CKXT-DT
Craig Media) Toronto | |
Technical information | |
---|---|
ERP | 3 kW |
HAAT | 458 m (1,503 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 43°38′33″N 79°23′14″W / 43.64250°N 79.38722°W |
CKXT-DT (channel 52) was a
CKXT began broadcasting on September 19, 2003, owned and operated by
Although Sun News was licensed as a Category C (optional carriage) digital specialty channel, CKXT, as a broadcast station, had mandatory cable carriage in its over-the-air service area. Hence the simulcast meant that Sun News programming was available to analog cable subscribers throughout southern and eastern Ontario. However, the station retained its own broadcast licence separate from the specialty channel. The station's Ottawa transmitter was closed on August 31, 2011, while the remaining transmitters in Toronto, Hamilton, and London were closed on November 1, 2011.[1]
History
Toronto 1: licensing and launch
The CKXT license also marked the first time that Craig Media had been granted a licence to compete directly with a station owned by CHUM Limited, which meant that CHUM lost sales revenues from the broadcast rights it had contracted to Craig's A-Channel stations. CHUM retaliated by applying for broadcast licences in Calgary and Edmonton, two markets it had previously avoided so as not to compete directly with Craig. The CRTC denied CHUM's applications.
CKXT went to air on September 19, 2003, as the first new general-interest television station in Toronto in 30 years. Toronto 1 proved, however, to be a financial and critical disaster for Craig. The station was frequently criticized in the Toronto media, particularly for flashy but vacuous and repetitive local content, newscasts that had a
On May 19, 2004, Craig announced that 28 Toronto 1 employees and nine employees working at
None of the changes worked, however, and on April 12, 2004—seven months after CKXT launched—Craig sold its conventional television assets to CHUM Limited for $265 million. CHUM was required by CRTC competition regulations to put CKXT back on the market immediately, owing to its already strong presence in the Toronto television market through
Sale to Quebecor Media and relaunch as SUN TV
CHUM sold CKXT to
After CKXT's sale to Quebecor, the new management cancelled the station's evening news program, Toronto Tonight, and announced it would expand its entertainment magazine program The A-List to one hour in length, airing weeknights from 7 to 8 p.m. (which was later reduced to a weekend only timeslot, effective March 24, 2006). A late-night sports talk show, The Grill Room, premiered on September 1.
Before Toronto Tonight ended on June 30, 2005, former Toronto Tonight co-anchor Ben Chin announced he would be moving to Global Television Network as a senior news correspondent; later that summer he decided instead to enter political life as an advisor in Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty's communications team.
Chin's Toronto Tonight co-anchor Sarika Sehgal was also let go at the same time. In late 2005, Sehgal joined the 24-hour news channel
As Sun TV, the station met its Canadian content obligations primarily by airing repeats of older Canadian series such as King of Kensington, The Beachcombers, Danger Bay, Ready or Not, My Secret Identity, Super Dave and Side Effects, while also picking up some original non-fiction programming, including the movie review series DVD Show, the concert series Beautiful Noise and the food program Street Eats.
The performance of CKXT under Quebecor was no better than it was under Craig. In March 2006, the Canadian Media Guild announced that 13 employees would be laid off from the station, including its entire marketing department, and Inside Jam (the rebranded A-List) would be relegated to weekends only. A new program, Canoe Live, was launched in May 2006 to poor reviews.[5]
At the same time, the station stepped up its acquisitions of U.S. network series, albeit mainly the "leftovers" not obtained by other Canadian networks. The fall 2006 schedule, for instance, included
CKXT also carried both of the original
CKXT-TV was the only English-language independent television station outside of religious and community television stations in Canada on the UHF band.
The station applied for rebroadcasters in
On December 1, 2009, the CRTC approved an application by Quebecor Media to allow a corporate reorganization through which Groupe TVA would acquire Sun Media's 25 percent stake in CKXT.
Transition to Sun News
On June 14, 2010,
For the bulk of the 2010–11 season, CKXT broadcast no local programming, and mainly broadcast movies (three movies each weekday, Monday through Friday, at 8 a.m., 1 and 8 p.m.; and a quadruple-feature of movies on Saturdays and Sundays at 3, 5, 7 and 9 p.m.), along with paid programming and a handful of "off-network" series reruns.
A CRTC filing in early 2011, seeking the authority to continue CKXT's operations following the digital conversion in August 2011,[12] led to speculation that Quebecor was revisiting its earlier decision to surrender its over-the-air licence. Then, in late March 2011, the station's website began to redirect to the Sun News Network URL (the station itself continued to air regular programming). Sun News later confirmed via Twitter that it would simulcast its programming on CKXT, at least initially.[2] The simulcast began at the same time Sun News was launched, at 4:30 p.m. ET on April 18, 2011.
Bell Satellite TV dropped CKXT the morning of May 3, due to a dispute with Quebecor on whether or not carriage fees should be levied, as Sun News was broadcast via CKXT, leading to Bell treating Sun News as a terrestrial channel (i.e., available without carriage fees). Quebecor argued that it should charge Bell TV for the rights, as it was a licensed cable specialty channel.[13][14] (The outage did not affect Bell Fibe TV in the Toronto area, which was compelled to carry CKXT.)
