E! (Canadian TV system)
Type | Broadcast television system |
---|---|
Country | Canada |
Broadcast area | Semi-national - Ontario, B.C., Alberta, Montreal (Quebec); available in several U.S. states via cable |
Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
Ownership | |
Owner | Canwest (Branding licensed from Comcast / NBCUniversal) |
Parent | Canwest Media Inc. |
Key people | Leonard Asper, CEO, Canwest; Kathleen Dore, President, Radio and Television, Canwest Media |
Sister channels | |
History | |
Launched | February 12, 2001 |
Closed | September 1, 2009 (8 years, 201 days) |
Former names | CH (2001-2007) |
The first incarnation of E!, also referred to as E! Entertainment Television, was a Canadian English language privately owned television system that existed from 2001 to 2009 under the ownership of Canwest. At its peak it consisted of eight local television stations located in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, including five stations owned and operated (O&O) by Canwest and three affiliates owned by Jim Pattison Group.
The system was launched in 2001 as CH Television or CH (derived from the call sign of flagship
Following corporate financial difficulties, which eventually led to the company filing for
E! in the U.S. (now owned by NBCUniversal) later reached an agreement to bring the channel's brand and programming to Bell Media's entertainment specialty channel, previously known as Star!, effective late November 2010.
History
Purchase of WIC stations by Canwest
The CH/E! system had its roots in the television stations group owned by
Aside from CHCH, many of WIC's stations were involved in various types of "
WIC was an ownership group, and not a network unto itself; the company was rarely able to co-ordinate the programming of its first-string stations, much less the second-string outlets, due to the stations' different network affiliations. Even so, during the 1990s, WIC had been stepping up its acquisitions of American programming, eventually acquiring shows such as
These programs were broadcast on CHCH (which was rebranded "
Canwest reached an agreement to purchase WIC's conventional television arm in 1999. Its plan to keep all of the WIC stations, save
The launch of CH
In February 2001, CHCH dropped its "ONtv" branding, becoming the first to adopt the CH brand.[2] It was followed by CHEK (newly disaffiliated from CTV) and multicultural station CJNT that September. The initial CH schedules largely consisted of the programming Canwest had inherited from WIC – indeed there were almost no programming changes initially at CHCH, since the branding change came mid-season. However, a handful of WIC programs would eventually be "cherry-picked" by Global. The stations also began to cross-promote heavily with the local Global stations. While CH briefly used the slogan "Closer to Home" when it launched, the letters "CH" were derived from the call sign of flagship CHCH. On the other hand, CJNT referred to the initials as Canal Horizon, or CH Horizon, until 2002.
CKRD joined in 2005 after disaffiliating from the CBC (having carried CH programming in non-CBC timeslots like it did during the WIC era prior to this), and reverted to its original call letters (CHCA) in the process.[4] Kelowna's CHBC and Kamloops's CFJC, the latter owned by the Jim Pattison Group, also disaffiliated from the CBC in February 2006 and joined CH. Although CFJC was not owned by Canwest, its joint sales agreement with CHBC necessitated its affiliation switch.[5] With a replacement brand for CH expected in the near future, both CHBC and CFJC maintained their own local identities for the remainder of the "CH" era.
Rebranding to E!
Published reports in early 2006[6] suggested that Canwest was looking to rebrand the CH stations. However, that brand remained in use for more than a year. In April 2007, Canwest finally announced that the CH stations would be relaunched as E! that fall;[7] the changes took effect on September 7. E! (U.S.) owner Comcast licensed the brand name and programming, but it did not obtain ownership in the Canadian E! network.
The launch of E! in Canada marked the first adoption of a
Pattison announced in September 2007 that its two remaining CBC affiliates,
Demise
Despite the rebranding and increased coverage, the system continued to trail in the ratings, and ultimately remained unprofitable. On February 5, 2009, amid rising debt and increasing pressure from creditors, Canwest announced it would explore "strategic options", including possible sale or closure, for its E! O&Os, saying "a second conventional TV network is no longer key to the long-term success" of the company.
Canwest also made clear that it would not be running the remaining E! stations as of fall 2009,[12] and in late July announced the rebranding of CHBC, and the closure of CHCA and CHEK, all effective September 1.[4][13] However, as discussed below, the CHEK decision was later reversed, with an agreement to sell the station to a local consortium.[14]
The transition for each station on Monday, August 31, 2009, was as follows:
- Channel Zero took control of programming at CHCH as of midnight EDT Monday morning, and at CJNT as of 6:00 a.m. (although the latter station's new programming did not actually take air until mid-morning).
