CTV Television Network (commonly referred to as CTV) is a Canadian English language television network, owned by Bell Media, which is a subsidiary of BCE Inc.. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently 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.^[1]

Bell Media also operates additional CTV-branded properties, including CTV's 24-hour national cable news channel (CTV News Channel) and the secondary CTV Two television system.

There has never been a full name for the initials "CTV". However, it is generally assumed to mean "Canadian Television", which was used in a promotional campaign by the network in 1998.

History[link]

Formation[link]

In 1958, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker's government passed a new Broadcasting Act, establishing the Board of Broadcast Governors (forerunner to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, or CRTC) as the governing body of Canadian broadcasting, thus ending the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's (CBC) dual role as regulator and broadcaster. The new board's first act was to take applications for "second" television stations in Halifax, Montreal (in both English and French), 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 (O&Os).

The nine winners, in order of their first sign-on, were:

• CFCN-TV Calgary (September 9, 1960)
• CHAN-TV Vancouver (October 31, 1960)
• CJAY-TV Winnipeg (November 12, 1960)
• CFTO-TV Toronto (January 1, 1961)
• CJCH-TV Halifax (January 1, 1961)
• CFCF-TV Montreal (English) (January 20, 1961)
• CFTM-TV Montreal (French) (February 19, 1961)
• CJOH-TV Ottawa (March 12, 1961)
• CBXT-TV Edmonton (October 1, 1961)

The first eight stations were privately owned; the Edmonton station was a CBC O&O, meaning that the existing station in that city, CFRN-TV, would lose its CBC affiliation once CBXT signed on.

Even before his station was licensed, John Bassett, the chief executive of the ultimately-successful Toronto applicant Baton Aldred Rogers Broadcasting,^[2] had expressed interest in participating in the creation of a second television network, "of which we see the Toronto station as anchor".^[3] 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.^[3] This led to the July 1960 formation of the Independent Television Organization (ITO), consisting of all eight of the newly-licensed private stations, plus CFRN. Each station would have a single vote in the ITO's operations, regardless of the size of the station's audience. (CFTM, being a French-language station and thus having little reason to collaborate with the other stations, would soon withdraw from the group; it would later emerge as the flagship of the first private French-language network, TVA.) The ITO soon resolved to apply for a network licence to link these second stations.^[4]

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 (who at the time also served as the president of the University of Alberta) – was not in favour of a station-owned network, fearing that the Toronto station would eventually come to dominate it. 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.^[5]

That fall, the Caldwell group (now named the Canadian Television Network, or CTN) 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.^[6]

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.^[7] 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 (assuming the public network released its affiliates to carry the game).^[8] Although the plan was never 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.^[9] 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.^[10][11]

Early years[link]

The network finally launched as the CTV Television Network on October 1, 1961.^{[12][13][nb 1]} 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.^[19]

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.^[12]

CTV's initial 1961–1962 season began with the following programs, five of which were Canadian productions:^[12]

1. The Andy Griffith Show (United States, CBS)
2. Checkmate (United States, CBS)
3. Cross Canada Barndance (Canada)
4. Maigret (United Kingdom, BBC)
5. The Rifleman (United States, ABC)
6. Showdown (Canada)
7. Sing Along With Mitch (United States NBC)
8. Take a Chance, a quiz show by Roy Ward Dickson adapted from radio (Canada)
9. Top Cat (United States, ABC)
10. Twenty Questions (Canada)
11. West Coast (Canada)
12. Whiplash (Australia, ATN-7)

Other series such as Telepoll and A Kin to Win were introduced later in the inaugural season.

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.^[13] 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.^[20] In many cases, CTV found itself competing with its own stations for the rights to programming.

