CTV television network

:For the television outlet in the Channel Islands, see Channel Television.

History

In 1958, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker's government passed a new Broadcasting Act, establishing the Board of Broadcast Governors (forerunner to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) as the governing body of Canadian broadcasting, thus ending the CBC's dual role as regulator and broadcaster. The new board's first act was to take applications for "second" television stations in Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver in response to an outcry for another programming choice. Calgary and Edmonton were served by privately-owned CBC affiliates; the other six by owned-and-operated CBC stations.

Related Topics:
1958 - Prime Minister - John Diefenbaker - Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission - CBC - Halifax - Montreal - Ottawa - Toronto - Winnipeg - Calgary - Edmonton - Vancouver

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The eight winners, in order of their first sign-on, were:

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• CFCN Calgary (September 9, 1960)
• CHAN Vancouver (October 31, 1960)
• CJAY (now CKY) Winnipeg (November 12, 1960)
• CFTO Toronto (January 1, 1961)
• CJCH Halifax (January 1, 1961)
• CFCF Montreal January 20, 1961)
• CJOH Ottawa (March 12, 1961)
• CBXT Edmonton (October 1, 1961)

The first seven stations were privately owned; the Edmonton station was a CBC O&O. One of the unsuccessful applicants for the Toronto licence, Spence Caldwell, immediately tried to form a network to link the seven private "second" stations plus CFRN in Edmonton, which was due to lose its CBC affiliation when CBXT signed on. The seven private stations countered by forming the Independent Television Organization (ITO). In early 1961, John Bassett, owner of CFTO, won the broadcast rights to the CFL Eastern Conference. He needed a network in order to broadcast the games. Finally, the Canadian Television Network (CTN) was born on October 1, 1961, composed of the seven ITO stations plus CFRN. The network changed its name to CTV in 1962.

Related Topics:
CFRN - John Bassett - CFL - 1962

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The Caldwell-led management team immediately ran into financial trouble, and in 1966 the network's affiliates (which by this time included CJON in St. John's, CKCO in Kitchener and CHAB/CHRE in Moose Jaw/Regina) sought and received permission to buy the network and run it as a cooperative. By the mid-1970s, CTV had expanded its footprint across Canada, mostly by twinstick arrangements in smaller cities and with CBC affiliates switching to CTV once the CBC opened its own stations. In a unique twist, the original Saskatchewan affiliate, CHAB/CHRE, was bought by the CBC in 1968 (and eventually recalled CBKT), allowing Regina's original station, CKCK, to join CTV. In 1994, the CTV cooperative became a corporation.

Related Topics:
1966 - CJON - St. John's - CKCO - Kitchener - CHAB/CHRE - Moose Jaw - Regina - Cooperative - Twinstick - Saskatchewan - 1968 - CKCK - 1994

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CTV made a name for itself in news coverage when they convinced star CBC news anchor Lloyd Robertson to switch networks in 1976. The network also has the country's longest-running national morning news show, Canada AM. Its weekly newsmagazine series, W5 has been a fixture on the network since 1966, predating the similar American program 60 Minutes by two years.

Related Topics:
Lloyd Robertson - 1976 - Canada AM - W5 - 60 Minutes

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In the mid-1980s, Baton Broadcasting, owners of flagship CFTO in Toronto, began a drive to take over CTV by buying as many affiliated stations as possible. It already owned CFQC in Saskatoon, and was indirectly aided by the way CTV was structured when it incorporated in 1994--shares were distributed on the basis of how much of Canada each owner's station(s) covered. Baton was already the largest stockholder, and through a decade of acquisitions and deals managed to gain majority control of the network by 1997. The other station owners sold their shares in the network to Baton, which changed its name to CTV Inc. in 1998.

Related Topics:
1980s - Baton Broadcasting - CFQC - Saskatoon - 1997 - 1998

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In 2000, typical of the media convergence trend at the time, BCE Inc. acquired CTV, NetStar Communications and The Globe and Mail newspaper, combining them into a media division known as Bell Globemedia. Bell Globemedia also owns a minority share in the French-language network TQS, which broadcasts in Quebec.

Related Topics:
2000 - Media convergence - BCE Inc. - The Globe and Mail - Bell Globemedia - TQS - Quebec

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CTV has legally been a "television service" in the eyes of the CRTC since 2000, when it allowed its network licence to expire. CBC, TVA and Aboriginal Peoples Television Network are the only official television networks in Canada.

Related Topics:
2000 - TVA - Aboriginal Peoples Television Network

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CTV lost significant coverage in two major markets — Vancouver and St. John's — at the beginning of the 21st century. First, in 2000, CanWest Global bought the television stations of Western International Communications, which owned charter CTV affiliate CHAN in Vancouver and CHEK in Victoria. A year later, after its CTV contract ran out, CanWest made CHAN the Global affiliate for all of British Columbia, taking advantage of CHAN's massive network of repeaters that cover 97% of the province. CTV shifted its programming to CIVT, an independent station it already owned. Unlike CHAN, CIVT has only one transmitter covering the metropolitan areas of Vancouver and Victoria and has to rely on cable coverage to reach the rest of the province. Meanwhile, in 2002, CJON in St. John's dropped its CTV affiliation; the station's owners did not want to pay for programs it had aired free of charge for 38 years, nor did they want to continue to carry CTV's national advertising during these programs. It continues to hold broadcast rights to CTV's national newscasts; in exchange it provides news coverage of events in its home province to CTV.

Related Topics:
2000 - CanWest Global - Western International Communications - CHEK - Victoria - Global - British Columbia - CIVT - 2002

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CTV has attracted some controversy in recent years, with significant local news cutbacks in its smaller-market stations. The four Maritime stations, known collectively as ATV, and the four Northern Ontario stations, known collectively as MCTV, each had their local news production cut back to one centrally-produced single newscast for each region, with only brief inserts for news of strictly local interest. This was a controversial move in all of the affected communities, especially in Northern Ontario where MCTV's newscasts were the only locally-oriented television news programs in those markets. In the late 1990s, cuts were made to the news staff and productions in two Saskatchewan cities (Yorkton and Prince Albert). Today, the stations now air local news inserts at noon, while simulcasting supper-hour and late-night news from Regina and Saskatoon respectively.

Related Topics:
Maritime - Northern Ontario

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