Global Television Network
| File:Global2006.png | |
| Type | Broadcast television network |
|---|---|
| Country | |
| Availability | National (available in northern U.S. and also Bermuda via digital cable) |
| Owner | CanWest MediaWorks Inc. (CanWest) |
Key people | Kathleen Dore, President[1] Steve Wyatt, Senior VP of News and Information |
Launch date | January, 1974 |
Former names | CanWest Global System |
Official website | GlobalTV.com |
The Global Television Network (more commonly called Global) is a major English-language television network in Canada, owned by CanWest Global Communications.
History
In the 1970s, a call went out for "third" television stations in several major Canadian cities. A group of investors, led by Al Bruner and Peter Hill, founded Global Communications Ltd. with the idea of building a cross-Canada, all-UHF network. The group had to settle for a six-transmitter network in southern Ontario, stretching from Windsor to Ottawa. The group promised a high level of Canadian content and agreed not to accept local advertising. The new network, called the Global Television Network, launched on January 6, 1974 when CKGN-TV signed on from studios in Don Mills. The station's main transmitter was (and still is) licenced to Paris, but for all intents and purposes it was a Toronto station.
The station soon ran into difficulty, and was purchased by Izzy Asper, a Manitoba politician turned broadcaster. He owned CKND in Winnipeg, which carried many of Global's programs, through his company then known as CanWest Capital. CKGN became CIII in 1984.
Asper went on to launch two stations in Saskatchewan, won a legal battle for a station in British Columbia, and acquired a fledgling system in the Maritimes. Although Asper's regional networks always purchased programming rights as a collective, they did not share common branding, although stations were sometimes indicated as being part of the "CanWest Global System". This ended in 1997, when the Global name was extended across the country. In the same year, Global broadcast in Quebec for the first time, when it acquired the assets of a former CBC affiliate in Quebec City, CKMI-TV, after the CBC took over CKMI's original VHF channel for its own English-language station. Initially a limited partnership with the French-language TVA network, Global Quebec was wholly acquired by the main network in 2002 [2].
In 2000, Global acquired the conventional television assets of Western International Communications (WIC), which owned a regional network in Alberta, and those stations were branded as Global on September 4, 2000. As well, WIC owned the CTV affiliates in Vancouver and Victoria. Since Global already owned a station in Vancouver, ownership of both would contravene the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission guidelines on market penetration. However, the WIC station, CHAN-TV, was much more powerful and highly rated than Global's incumbent CKVU-TV, so Global placed CKVU-TV in trusteeship, kept CHAN as the new Global affiliate, and moved the Victoria station into the CH television system. The CTV affiliation moved to CIVT-TV, which was already owned by CTV but had previously operated as an independent station. CKVU was sold to CHUM Limited.
Although Global network service is not available over-the-air in Newfoundland and Labrador, the independent station there, NTV, airs much of the Global network schedule.
In late 2004, with CTV beginning to dominate the ratings, CanWest reorganized its Canadian operations and hired a number of new executives, all formerly of various U.S. media firms, leading to a major overhaul of Global announced in December 2005. The most obvious change is a new logo, replacing the "crescent" with a new "greater than" logo, with the Global wordmark in a new font, in use as of 6:00 a.m., February 5, 2006 (coinciding with Global's broadcast of Super Bowl XL). New logos and graphics were designed for news and network promotions, and several newscasts received new timeslots and formats. Revised logos for other CanWest entities which use the crescent — namely CH, Prime, Mystery, and DejaView, as well as the company-sponsored CanWest Global Park and CanWest Global Theatre for the Performing Arts, both in Winnipeg — will likely be introduced in the near future.
Since CanWest's purchase of Southam Newspapers (now CanWest News Service) and the National Post from Conrad Black in 2001, their media interests have been merged into Canwest Global under a policy of cross-promotion and synergy. Journalists from the Post and other Canwest papers have made frequent appearances on Global's news programs, passengers on the now-defunct serial drama Train 48 habitually read the Post, and Global programs are promoted in Canwest Global newspapers.
News programming and controversies
Although Global stations had always carried local news in various forms, the first tentative steps towards a national presence came in the mid-1990s with First National with Peter Kent, an early-evening program focusing on national and international news but airing only in central Canada. In 2001, Global replaced First National and the similar WIC newscast Canada Tonight with a new newscast aired on all Global stations, Global National, anchored by Kevin Newman. The program initially aired only on weekdays; in February of 2005, Global National launched a weekend edition anchored by Tara Nelson. After it's first week of airing at an earlier time, Global National has overtaken CTV for the title of highest rated national newscast.
