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Citytv Saskatchewan

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SCN Television
CountryCanada
NetworkCitytv
Former affiliations:
Educational Ind. (1991-2010)
HeadquartersRegina, Saskatchewan
Ownership
OwnerBluepoint Investment Corporation
(Sale pending to Rogers Media)

SCN (Saskatchewan Communications Network) is a Canadian English language cable television entertainment, information, and educational channel in the province of Saskatchewan. Headquartered in the provincial capital of Regina, the channel is currently owned by Bluepoint Investment Corporation, and is an affiliate of the Citytv television system. Rogers Media, Citytv's owner, is currently in the process of acquiring the channel, with plans to rebrand the channel as Citytv Saskatchewan.[1]

SCN is licensed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) as an educational programming service for the province of Saskatchewan, and was formerly a public broadcaster owned by the Saskatchewan government. Since becoming a private broadcaster, it has aired a mix of educational and cultural programming along with entertainment programming more favourable to advertisers and viewers.

For being licensed as an educational broadcaster, SCN is required to be distributed as part of the basic cable service in Saskatchewan. SCN's broadcast licence is for satellite-to-cable programming only and is not available over-the-air unlike other similar services such as TVO or Télé-Québec. It is also available on both national satellite services, Bell TV and Shaw Direct.

History

Under management of the Government of Saskatchewan

In February 1991,[2] the Saskatchewan government (led at the time by Premier Grant Devine) was granted a broadcast licence for a non-commercial educational service by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). The channel, branded as SCN, launched on May 6 of that year, making it one of the newer English-language publicly-funded broadcasters in Canada (Ontario's TVOntario was launched on September 27, 1970; British Columbia's Knowledge launched on January 12, 1981; and Alberta's Access, which is now the privately-owned CTV Two Alberta was launched on June 30, 1973).

While being a publicly-owned entity, SCN received funding from the Saskatchewan government and from the general public in the form of donations. At the time, SCN frequently stopped between shows to ask for pledges like other public broadcasters such as PBS in the United States.

Sale to Bluepoint Investment Corporation

On March 24, 2010, the Brad Wall government announced it would wind up SCN's operations, citing low ratings, with some operations such as distance education broadcasts to be transferred to SaskTel.[3] The channel was to have signed off at the end of April, but it was later decided to keep the channel in operation while offers to buy it were evaluated.[4] On June 21, 2010, the Saskatchewan government announced the channel would be sold to Bluepoint Investment Corporation, a sale that would require CRTC approval. During the CRTC approval process, Bluepoint requested several amendments to SCN's licence, which would allow the channel to air limited amounts of non-educational programming with commercials.[5] The CRTC approved the sale of SCN to Bluepoint and the licence amendments on December 23, 2010.[6] The transaction was completed shortly thereafter, and at that point, SCN lost its original funding streams of government funding and public donations.

Under Bluepoint's approved amendments to its license, SCN must still air commercial free educational programming from 6AM to 3PM; after 3PM, however, the channel may begin to air programming with up to 14 minutes of advertising per hour—Bluepoint planned to use this new ability to air programming that could attract new advertising revenue to the channel,[6] in a hybrid format similar to Access, an educational television network in Alberta.[7] Initially, when Bluepoint took over control of the station, little programming changes were made, other than introducing films seven nights a week starting at 9 p.m. during the summer of 2011.[8] The first major changes to the channel occurred on September 12, 2011, when the channel introduced a new on-air brand, along with a new primetime lineup of current American network series' such as Supernatural and The Insider, in addition to classic series such as Danger Bay, Family Ties, and Frasier.[9]

Citytv affiliation and subsequent acquisition by Rogers Media

On December 20, 2011, SCN announced it entered into an affiliation agreement with Rogers Communications to air shows programmed by Citytv from 3 p.m. to sign-off starting on January 2, 2012, with educational, children's and locally-produced programming, continuing to air on SCN outside those hours (to fulfill the channel's licence as an educational station). The post-3 p.m. programming, branded as Citytv on SCN, consists of entertainment programming sourced from Rogers' Citytv and Omni Television stations, including Citytv's primetime lineups.[10] With the Citytv affiliation, SCN is the second Canadian educational television service to carry entertainment programming from one of the major commercial networks or television systems (alongside Access, which completely took on the CTV Two name and lineup upon its relaunch in August 2011); it also gives the Citytv system affiliations in all provinces west of Quebec and south of the federal territories of Northern Canada (Rogers later announced on May 3, 2012 that it would expand Citytv into Quebec with an affiliation agreement with CJNT-DT/Montreal, which the company also announced it would purchase).[11]

On January 17, 2012, Rogers Media announced its intent to acquire SCN outright from Bluepoint Investment Corporation, pending approval by the CRTC. Rogers plans to re-brand the channel as Citytv Saskatchewan, invest into improving the channel's infrastructure, and also launch a high definition feed for SCN. Despite the planned re-branding, Rogers will still commit to SCN's requirement to air commercial-free educational programming from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.[1] No regional news programming is planned for the channel under Rogers ownership;[12] as such, SCN would become the first Citytv owned-and-operated station to carry no localized news programming (all other Citytv O&Os carry, at minimum, morning newscasts under the system's Breakfast Television brand, while the system's Toronto flagship station, CITY-DT, also carries weekday midday and nightly evening newscasts).

Logos

  • SCN's older logo
    SCN's older logo
  • Former logo of SCN
    Former logo of SCN
  • Former logo, used until 2009
    Former logo, used until 2009
  • 2009-2011
    2009-2011

See also

  • CTV Two Alberta - a similar cable-only affiliate of CTV Two in the Canadian province of Alberta; formerly Access
  • CTV Two Atlantic - a similar cable-only affiliate of CTV Two in Atlantic Canada; formerly the Atlantic Satellite Network (ASN) and A Atlantic
  • The CW Plus - an alternate feed of The CW Television Network for small and mid-size television markets in the United States, consisting of privately-owned digital multicast channels and cable-only affiliates, with syndicated programs supplied by the network in addition to CW network programming

References

  1. ^ a b "Rogers to buy SCN, launch Citytv Saskatchewan". National Post. Retrieved 18 January 2012.
  2. ^ Decision CRTC 91-98 CRTC, 1997-02-14
  3. ^ Government Provides SCN Core Services in More Efficient Manner, Government of Saskatchewan press release, 2010-03-24
  4. ^ Neil Scott, SCN to remain operating while expressions of interest evaluated, Leader-Post, 2010-05-01, accessed 2010-05-01
  5. ^ Sask. TV network sold to Ontario firm, CBC News, 2010-06-21, accessed 2010-06-21
  6. ^ a b Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2010-965
  7. ^ "Ontario Company Purchases SCN". Saskatoon Media Group.
  8. ^ SCN Summer Schedule SCN press release 2011-05-03
  9. ^ Claassen’s Bluepoint to introduce revamped SCN in September Marketing 2011-08-15
  10. ^ Citytv and SCN Sign Affiliate Agreement CNW press release 2011-12-20
  11. ^ Citytv expanding into Quebec & Western Canada, CityNews, May 3, 2012.
  12. ^ Rogers buys SCN; set to launch Citytv channel

[[Category:Citytv stations|Saskatchewan Communications Network

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