Closedown
The CRTC had questioned Quebecor in early July on its usage of the station to simulcast Sun News, noting "Quebecor should expect to be asked to demonstrate why this is the best use of the radio spectrum". Quebecor management told the CRTC that it would shut the station down, rather than to renew the over-the-air licence. Quebecor closed CKXT on November 1, 2011. It was the fifth major TV station in Canada (and the first in one of Canada's three large cities) to have gone dark since 1977, when
Following these changes, Sun News Network no longer received mandatory carriage and lost its previous low channel position in Toronto, Hamilton, London and Ottawa; the channel's programming was only available on cable and satellite providers carrying the specialty channel.[1] In the Toronto area, shortly after the station left the air, Rogers-owned CityNews Channel took the place of CKXT on its former cable channel 15 slot for digital subscribers, while Buffalo PBS station WNED-TV occupied channel 15 for analogue subscribers. Sun News retained the other channel positions previously allocated for CKXT on Rogers' cable systems (142 and 567), but it was no longer included as part of its basic service.
Sun News Network itself shut down on February 13, 2015, with Quebecor attributing the channel's failure to it being denied mandatory carriage.
Transmitters
Station | City of licence
|
ERP | HAAT
|
Transmitter coordinates | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
CKXT-DT-1 | Hamilton |
|
8.6 kW | 193.1 m (634 ft) | 43°12′27″N 79°46′27″W / 43.20750°N 79.77417°W | Defunct as of October 31, 2011 |
CKXT-DT-2 | London |
|
7.0 kW | 313.6 m (1,029 ft) | 42°57′20″N 81°21′19″W / 42.95556°N 81.35528°W | |
CKXT-DT-3 | Ottawa | 20 (UHF) | 9.3 kW | 332.9 m (1,092 ft) | 45°30′11″N 75°51′01″W / 45.50306°N 75.85028°W | Defunct as of August 31, 2011 |
Following the shutdown of these rebroadcasters, most channel allocations were transferred to other stations:
- CKXT-DT-1's allocation is occupied by CHCH-DT since December 2, 2013, with virtual channel 11.1.
- CKXT-DT-2's allocation is vacant as of May 2020.
- CKXT-DT-3's allocation is occupied by CJMT-DT-2 (OMNI 2) since August 31, 2011, with virtual channel 14.1.[15]
Digital television and high definition
Subchannels were for the London and Ottawa digital repeaters only.
Channel | Programming |
---|---|
x.1 | CKXT-DT HD feed |
x.2 | CKXT-DT SD feed |
The same program content was duplicated on both subchannels.
After the analogue television shutdown and digital conversion, which took place on August 31, 2011,[16] CKXT-DT remained on channel 66 until its closedown at the end of October. Digital television receivers would display CKXT-DT's virtual channel as 52.1.
CKXT-DT-1 in Hamilton and CKXT-DT-2 London stayed on 15 and 19 respectively, following the transition until their closedowns.[17]
References
- ^ a b c Krashinsky, Susan (August 18, 2011). "Sun News gives up over-the-air licence". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved August 18, 2011.
- ^ a b Sun News Network (March 31, 2011). "Twitter message: "Wondering where you can watch Sun News? If you currently receive Sun TV, we will be broadcasting on that channel! More info to come #sunnews"". Retrieved April 4, 2011.
- ^ Torstar (press release) (April 8, 2002). "CRTC Denies Torstar Applications For TV Licenses". Retrieved June 16, 2010.
- ^ "Killing us softly but with more bubbly banter," from The Globe and Mail, February 10, 2003 (accessed December 15, 2017)
- ^ azerbic – Antonia Zerbisias – Toronto Star Blog Archived September 27, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "ARCHIVED - Broadcasting Public Notice CRTC 2007-14". February 9, 2007.
- ^ CRTC Decision 2007-352
- ^ "ARCHIVED - CKXT-DT Toronto and its transmitter at Ottawa - Technical change". June 17, 2008.
- ^ Etan Vlessing (June 14, 2010). "Channel Zero loads up on U.S. network series". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on October 25, 2012. Retrieved June 15, 2010.
- ^ Barbara Shecter (June 10, 2010). "Quebecor seen seeking all-news channel licence". National Post (via Vancouver Sun). Retrieved June 15, 2010.
- ^ "CRTC refuses Sun TV’s bid for preferred status on dial", from The Globe and Mail, July 15, 2010.
- ^ "Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2011–95". Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. February 14, 2011. Retrieved February 14, 2011.
- ^ "Bell satellite subs lose Sun News in carriage fee battle that's part of a bigger fight," from CARTT, posted and Retrieved March 5, 2011
- ^ "Bell TV pulls Sun News Network," from The Globe and Mail, March 5, 2011
- ^ "CJMT-DT". History of Canadian Broadcasting. Retrieved May 19, 2020.
- ^ "Office of Consumer Affairs - Home". www.ic.gc.ca. April 16, 2003. Archived from the original on September 16, 2008.
- ^ Industry Canada: "DTV Post-Transition Allotment Plan", December 2008
External links
- Sun News Network
- Toronto 1 Internet Archive
- CKXT-DT at The History of Canadian Broadcasting by the Canadian Communications Foundation
- CKXT-TV in the REC Canadian station database