Becoming a broadcasting powerhouse[link]

Caldwell's departure in 1965^[21] did little to alleviate the situation, and CTV soon found itself of the verge of bankruptcy. In 1966, the network's affiliates (which by this time included CJON-TV in St. John's, CKCO-TV in Kitchener, CHAB/CHRE in Moose Jaw/Regina, and the network's first and only U.S. affiliate, WNYP-TV in Jamestown, New York) sought permission to buy the network and run it as a cooperative. The board readily approved the proposal, and by the start of the 1966-67 season, the stations (except WNYP, which dropped CTV in 1969) owned their network.^[22] The network also began broadcasting in colour on September 1, 1966.^[22]

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 1968 (and eventually recalled CBKT), allowing Regina's original station, CKCK-TV, to join CTV.

CTV made a name for itself in news coverage when it convinced star CBC news anchor Lloyd Robertson to switch networks in 1976.^[23] (Robertson served as the network's main anchorman until 2011.) The network also has the country's longest-running national morning news show, Canada AM. Its weekly newsmagazine series, W-FIVE, has been a fixture on the network since 1966,^[24] predating the similar American program 60 Minutes by two years.

In the late 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", and the game show Definition used Quincy Jones' "Soul Bossa Nova" (later seasons of Definition used another theme).

Baton takes over[link]

In the mid-1980s, Baton Broadcasting, owners of flagship CFTO in Toronto, began a drive to take over CTV by buying as many affiliates as possible. Having already bought CFQC-TV in Saskatoon in 1971^[25], Baton purchased the following stations between 1986 and 1990:

• 1986: CKCK Regina; CICC-TV Yorkton, Saskatchewan; CIPA-TV Prince Albert, Saskatchewan
• 1988: CJOH Ottawa
• 1990: MCTV in northern Ontario (CICI-TV Sudbury, CKNY-TV North Bay, CITO-TV Timmins, CHBX-TV Sault Ste. Marie)

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.^[26] As a result, even though it owned 11 of CTV's 24 affiliates, Baton only had one vote out of eight. Nor were there any retroactive changes when CTV was restructured in 1994 (although Newfoundland Broadcasting, owner of CJON, decided to effectively relinquish its vote, reducing the number of votes to seven).

In 1994, CTV converted from a cooperative to a corporation, with the station owners as shareholders. Shares were distributed based on how much of Canada each owner covered.

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. Electrohome allowed Baton to control its vote. The following year, Baton acquired both Electrohome's share of the joint venture and CHUM Limited's CTV-affiliated system in the Maritimes, ATV. This gave Baton controlling interest in the network, triggering a put option allowing the remaining affiliates to sell their CTV shares 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 Baton Broadcast System (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 (it replaced the third, CHAN, as discussed below).

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 (then known as ATV), and the four Northern Ontario stations, known collectively as CTV Northern Ontario (then known as MCTV), each had their local news production cut back in the early 2000s to one centrally produced single 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.

Recent history[link]

In 2000, typical of the ownership consolidation trend at the time, Bell Canada acquired CTV, NetStar Communications and The Globe and Mail newspaper, combining them into a media division known as Bell Globemedia. BGM also subsequently acquired a minority share in the French-language network TQS, which broadcasts in Quebec.

CTV has legally been a "television service" in the eyes of the CRTC since 2000, when it allowed its network licence to expire.^[27] CBC, Radio-Canada, TVA and Aboriginal Peoples Television Network are the only official television networks in Canada. (CTV was issued a separate network licence in 2001 in order to continue to provide programming to CHFD Thunder Bay, CJBN Kenora and CITL Lloydminster.^[28][29])

CTV lost significant coverage in British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador at the beginning of the 21st century, starting with a major TV realignment in Vancouver. In 2000, Canwest Global bought the television stations of Western International Communications, which owned charter CTV affiliates CHAN in Vancouver and CHEK-TV in Victoria. A year later, after its CTV contract ran out, Canwest made CHAN the Global owned-and-operated station for BC, taking advantage of CHAN's massive network of repeaters that cover 97% of the province. CTV shifted its programming to CIVT-TV, an independent station it already owned. Unlike CHAN, CIVT has only one transmitter covering the metropolitan areas of Vancouver and Victoria, and has to rely on cable and satellite to reach the rest of the province. CIVT is either carried on a higher channel number or unavailable altogether in the Mountain Time Zone portion of British Columbia, where CTV relies on CFCN or CFRN as its main carriers.