- CHCA ended regular programming by 4:00 a.m. MDT. At that point it began airing a slide thanking viewers for their support, before leaving the air on September 1.
- CHBC joined Global (by simulcasting CHAN-TV's morning news) at 5:30 a.m. PDT.
- CHEK was scheduled to carry regular programming until 7:00 p.m., when it was to air an hour-long look back at the best of their newsmagazineshow, Island 30 and a two-hour retrospective of its 53 years covering local news, before signing off permanently at 10:00 p.m. However, by late afternoon on the 31st, negotiations to sell the station had resumed, delaying the station's signoff indefinitely; nevertheless, CHEK no longer carried E! programming as of September 1. An agreement to sell the station to an employee-led group (pending approval from the CRTC) was finalized on September 4, thereby allowing CHEK to remain on the air.
- Program schedules for the Pattison stations indicated that they would carry "regular" E! programming throughout the broadcast day, with the last Canwest-supplied program, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, concluding at approximately 1:38 a.m. PDT on September 1; however, it is not clear whether all of the primetime and late-night programming actually made air, since, by that point, it was not scheduled to air on any Canwest station. The Pattison stations began carrying national Citytv programming later that morning.
The rights to most of the system's non-E! primetime programs were acquired by other broadcasters, with most going to Citytv. Meanwhile, Canwest had been believed to retain the Canadian rights to E! (U.S.)'s original programming under its original long-term contract with Comcast. These programs were expected to move to the company's other channels such as Global or Slice, the latter having carried some E! programs in the past, or potentially even a new or rebranded E! cable channel (provided such a channel did not interfere with Star!'s exclusivity in the celebrity/entertainment genre). However, no such move occurred.
The closure of E! did not put an end to Canwest's financial troubles, and the company filed for creditor protection towards the end of 2009. Its broadcasting assets, including CHBC and the other Global O&Os, were eventually auctioned off to Shaw Communications, and became part of the new Shaw Media unit in late 2010. Shaw Media was in turn, acquired by Corus Entertainment on April 1, 2016.
In fall 2010, CTVglobemedia (later renamed
Subsequent connections
Following their respective sales, CHCH and CHEK both began airing a line-up consisting primarily of
Since September 2010, CHCH, CJNT and CHEK have once again carried some of the same programming on the same date, having each acquired regional rights to various U.S. series, such as
CJNT withdrew from this partnership as of June 4, 2012, due to its pending sale by Channel Zero to
Programming
E! aired a number of programs from the U.S. broadcast networks, sharing a library of programs with Global. Initially, it was not uncommon for Global, which was carried in more cities nationwide, to cherry-pick some of CH's hits and air them on the main network. Conversely, Global programs were sometimes sent "down" to CH if two programs aired by Global begin to air simultaneously on separate U.S. networks, so Canwest could maximize its simultaneous substitution opportunities. Following the start of E!, the practice was for the most part abandoned, although such series might be exchanged between the two systems from one season to the next.
Content from the American E! network started to air throughout the system's daytime, late night, and weekend schedule upon its re-branding on September 7, 2007; this was to include Canadian-produced series aired on E! channels internationally, although the extent of this was unclear. E! programming had previously aired on
As CH, local stations (except for CHBC and CFJC) used the "CH" brand throughout the day, titling their newscasts CH News as opposed to using their often well-known call signs. Similar network-based branding practices have been common at most local TV stations in Canada, including the O&Os of Canwest's primary Global network, since the late 1990s. Upon converting to E!, that brand became similarly predominant for most of the broadcast day.
For similar reasons, the E! branding was downplayed somewhat during sports programming such as PGA Tour coverage, when the system's bug was not seen. The bug was, however, used during some shows outside of the "entertainment" genre, such as lifestyle programming aired during the daytime schedule.
News
Local news coverage and other regional programming on the E! stations used the CH News brand. When CH became E!, it reverted to their local branding, such as "
Some E! stations also aired Global's national newscasts Global National though CHCH aired Live @ 5:30 talk show.