From 1997 to 2006, local newscasts on Global stations had a standard title, Global News. The long-dominant CHAN (BCTV) had been an exception since it joined Global in 2001. In connection with the above-noted rebranding, effective February 6, local newscast titles and timeslots have be standardized, following the BCTV model, as follows. Note that the exact lineup of newscasts and titles varies by station.
- Morning News - weekday mornings
- Saturday/Sunday Morning News - weekend mornings
- Noon News or Noon News Hour - weekdays (or daily) at noon (for 30-minute and 60-minute newscasts respectively)
- Early News - weekdays at 5:00 (5:30 AT)
- Global National - nightly at 5:30 (6:30 AT)
- Evening News or News Hour - nightly at 6:00
- News Final or News Hour Final - nightly at 11:00 (10:30 CT)
Over the network's history, there has been some evidence that Global considers its news coverage subordinate to its usual primetime lineup of entertainment programming. While coverage of some breaking events has increased since the launch of Global National, the network attracted controversy in 2003 when CKND aired its usual programming schedule on the night of the Manitoba provincial election rather than providing any special news programming, and when CIII bumped its Ontario provincial election coverage to CHCH in order to avoid preempting Survivor.
Entertainment programming
Global has built its business on profitable entertainment programming produced in the United States, and has long been criticized for not investing enough in Canadian content. Canadian programming carried on the network, such as a revival of 1960s American science fiction series The Outer Limits, or the Chicago-set drama Zoe Busiek: Wild Card, has often avoided Canadian themes, presumably to focus on sales to United States and foreign cable or syndication markets.
In recent years, Global has aired somewhat more identifiably Canadian entertainment programming, including the long-running finance drama Traders, the British-Canadian animated comedy Bob and Margaret (with a British theme), the nightly improvised drama Train 48 and the reality show My Fabulous Gay Wedding. In 2003, Global signed comedian Mike Bullard, host of the nightly Open Mike with Mike Bullard on CTV and the Comedy Network, to a multi-year contract for a new nightly talk show on Global, but The Mike Bullard Show was cancelled after 60 episodes amid poor ratings.
Global recently purchased the rights to produce a Canadian edition of the popular entertainment magazine Entertainment Tonight; ET Canada launched on September 12, 2005. It also secured Canadian production rights to the American reality series The Apprentice, but there is no word on when, or if, a Canadian version will air.
Hit American shows currently airing on Global include first-run episodes of Survivor, The Simpsons, and Prison Break. The network often adds the phrase "on Global" following the title during programs' opening credits.
Global profits due to Canada's simultaneous substitution law, which allows the owner of content to control programming rights for that show in Canada. So when an American broadcast network is broadcasting the same show at the same time that Global is (such as Survivor), Canadian cable subscribers can only watch the Global Television broadcast, even when trying to view the American stations. This law gives them double exposure for their content and a larger share of advertising revenue, effectively blocking American border cities from access to the Canadian market. This was done to help give money to the networks to fund Canadian content development.
In October 2004, Global started airing select American programmes in Widescreen HDTV, but it currently has no intention of producing in that format.
Global cross-promotes heavily with other CanWest properties, most frequently CH in the growing number of markets where both services operate in parallel.
Global stations
- CHAN (Vancouver, British Columbia)
- CITV (Edmonton, Alberta)
- CICT (Calgary, Alberta)
- CISA (Lethbridge, Alberta)
- CFRE (Regina, Saskatchewan)
- CFSK (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan)
- CKND (Winnipeg, Manitoba)
- CIII (licensed to Paris, Ontario, operations in Toronto)
- CKMI (licensed to Quebec City, Quebec, operations in Montreal)
- CIHF (Halifax, Nova Scotia)
Most of these stations serve their entire province through a network of relay stations as a part of the key station's license, although some of their transmitters may air separate advertising targeted to their local community.
CH system
Global also maintains a second system of independent stations, branded as CH. They are permitted to share a limited amount of programming with Global-branded stations, but presently do so very rarely. The CH stations are:
- CHEK (Victoria, British Columbia)
- CHCA (Red Deer, Alberta)
- CHCH (Hamilton, Ontario)
- CJNT (Montreal, Quebec)
CHBC in Kelowna, British Columbia is expected to disaffiliate from the CBC and join the CH system later in 2006.
Slogans
Footnotes
- ^ Dore's full title is President, Radio and Television, CanWest MediaWorks (i.e. head of CanWest's Canadian broadcasting operations). There is no individual head of the Global network.