Meanwhile, in 2002, CJON-TV (NTV) in St. John's dropped its CTV affiliation after CTV attempted to alter its affiliation agreement in a way that Geoff Stirling and Newfoundland Broadcasting found unfair. For 38 years, CJON had aired the base CTV schedule essentially for free since CTV paid it for the airtime. The station then bought additional CTV programming and sold all advertising. However, CTV tried to make CJON pay for the base schedule as well, with no possibility of airtime payments. It also increased the fees for additional CTV programming beyond what CJON claimed it could pay. Newfoundland Broadcasting also did not want to continue to carry CTV's national advertising during these programs. At the start of the 2002-03 season, CJON became an independent station and dropped most CTV programming except for CTV's national newscasts; in exchange it provides news coverage of Newfoundland and Labrador events to CTV. In recent years, all of CTV's non-news programming has disappeared from the station, and since then virtually all primetime programs aired on that station are from rival Global. CTV does not currently have a de facto affiliate in that province, restricting some of its programming to cable and satellite only.

In September 2005, CTV announced an alliance with MTV Networks that saw the launch of MTV Canada.

In July 2006, CTV parent Bell Globemedia announced plans to acquire CHUM Limited, itself a former partner in CTV (via ATV), and at that point one of Canada's largest broadcasters. While CTVglobemedia kept CHUM's radio stations along with the A-Channel television stations and all of CHUM's specialty channels, the Citytv stations were sold off as required by the conditions the CRTC placed upon CTV when approving the CHUM purchase.

Bell Globemedia was renamed CTVglobemedia on January 1, 2007. In March 2009, CTV became the first Canadian television network to offer its programming online in high definition.^[30]

CTV affiliate CHFD in Thunder Bay, Ontario left the network on February 12, 2010 after being unable to reach an agreement on new affiliation terms; CHFD instead became a full-time Global affiliate. CFTO was offered as part of the basic package to Thunder Bay cable subscribers for the duration of the 2010 Winter Olympics; the station has since been available only on the digital cable timeshifting package, leaving CTV without a presence on basic cable in the market.

On December 1, 2011, CJBN-TV in Kenora, Ontario dropped all CTV programming and became a full Global station, adopting a schedule similar to nearby Global station CKND-DT in Winnipeg. The move leaves CITL-DT in Lloydminster as the sole remaining CTV affiliate not owned by the network.^[31][32]

Programming[link]

The network's programming consists mainly of hit American series (such as The Amazing Race, The Big Bang Theory, Blue Bloods, Castle, CSI, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, Dancing with the Stars, Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, The Mentalist, Unforgettable and The X Factor), but it has also had success with Canadian-made shows such as Due South, Power Play, Degrassi: The Next Generation, Corner Gas, Instant Star, The Eleventh Hour, Flashpoint, The Listener and Canadian Idol. CTV also regularly produces and airs Canadian-made television movies, often based on stories from Canadian news or Canadian history, under the banners CTV Signature Series or CTV Movie.

News programming consists of the nightly CTV National News, morning program Canada AM, local newscasts branded as CTV News, and newsmagazines W-Five and Question Period, which interviews politicians and recaps political events during the week.

As well, in recent years, CTV has purchased Canadian broadcast rights to a number of American cable series, such as The Sopranos, Nip/Tuck, Punk'd, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report and The Osbournes. In many cases, CTV has been one of the few conventional broadcast networks in the world to air these series in prime time, which has attracted some controversy from Canadian media watchdogs and parents groups who object to the profanity, violence and sexual content of Nip/Tuck, The Sopranos and The Osbournes — which, unlike originating broadcaster MTV, CTV aired uncensored. It has broadcast MTV programming live, starting with the MTV's New Year of Music special during New Year's 2005/2006.

In late 2003, CTV started broadcasting select American programmes in 16:9 (widescreen) HDTV. It later began airing Canadian programs in this format, such as Degrassi. Currently only CFTO and CIVT have dedicated HDTV feeds (sometimes marketed as CTV HD East and West respectively), but both are available nationally via cable and satellite, and do not differ otherwise from their analog counterparts.

