CTV Television Network
The CTV Television Network, commonly known as CTV, is a Canadian English-language terrestrial television network. Launched in 1961 and acquired by BCE Inc. in 2000, CTV is Canada's largest privately owned television network and is now a division of the Bell Media subsidiary of BCE. It is Canada's largest privately or commercially owned network consisting of 22 owned-and-operated stations nationwide and two privately owned affiliates, and has consistently been placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival Global Television Network in key markets.
Bell Media also operates additional CTV-branded properties, including the 24-hour national cable news network CTV News Channel and the secondary CTV 2 television system.
There has never been an official full name corresponding to the initials "CTV"; prior to CTV's launch in 1961, it was given the proposed branding of "Canadian Television Network", but that branding was dropped before the network's launch when the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation objected to it, claiming exclusive rights to the term "Canadian".
History
Formation
In 1958, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker's government passed the Broadcasting Act, which established the Board of Broadcast Governors, a forerunner to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, as the governing body of Canadian broadcasting, effectively ending the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation'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 an alternative to the CBC's television service. Calgary and Edmonton were served by privately owned CBC affiliates; the other six markets by CBC owned-and-operated stations.In order of their first sign-on, the newly-licensed stations were:
- CFCN-TV Calgary
- CHAN-TV Vancouver
- CJAY-TV Winnipeg
- CFTO-TV Toronto
- CJCH-TV Halifax
- CFCF-TV Montreal
- CFTM-TV Montreal
- CJOH-TV Ottawa
- CBXT Edmonton
Even before his station was licensed, John W. H. Bassett, the chief executive of the ultimately successful Toronto applicant Baton Aldred Rogers Broadcasting, had expressed interest in participating in the creation of a second television network, "of which we see the Toronto station as anchor". Indeed, Baton had already begun quietly contacting the successful applicants in other cities to gauge their interest in forming a cooperative group to share Canadian programming among the stations. This led to the July 1960 formation of the Independent Television Organization, consisting of the eight newly licensed private stations and CFRN, each having one vote in the ITO's operations regardless of the size of its audience. The ITO soon resolved to apply for a network licence to link these second stations.
However, the ITO faced opposition from Spence Caldwell, a former CBC executive and one of the unsuccessful applicants for the Toronto licence, who had first approached the BBG in April 1960 to pitch a second-station network proposal of his own. Under his plan, at least 51% of the shares of the network would be owned by various prominent Bay Street investors who had previously backed his Toronto station bid; only 49% would be reserved for the network's affiliates to purchase, if they wished. The BBG – and particularly its chair Andrew Stewart – was not in favour of a station-owned network, fearing that any such network would be dominated by Toronto's CFTO. Although it did not immediately approve Caldwell's proposal, it soon set several conditions on such a network that effectively made Caldwell's group the only feasible applicant.
That fall, the Caldwell group and the ITO faced off in a series of meetings with the BBG. The ITO decided not to follow through with a formal network application, but the stations – particularly Baton, which said it had no interest in participating in CTN and believed it could still be successful without one – continued to indicate various concerns with the viability of Caldwell's proposal. Ultimately, the BBG granted a licence to CTN, conditional on securing the affiliation of six of the eight ITO stations.
Baton's opposition to the CTN reversed in early 1961, soon after CFTO won the broadcast rights to the Canadian Football League Eastern Conference for the 1961 and 1962 seasons. Baton's original plan was to operate a temporary network to distribute the games incorporating CFTO, other independent stations, and CBC affiliates in smaller markets. Although the plan was neither officially rejected or approved, various uncertainties eventually led John Bassett to decide to sign an affiliation agreement with CTN instead to ensure the games would air. Most of the other second stations followed suit, with the exception of CHAN in Vancouver, which agreed to carry several network programs but never officially signed on as an affiliate for the duration of the Caldwell era, yet nonetheless would later claim to have been a "charter member" of the network.
Early years
The network finally launched as the CTV Television Network on October 1, 1961. The CBC had objected to the network's initial name, apparently claiming it had exclusive rights to the term "Canadian", and therefore the letters "CTV" have no official expanded meaning.The CTV network's first night on-air began with Harry Rasky's promotional documentary on the new network. That was followed by a fall season preview program.
CTV's initial 1961–1962 season began with the following programs, five of which were Canadian productions:
- The Andy Griffith Show
- Checkmate
- Cross Canada Barndance
- Maigret
- The Rifleman
- Showdown
- Sing Along With Mitch
- Take a Chance, a quiz show by Roy Ward Dickson adapted from radio
- Top Cat
- Twenty Questions
- West Coast
- Whiplash
At first, flagship CFTO was the only station that carried programming live. During CBC's off-hours, CTV used CBC's microwave system to send programming to the rest of the country on tape delay. Eventually, a second microwave channel opened up, enabling live programming from coast to coast.
The Caldwell-led management team immediately ran into financial trouble, and relations between the network and its stations were not smooth at first since CTV had essentially been the product of a forced marriage. For example, most of the rights to American programming rested with the ITO, not CTV. In many cases, CTV found itself competing with its own stations for the rights to programming.