E! HD
On April 18, 2008, E! launched a
E! stations
Owned-and-operated
Note:
- 1) Italicized channel numbers indicate a digital channel allocated for future use by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
City of license/market | Station | Channel TV (RF) |
Year of affiliation | Year of disaffiliation | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Victoria, British Columbia | CHEK-TV | 6 (analog only) | 2001 | 2009 | originally scheduled to close down on August 31, 2009, but was instead sold to a consortium of station employees and local investors; currently carries infomercials, news, movies, and other local programming; since re-added American programming. Has since been a secondary affiliate of Yes TV. |
Kelowna, British Columbia | CHBC-TV | 2 (analog only) | 2006 | 2009 | Currently a Global O&O owned by Corus. |
Red Deer, Alberta | CHCA-TV | 6 (analog only) | 2005 | 2009 | closed August 31, 2009; license revoked December 16, 2009 |
Hamilton, Ontario | CHCH-TV | 11.1 (then 18 now 11) | 2001 | 2009 | now owned by Channel Zero ; initially carried a news/movies format; since re-added American programming and now identifies on-air as CHCH. The all-news format in the daytime was discontinued in December 2015 due to budget cuts.
|
Montreal, Quebec | CJNT-TV | 62 (analog only) | 2001 | 2009 | now owned by City Montreal. Previously owned by Channel Zero under its multicultural format as Metro 14 with addition of foreign movies and music videos as well as some American programming (The latter was carried over to CFHD upon that station's launch).
|
Affiliates and secondary carriers
E!'s three affiliates were all owned by the
City of license/market | Station | Analog channel | Year of affiliation |
Year of disaffiliation |
Owner |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kamloops, British Columbia | CFJC-TV | 4 | 2006 | 2009 | Jim Pattison Group |
Medicine Hat, Alberta | CHAT-TV | 6 | 2008 | 2009 | |
Prince George, British Columbia | CKPG-TV | 2 | 2008 | 2009 |
Slogans
- As CH:
- 2001: Closer to Home
- 2001-2005: CH Has It All!
- 2001-2007: Closer to You!
- As E!
- 2007-2009: Everything Entertainment
See also
References
- ^ Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission. July 6, 2000. Retrieved August 19, 2011.
- ^ a b "CH-CH-CH-changes for ONtv". Strategy. January 15, 2001. Retrieved August 19, 2011.
- ^ For example: Spring 2000 Vancouver primetime TV schedules, compiled by Friends of Canadian Broadcasting
- ^ a b Harley Richards (July 23, 2009). "CHCA-TV fades to black". Red Deer Advocate. Archived from the original on July 19, 2012. Retrieved August 19, 2011.
- ^ "Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2006-25" (PDF). CRTC. February 1, 2006. Retrieved August 19, 2011.
- ^ Toronto Star, February 13, 2006
- ^ Alex Strachan (April 25, 2007). "CanWest signs agreement to air E! entertainment in Canada". Vancouver Sun. Archived from the original on March 20, 2012. Retrieved August 19, 2011.
- ^ "Broadcasting Public Notice CRTC 2007-117". CRTC. October 18, 2007. Retrieved August 19, 2011.
- ^ Canwest announces strategic review of five conventional television stations , press release, February 5, 2009
- ^ Canwest considers possible sale of 5 TV stations across Canada, The Canadian Press via Google News, February 5, 2009
- ^ Channel Zero Inc. agrees to purchase CHCH-TV Hamilton and CJNT-TV Montreal from Canwest CNW Group (June 30, 2009)
- ^ "Out with the E!, in with the new at Canwest upfront". Marketing Magazine. June 3, 2009. Retrieved August 19, 2011.
- ^ "Canwest closing TV stations in Alberta, B.C." CBC News. July 22, 2007. Retrieved August 19, 2011.
- ^ "Local investors, staff buy CHEK". Victoria, British Columbia: The Times-Colonist. September 5, 2009. Archived from the original on September 13, 2012. Retrieved August 19, 2011.
- CTVglobemedia (press release) (November 1, 2010). "CTV and Comcast International Media Group Partner to Bring E!, World's Top Entertainment Brand, Back to Canada". Archived from the originalon July 19, 2011. Retrieved November 1, 2010.
- ^ Citytv expanding into Quebec & Western Canada Archived May 9, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, CityNews, May 3, 2012.
- ^ "Jim Pattison Broadcast Group solidifies Program Supply agreement for three independent stations serving BC and Alberta" (Press release). Jim Pattison Broadcast Group. July 14, 2009. Archived from the original on August 31, 2009. Retrieved July 19, 2009.