In early 2005, CTV was part of the consortium that won the Canadian broadcast rights to Canada's Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics and the London 2012 Summer Olympics. CBC had consistently won Olympic broadcast rights from the 1996 Summer Olympics through to the 2008 Summer Olympics. CTV and V (formerly TQS) were the primary broadcasters, with TSN, RDS and Sportsnet providing supplementary coverage. CTV has promised to broadcast 22 hours per day during the 2012 Olympics, regular CTV programming is expected to be reallocated to CTV's secondary coventional network, CTV Two during the olympics.

On July 2, 2005, CTV broadcast 20 hours of the Live 8 concerts, which was watched by over 10.5 million people — nearly one-third the country's population — at some point during the day; however, the average audience was much lower. According to at least one source, it was the most-watched program by this standard in Canadian history.

On May 22, 2007, it was announced that CTV had acquired the broadcast rights to the National Football League early-afternoon Sunday games, the full NFL playoffs, and the Super Bowl, starting with the 2007 NFL season,^[33] effectively ending a lengthy association between the NFL and Global. TSN, a sports channel co-owned with CTV, airs prime-time NFL games and produces the CTV broadcasts in tandem with CBS and Fox.

On June 27, 2007, CTV and The Comedy Network gained exclusive Canadian rights to the entire Comedy Central library of past and current programs on all electronic platforms, under a multi-year agreement with Viacom, expanding on past programming agreements between the two channels. Canadian users attempting to visit Comedy Central websites will be redirected to TCN's website, and vice versa for American users. The Canadian channel will keep its own brand name, but the agreement is otherwise very similar to the earlier CTV/Viacom deal for MTV Canada.^[34]

On September 10, 2010, Bell Canada Enterprises announced it would purchase the remaining shares of CTVglobemedia for $1.3 billion (CAD). On April 1, 2011, CTVglobemedia was officially renamed Bell Media.

CTV high-definition and digital transition[link]

CTV carries their high definition television feed in the 1080i format. The following CTV stations are available in high-definition and digital over-the-air:

On November 19, 2003, CTV launched an HD simulcast of its Toronto station CFTO, with the over-the-air feed going on the air in 2005. CTV has since launched HD simulcasts of CIVT Vancouver on June 1, 2004 (the OTA feed followed suit in 2006), CFCN Calgary on January 8, 2009, CFCF Montreal on December 1, 2009 (OTA feed followed suit on January 28, 2011), CJOH Ottawa on December 1, 2009 (BDU only), CFRN Edmonton in January 2011, CKY Winnipeg in February 2011, and CJCH Halifax on May 11, 2011.

Local newscasts in high definition[link]

Effective May 12, 2009, CFTO-TV became the first station in the CTV network to broadcast its local newscasts in high definition. The first station in Canada to broadcast its local newscasts in high definition was CITY-TV. CTV-owned CIVT-TV followed, becoming the second station in the CTV network to broadcast its local newscasts in high definition as of November 23, 2009.

CTV stations[link]

CTV owned-and-operated stations[link]

As of mid-October 2005, all CTV-owned and operated stations have adopted a single on-air brand of CTV, rather than use their official callsigns or channel numbers on-air (although some stations, most notably CIVT, promote their cable channel number). When further differentiation is needed, for example during regional programming, the city or region they serve (e.g., CTV Ottawa, CTV British Columbia) may be used as well. Under CRTC regulations, however, the callsign is still the station's legal name.

Note:

1) Italicized channel numbers indicate a digital channel allocated for future use by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

Regional affiliate[link]

Former affiliates[link]

Special cases[link]

• St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador - CJON (NTV): no longer affiliated with CTV, but still carries CTV's newscasts and specials.
• Oldsmar, Florida, United States - WZRA-CA: low-powered station in the Tampa Bay area that carries CTV news programming.

CTV Two[link]

Since the 2007 acquisition of A-Channel by CTVglobemedia as part of the takeover of CHUM Limited, media analysts had speculated that CTV may potentially extend its market-leading CTV brand to that network. It was first rebranded as "A" in 2008, then as "CTV Two" on August 29, 2011.