Reorganization and expansion
Caldwell's departure in 1965 did little to alleviate the situation, and CTV soon found itself on the verge of bankruptcy. In 1966, the network's affiliates sought permission to buy the network and run it as a cooperative. The BBG was initially skeptical of the proposal. Since CFTO was by far the largest and richest station, the BBG feared that CFTO would dominate CTV if the stations were allowed to buy the network. To alleviate these concerns, the affiliates promised that each station owner would have one vote regardless of its audience share. The board readily approved the proposal, and by the start of the 1966–67 season, the stations owned their network. The network also began broadcasting in colour on September 1, 1966.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 or added rebroadcasters of nearby O&O stations. In a unique twist, the original Saskatchewan affiliate, CHAB/CHRE, was bought by the CBC in 1969, allowing Regina's original station, CKCK-TV, to join CTV. Its attempt to expand to the United States ended when Buffalo's three network affiliates threatened legal action, forcing WNYP off the air.
CTV made a name for itself in news coverage when it convinced star CBC news anchor Lloyd Robertson to switch networks in 1976.. Its weekly newsmagazine series, W5, has been a fixture on the network since 1966, predating the similar American program 60 Minutes by two years.
In the 1970s, CTV often bought rights to pop and rock songs to serve as theme music for its programming, rather than commissioning original themes. Most notably, W5 used an instrumental portion of Supertramp's "Fool's Overture", Canada AM used an instrumental version of The Moody Blues' "Ride My See-Saw", the game show Definition used Quincy Jones' "Soul Bossa Nova" and the CTV Movie used the Keith Mansfield instrumental "Statement" from the KPM Musichouse library.
For most of its first four decades, CTV did not have what could be considered a main schedule outside of news programming. The differences were enough that Ottawa's CJOH used a rebroadcaster in Cornwall to feed cable systems in Montreal from the early 1980s through the mid-1990s despite the presence of CFCF; the CJOH rebroadcaster reaches the western portion of the Montreal area.
Conflict and consolidation
CTV's cooperative structure regularly led to conflicts between the network's owner-affiliates. In particular, the owners of CFCF, CJOH, and especially CHAN felt that Baton Broadcasting, owners of flagship CFTO in Toronto, dominated production of network programming.In the mid-1980s, Baton began a drive to take over CTV by buying as many affiliates as possible. Having already bought CFQC-TV in Saskatoon in 1971, Baton purchased additional stations in Saskatchewan – including CTV affiliates CKCK-TV Regina, CICC-TV Yorkton, and CIPA-TV Prince Albert – in 1986. Baton then purchased CJOH in 1988, followed by the MCTV and Huron Broadcasting stations, which included four CTV affiliates in Northern Ontario, in 1990.
One caveat, however, was the "one owner, one vote" provision of the cooperative's bylaws. Any acquisition of one station by an existing station owner triggered an automatic redistribution of the acquired station's shares among the other owners. As a result, even though it owned 11 of CTV's 24 affiliates, Baton still had only had one vote out of eight.
Around the same time, several CTV owner-affiliates were expanding their holdings outside of the network. CHAN owner Western International Communications purchased Selkirk Communications and Allarcom, which together owned several independent stations in Alberta and Ontario. CHUM Limited, owner of the CTV-affiliated ATV system serving the Maritimes, already owned independent station CITY-TV in Toronto, and by this point had begun launching national cable channels like MuchMusic. Even Baton added some stations outside of CTV, with the purchase or launch of three independent stations in southwestern Ontario in 1992–93. It also began competing with the network for some program acquisitions in 1992, and in 1994 launched the Baton Broadcast System as a parallel programming brand for both its CTV affiliates and independent stations.
After several years of contentious negotiations between the eight remaining owner-affiliates, by late 1992 they had reached an agreement to recapitalize the network, and provide a path for a single company to eventually take control. The restructuring took effect in January 1993, and CTV converted from a cooperative to a corporation. Seven of the owner-affiliates invested equally, yielding a 14.3% stake in the network for each; however, Newfoundland Broadcasting, owner of CJON, decided not to invest further and effectively relinquished its vote, reducing the number of active voting members to seven. As part of the restructuring, the stations also agreed to reduce the number of hours of network programming, allowing Baton and WIC to program more of their stations' schedules with their own acquisitions.
In 1996, Baton acquired CFCN from Rogers Communications. Significantly, Baton also acquired Rogers' CTV vote. It also started a joint venture with Electrohome, owner of CFRN and CKCO. As part of the deal, Baton was allowed to vote Electrohome's shares in addition to its own. The following year, Baton acquired Electrohome's share of the joint venture, and separately acquired ATV from CHUM. This gave Baton a 57.2% controlling interest in the network, triggering a put option allowing the remaining affiliates, WIC and Moffat, to sell their CTV shares to Baton without selling their stations, which they did. Baton was now full owner of the CTV network and immediately began plastering the CTV brand across its stations, even on non-network programming, and dropped its secondary BBS brand. The company changed its name to CTV Inc. in 1998, and eventually acquired two of the final three large-market stations, CKY and CFCF.
CTV has attracted some controversy in the past because of cutbacks to its small-market stations. In the late 1990s, cuts were made to the news staff and productions at CTV's two small-market Saskatchewan stations, CICC-TV in Yorkton and CIPA-TV in Prince Albert. These stations currently simulcast supper-hour and late-night news from CKCK and CFQC respectively, placing local inserts into the newscasts. Similarly, the four Maritime stations, known collectively as CTV Atlantic, and the four Northern Ontario stations, known collectively as CTV Northern Ontario, each had their local news production cut back in the early 2000s to one single centrally produced 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 news programs in those markets.