to continue airtime payments for network programming after the station's current affiliation agreement expires. CTV also says that when it then offered to sell the station to the CBC for apparently for $1, the CBC refused the offer saying that it cannot afford the station's ongoing operational costs, and costs associated with the upcoming digital transition. CTV says it had offered to place CKX up for sale to any interested party for 30 business days, i.e. until April 2.[14]
CTV announced further cuts on March 3. The A Morning programs at CKVR-TV, CFPL-TV, and CIVI-TV were all cancelled as of March 4, although those stations retained their evening newscasts. In Ottawa, CHRO's morning program continues and in fact has been extended to four hours daily and also will feature a two hour weekend edition being broadcast on saturdays, but its evening newscasts, (which trail those of CTV network station CJOH), were suddenly cancelled. All told, 118 people, or 23% of all A employees, were laid off.[2]
No cuts have yet been announced for either A Atlantic (which is already tightly integrated with CTV Atlantic) or Access (whose one current affairs program, Alberta Primetime, relies largely on the resources of CTV stations CFRN-TV and CFCN-TV).
Programming
Aside from a few key genres, such as movies and local news, the types of programming carried by A has varied significantly over its history.
As NewNet, the system mainly carried programs from what were then the two U.S. "netlets", The WB and UPN, as well as movies, a few syndicated series, and the lowest-rated offerings from the U.S. "big four" networks. Certain programs might be timeshifted from their original airings on Citytv. The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night with Conan O'Brien aired in late night.
As A-Channel, the system shifted towards a more traditional mix, including game shows and more traditional U.S. sitcoms and dramas. Some of the American shows aired during this era included Supernanny, America's Funniest Home Videos, Smallville, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and Wheel of Fortune, as well as Tonight and Late Night. Notable Canadian shows include Degrassi: The Next Generation and CityLine. A few original productions, such as 11 Somerset and Charlie Jade, have aired on A-Channel. The drama series Missing was carried over from the former A-Channel (now Citytv) stations. Following the acquisition by CTVglobemedia, CTV would occasionally bump one of its programs over to A-Channel to make room for a different show; during the summer, A-Channel would often carry repeats of CTV series, freeing up CTV to carry original programming.
For several seasons, CHRO also produced and broadcast 20 regular-season games per year of the National Hockey League's Ottawa Senators. These games were generally seen on Thursday nights and were usually among CHRO's most popular programmes. These games have been reassigned to the team's cable home, Rogers Sportsnet, as of the 2008-09 season. Although CHRO no longer airs the games themselves, the station still produces and airs a post-game show.
There may be some confusion about the network's launch date due to a celebration of "50 years of local news" held by local CTV and A-Channel stations in April 2008.[15][16] Neither the network nor any local CTV-owned station launched in 1958, although some of the stations that later joined CTV launched earlier in the decade.[17] The celebration was not timed to any particular anniversary but rather to a CRTC review of regulations for local TV stations also held that month.[18]
As part of the relaunch as A, the primetime schedule was revamped again, positioning A as the cutting-edge counterpart to the mainstream CTV network. Most of the schedule consists of anticipated new series such as Eleventh Hour and Fringe, and critically-acclaimed or high-buzz (but lower-rated) sophomore series such as Gossip Girl, Mad Men, Private Practice, and Pushing Daisies, although a few older holdovers such as AFV and America's Next Top Model (previously on Citytv) remain in primetime. Talk shows such as Ellen, Tonight, and Late Night remain, while Wheel, which moved to CBC Television, has been replaced by TMZ.
Stations
Terrestrial
- Barrie/Toronto, Ontario - CKVR
- London, Ontario - CFPL
- Ottawa/Pembroke, Ontario - CHRO
- Windsor/Wheatley, Ontario - CHWI (Station expected to shut down on August 31, 2009)
- Wingham, Ontario - CKNX (Station expected to shut down on August 31, 2009)
- Victoria, British Columbia - CIVI
Cable-only
Secondary carriers
- Access - CIAN Calgary and CJAL Edmonton; also carried province-wide in Alberta on cable television. Licensed as an educational television service for the province of Alberta, it airs selected A programs during primetime hours.
- CKX (Brandon, Manitoba) - CTV-owned CBC affiliate. While not officially marketed as A, the system's logo is periodically shown on screen during non-CBC programming. (Station expected to shut down on August 31, 2009 if no buyer is found by spring 2009)
References
- ^ CTV press release, December 10, 2008
- ^ a b CTV press release, March 3, 2009
- ^ CTV Note to Staff (from Ivan Fecan), February 27, 2009, accessed March 1, 2009
- ^ CHUM Announcement - Local Stations Being Renamed as A-Channel
- ^ "Bell Globemedia makes $1.7B bid for CHUM". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 2006-07-12. Retrieved 2006-07-12.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "CRTC expected to OK Rogers' $137.5M buy of CTVglobemedia TV channels". Canadian Press via Yahoo! Canada News. 2007-04-09. Retrieved 2007-04-09.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "CRTC tells CTVglobemedia to sell 5 Citytv stations". cbc.ca via Yahoo! Canada News. 2007-06-08. Retrieved 2007-06-08.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "C.R.T.C. approves the purchase of CHUM Ltd. by CTVGlobemedia, excluding Citytv stations". Channel Canada. 2007-06-08. Retrieved 2007-06-08.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ CTVglobemedia
- ^ "CTV expected to rebrand A Channel". Friends of Canadian Broadcasting. 2006-06-13. Retrieved 2006-07-05.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ A-Channel Survey
- ^ "A New Beginning: Fresh New Look for A Unveiled Today", CTVglobemedia press release, August 11, 2008.
- ^ 'A' Television Stations in Wingham and Windsor to be Shut Down, CTVglobemedia press release via Canada NewsWire, February 25, 2009
- ^ CTV Inc. places CKX-TV Brandon Up for Sale, CTVglobemedia press release via Canada NewsWire, February 19, 2009
- ^ CTV - Local News Matters
- ^ CTV and A-Channel Celebrate Local News, CTV press release, 8 April 2008
- ^ CTV - Local News Matters - Background (list of CTV-owned stations that launched in the 1950s)
- ^ CTV - Local News Matters - FAQ (makes several references to CRTC review)