CTV Two currently consists of four over-the-air O&Os in Ontario and one in British Columbia, as well as regional cable-only channels in Atlantic Canada and Alberta, providing complementary programming which have smaller audiences than those on the mainline CTV network.

Slogans and logos[link]

• 1961–1966: "This is CTV"
• 1966–1967: "The Colour Network"
• 1967–1974: "It's Happening on CTV"
• 1968–1969: "Pleasure Isle" (TV promos only)
• 1974–1985: "For Those Who Want It All"
• 1985–1987: "CTV Entertains You"
• 1987–1988: "You'll See it All on CTV"
• 1988–1989: "The Choice of Canadians"
• 1989–1990: "Watch Yourself on CTV"
• 1990–1994: "Tuned In To You"
• 1994–1997: "This Is CTV"
• 1997–2005: "Canadian Television"
• 2003–2005: "Canada's Watching" (alternate slogan)
• 2005–2009: "Canada's #1 Network"
• 2009–2010: "Canada's Olympic Network"
• 2010–present: "Naturally CTV"

The network's original logo was an oval-shaped letter "C", the inside shaped like a television tube. Contained within the C were the initials "CTV". In 1966, colour programming was ushered in with a new logo, depicting a red circle containing the initial "C", a blue square with "T", and a green inverted triangle with "V".^[22] This logo has been used, albeit with minor variations, ever since. For the 1967–68 season, the letters "CTV" were rounded and easier to see, with the "base/TV" graphic added later.

In 1998, CTV introduced a new "ribbons" identity that has remained in use, with various minor adjustments, ever since. Initially, CTV used the three colored ribbons and shapes of its logo to represent its different divisions. In network branding, the red ribbon and sphere represented entertainment programming, the blue ribbon and cube represented news programming, and the green ribbon and cone referred to sports programming.^[35]

Following the acquisition of TSN in 2001, sports programming on CTV adopted a variant of TSN's then-new ESPN-style branding, which was predominantly a darker red. The green colour has not been used for a specific purpose since then, apart from some pre-2001 network identifications that are re-used for specific occasions (such as a golf-themed ident typically used on Father's Day). The ribbons were given a 3D appearance on August 2011.^[36][37] As of January 1, 2012, CTV reinstated its olympic rings below its logo on-air to bear the official network for the 2012 summer olympics.

• CTVoriginallogo.svg

  CTV's original logo (1961–1966)

• CTV 1966 Logo.svg

  Original version of CTV's geometrical shape logo (1966–unknown); later literations were closer to the 1998–present version

• CTV logo.svg

  CTV's current logo (1998–present)

See also[link]

• Simultaneous substitution
• List of CTV prime time schedules by decade
• List of CTV personalities
• Media in Canada
• CTV Sports

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Gittins, Susan (1999). CTV: The Television Wars. Toronto: Stoddart Publishing Co. Ltd.. ISBN 0-7737-3125-3. 

External links[link]

• CTV
• History of CTV Television Network at Canadian Communications Foundation
• http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2011/2011-444.htm

v t e Broadcast television networks and systems in Canada English-language commercial CBC • Citytv • CTV • CTV Two • Global French-language commercial Radio-Canada • TVA • V Multicultural APTN • Omni Religious CTS • Joytv Defunct A-Channel (Craig Media) • BBS • E! • MCTV • Northern Television • Pathonic See also: Legislative channels, Educational channels and List of television stations in Canada v t e Additional resources on North American television North America List of local television stations in North America DTV transition North American TV mini-template Canada Canadian networks List of Canadian television channels Table Local Canadian TV stations List of United States stations available in Canada 2001 Vancouver TV realignment 2007 Canada broadcast TV realignment Mexico Mexican networks Local Mexican TV stations United States American networks List of American cable and satellite networks List of American over-the-air networks Local American TV stations (W) Local American TV stations (K) Fox affiliate switches of 1994 2006 United States broadcast TV realignment List of Canadian television stations available in the United States Insular Areas TV

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A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small number of broadcast networks. Many early television networks (e.g. the BBC, NBC or CBS) evolved from earlier radio networks.

