A Atlantic

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A Atlantic
Launched	May 29, 1983
Network	A Former affiliations: Independent (1983-2008)
Owned by	CTVglobemedia (CTV Television Inc.)
Country	Canada
Broadcast area	Atlantic Canada
Headquarters	Halifax, Nova Scotia
Formerly called	Atlantic Satellite Network (1983-2008)
Website	A Atlantic
Availability
Satellite
Bell TV	Channel 202
Shaw Direct	Channel 340
Cable
Eastlink (Halifax)	Channel 7
IPTV over ADSL
Bell Aliant TV (Halifax)	Channel 5

A Atlantic is a Canadian English language cable television channel serving Atlantic Canada owned by CTVglobemedia, with its studios located in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It is part of CTVglobemedia's secondary A television system.

The channel launched as the Atlantic Satellite Network (or ASN) in 1983. Designated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) as a "satellite-to-cable television programming undertaking," defined as a local television station available in the region on basic cable television, and indeed throughout Canada on many digital cable systems and satellite television, but without any terrestrial transmitters. Although the channel does not have mandatory cable carriage rights, nearly all cable systems in the region offer it. Nonetheless, it has full simultaneous substitution rights in the Atlantic provinces, whereas most non-broadcast channels do not.

Prior to fall 2008, the channel had received much of its programming from CHUM's Citytv and A-Channel (now A) systems, which did not operate in the region; beginning in the early 2000s, timeshifted CTV programs often aired on the channel as well. CTV acquired CHUM (excluding Citytv) in 2007, and ASN merged with the relaunched A system on August 11, 2008.^[1]

Numerous cable-only network affiliates exist in the United States, particularly in conjunction with The CW Plus, although A Atlantic is the only station of this type currently operating in Canada.

[edit] History

An early-1990s rendering of the ASN logo; the same basic form was used from 1983 to 2008

ASN launched in 1983, under the ownership of CHUM Limited, as a supplementary service to its ATV system of CTV affiliates (now known as CTV Atlantic). ASN initially aired Atlantic Pulse newscasts at alternate times to ATV's newscasts. Atlantic Pulse used ATV reporters, but different anchors and graphics, with a comparatively spartan set located across the newsroom from ATV's. ASN also carried alternative entertainment programming, much of it produced by or otherwise sourced from CHUM's Toronto station CITY-TV.

In 1997, as part of a multi-station trade between CHUM and Baton Broadcasting, ATV and ASN became Baton properties; ATV was integrated into the expanded CTV network, while ASN took over the few remaining CHUM programs from ATV. ASN remained, for all intents and purposes, the Citytv affiliate in Atlantic Canada, and until recently carried a similar mix of movies and series in primetime. However, by the mid-2000s, the amount of CHUM programming on the ASN schedule had in fact decreased, and CHUM-supplied soap operas and movies (aside from a handful of weekend timeslots) were no longer present.

Following the merger between CHUM and CTVglobemedia, it appeared likely that ASN would become the Citytv owned and operated station for Atlantic Canada. However, the merger was made conditional on the sale of Citytv to a third party (Rogers Communications); as such, ASN was relaunched as A Atlantic on August 11, 2008. However, some sources including several above television service providers continue to refer to the channel as ASN.

[edit] Programming

ASN also devoted a significant amount of its daytime schedule to educational programming provided by provincial education departments and by local universities. It provides 16 hours of educational programming each weekend from 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and ten hours every Monday to Friday morning from 4:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. (In the early years, some TVOntario programs were carried on ASN, such as Polka Dot Door, Today's Special and Fast Forward.) Later it launched a local version of Citytv's Breakfast Television, moving educational programs to the weekend and to overnight hours. By 1996, as specialty television began to grow in popularity, Atlantic Pulse gave way to a short-lived cut-back version called ATV Headline News.

While ATV aired some United States syndicated programming that was shown on Citytv in Toronto (e.g., Friends and Seinfeld repeats), ASN aired programs associated with CTV in the rest of the country, such as Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy! and Camilla Scott. ASN was also the original home of The Oprah Winfrey Show until it moved to ATV early in its run.

ASN had also aired selected CTV network programming, including sports coverage and Canadian Idol, which, until recently, would not otherwise be widely available in Newfoundland and Labrador as a result of the 2002 disaffiliation of CJON from CTV (in July 2006, CJON purchased rights to the remainder of the fourth season of Idol; the first three seasons aired exclusively on ASN). Since fall 2005, ASN had also carried same-night rebroadcasts of CTV programs on most nights at 11:00 p.m. AT (10:00 p.m. ET). This appeared to be for simultaneous substitution purposes; since 1997, CTV Atlantic has aired series from the final hour of U.S. primetime earlier in the evening in order to accommodate newscasts at 11:00 AT.

Since 1997, ASN's local programming has been cut back significantly. At its peak, Breakfast Television aired for two and a half hours daily; it now airs for 2 hours, broadcasting from 7:00am until 9:00am. Also, while ASN still carried a noon newscast and an early-morning rebroadcast of CTV's Live at 5, both are branded as CTV News programs. As of mid-October 2005, ASN stopped carrying a late newscast, due to the additional CTV programming noted above.

Despite the then-pending CTVglobemedia/CHUM merger, CHUM content was actually lowered during the 2006-07 season compared to previous years, with other series from the CTV library — including repeats, "shelf" series like What About Brian, programming from MTV, and time shifted CTV programming for simsub purposes — making up the balance. The format of the channel's signature morning show Breakfast Television and its logo still resemble the standard Breakfast Television logo used by the Citytv stations.

Currently, A Atlantic carries a late local newscast (a rebroadcast of CTV Atlantic's late news at midnight), previously the rebroadcast was taken off the schedule in 2005 but has been brought back; as well as the aforementioned CTV News at Noon. At the present time, A Atlantic's morning program also retains the name Breakfast Television instead of A Morning, the name in use for all other A stations' similar morning shows.

The joint ownership of ATV and ASN was approved in 1983 without any restrictions on duplicated programming or news coverage between the two channels. This has been grandfathered into the CRTC's current policy of requiring such non-duplication conditions on "twinstick" stations in large markets.

[edit] Advertising

Until fall 2006, the CRTC required that "commercial messages that are likely to have a negative impact on (CJON) be deleted from the ASN service distributed in St. John's and Mount Pearl (and area)" by Rogers Cable and its pre-2000 predecessor, Cable Atlantic.^[2] For several years Rogers or Cable Atlantic aired scrolling text from Broadcast News in its place, and has been faulted on several occasions for untimely malfunctions of the automated equipment that performs the deletion (i.e., entire segments of Canadian Idol being blocked). In spring 2006, Rogers applied to have this condition removed, citing these complaints among other reasons.^[3] This was approved in fall 2006.

Since the channel's inception, ASN/A Atlantic has not been permitted to solicit local advertising in the Halifax area, due to (in the CRTC's opinion) insufficient support for local advertising.^[4] As part of the approval for Rogers's request to remove the commercial blackouts in St. John's, the channel also agreed not to solicit local advertising in that area either.^[5] A Atlantic is permitted to solicit local advertising in the rest of Atlantic Canada, as well as regional and national advertising; moreover the ban on solicitation does not necessarily prevent the channel from accepting local ad sales from the aforementioned areas.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• List of Canadian television channels

[edit] External links

• A Atlantic