In countries where most networks broadcast identical, centrally originated content to all their stations and where most individual TV transmitters therefore operate only as large "repeater stations", the terms "television network", "television channel" (a numeric identifier or radio frequency), and "television station" have become mostly interchangeable in everyday language, with professionals in TV-related occupations continuing to make a difference between them. Within the industry, a tiering is sometimes created among groups of networks based on whether their programming is simultaneously originated from a central point, and whether the network master control has the technical and administrative capability to take-over the programming of their affiliates in real-time when it deems this necessary — the most common example being national breaking news events.

In North America in particular, many television networks available via cable and satellite television are branded as "channels" because they are somewhat different than traditional networks in the sense defined above, as they are singular operations – they have no affiliates or component stations, but instead are distributed to the public via cable or direct-broadcast satellite companies. Such networks are commonly referred to by terms such as "specialty channels" in Canada or "cable networks" in the U.S.

A network may or may not produce all of its own programming. If not, production houses such as Warner Bros. and Sony Pictures can distribute their content to the different networks, and it is common that a certain production house may have programs on two or more rival networks. Similarly, some networks may import television programs from other countries, or use archival programming to help complement their schedules.

Some stations have the capability to interrupt the network through the local insertion of TV commercials, station IDs, and emergency alerts. Others completely break away from the network for their own programming, known as regional variation. This is common where small networks are members of larger networks. The majority of commercial television stations are self-owned, even though a variety of these instances are the property of a Owned And Operated television network. The commercial television stations can also be linked with a non-commercial educational broadcasting agency. It is also important to note that some countries have installed nationwide television networks, so that individual television stations can act as common repeaters of nationwide programs.

The majority of commercial television stations are self-owned, even though a variety of these instances are the property of a Owned And Operated television network. The commercial television stations can also be linked with a non-commercial educational broadcasting agency. It is also important to note that some countries have installed nationwide television networks, so that individual television stations can act as common repeaters of nationwide programs. On the other hand, televisions networks also undergo the impending experience of major changes related to cultural varieties. The emergence of cable television network has made available in major media markets on television, programs aimed at American bi-cultural Latinos. Such a diverse captive audience presents an occasion for the networks and affiliates to advertise the best programming that needs to be aired. This is explained by author Tim P. Vos in his abstract “A Cultural Explanation of Early Broadcast” where he determines Targeted group/non-targeted group representations and also the cultural specificity employed in the television network entity. He notes: Policymakers did not expressly intend to create a broadcast order dominated by commercial networks. In fact, legislative attempts were made to limit the network’s preferred position.

As to individual stations, modern network operations centers usually use broadcast automation to handle most tasks. These systems are not only used for Broadcast programming and for video server play-out, but use exact atomic time from GPS or other sources to maintain perfect synchronization with upstream and downstream systems, so that programming appears seamless to audience viewers.

Global[link]

A major international television network is the British Broadcasting Corporation, or BBC which is perhaps most well known for its news agency BBC News. Owned by the Crown, the BBC operates primarily in the United Kingdom. It is funded by the television licence paid by British residents that watch broadcast TV and as a result, no commercial advertising appears on their networks. Outside of the UK, advertising is shown because the licence fee only applies to the BBC's British operations. 23,000 people worldwide are employed by the BBC and its subsidiary, BBC Worldwide.

United States[link]

Television in the United States has long been dominated by the Big Three television networks, ABC, CBS and NBC, but Fox, launched in 1986, has gained prominence and is now considered as part of the "Big Four." The Big Three provide a significant amount of television programs to each of their affiliates, including newscasts, prime-time, daytime television and sports television, but still have periods each day when each affiliate can air local programming, such as local news or syndicated programmes. Since the creation of Fox, the number of American television networks has grown, but the amount of programming they provide is often much less: for example, The CW Television Network only broadcasts for ten hours each week, leaving its affiliates free to broadcast a large amount of syndicated programming. Other networks are dedicated to specialist programmes, such as religious broadcasting or services in languages other than English, especially in Spanish.

The largest television network in the United States, however, is the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), a non-profit, non-commercial educational, publicly owned service. In comparison to the commercial television networks, there is no central unified arm of broadcast programming, meaning that each PBS affiliate has a significant amount of freedom to schedule television shows as they consent to.

Some public television such as Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) carry separate digital network through affiliates such as Georgia Public Broadcasting stations. In fact some programs from PBS were branded on other channels as GPB Kids, and PBS World. The way this works is by having each network sending its signal to many local affiliate television stations across the country. These local stations then air the "network feed," and millions of households across the country tune in. In the case of the largest networks, the signal is sent to over 200 stations. In the case of the smallest networks, the signal may be sent to just a dozen or fewer stations.

The way this works is by having each network sending its signal to many local affiliate television stations across the country. These local stations then air the "network feed," and millions of households across the country tune in. In the case of the largest networks, the signal is sent to over 200 stations. In the case of the smallest networks, the signal may be sent to just a dozen or fewer stations.

With the digital terrestrial television and the mandated DTV transition in the United States, several television networks have been created specifically to be transmitted on the digital subchannels of TV stations. These include Ion Life (which is almost always paired with Ion Television as most of the stations are network-owned), and ThisTV (which is carried on an assortment of unrelated stations).

Providers of pay TV generally on cable television pay the networks a certain amount per subscriber (the highest charge being for ESPN). Direct-broadcast satellite company can sell local television commercials, in which case there may be revenue sharing. Networks that consist entirely of home shopping or infomercials may instead pay the station or cable/satellite provider, which is known as brokered programming. This is especially common with low-power TV stations, and now even more so for the ones that are using this income to make the forced conversion to digital, which in turn provides them with several extra channels to transmit different program sources on.

History[link]

Television broadcasting in the United States was heavily influenced by radio, a precursor to television. Early individual experimental radio stations in the United States began limited operations in the 1910s. In November 1920, in Pittsburgh, Westinghouse launched "the world's first commercially licensed radio station", KDKA.^[1] Other companies built early radio stations in Detroit, Boston, New York City, and other areas. Radio stations received permission to transmit through broadcast licenses obtained through the Federal Radio Commission (FRC), a government entity created in 1926 to regulate the radio industry. With few exceptions, radio stations east of the Mississippi River received official call signs beginning with the letter W; those west of the Mississippi a K. The amount of programs these early stations aired was often limited, in part due to the expense of program creation. The idea of a network system which would distribute programming to many stations simultaneously, saving each station the expense of creating all of its own programs and expanding the total coverage beyond the limits of a single broadcast signal, was devised.

NBC set up the first permanent coast-to-coast radio network in the United States by 1928, using dedicated telephone line technology. The network physically linked individual radio stations, nearly all of which were independent radio owned and operated station, in a vast chain, NBC's audio signal thus transmitted from station to station to listeners across the United States. Other companies, including CBS and Mutual, soon followed suit, each network signing hundreds of individual stations on as affiliates: stations which agreed to broadcast one network's programs.

As radio prospered throughout the 1920s and 1930s, experimental television stations, which broadcast both an audio and a video signal, began sporadic broadcasts. Experimental television station broadcast license were often granted to experienced radio broadcasters, and thus advances in television technology closely followed breakthroughs in radio technology. As interest in television grew, and as early television stations began regular broadcasts, the idea of networking television signals (sending one station's video and audio signal to outlying stations) was born. However, the signal from an electronic television system, containing much more information than a radio signal (6 MHz), required a broadband transmission medium. Transmission by a nationwide series of radio relay towers would be possible but extremely expensive.

Researchers at the AT&T subsidiary Bell Telephone Laboratories patented coaxial cable in 1929, primarily as a telephone improvement device. Its high capacity (transmitting 240 telephone calls simultaneously) also made it ideal for long-distance television transmission, where it could handle a frequency band of 1 megahertz.^[2] German television first demonstrated such an application in 1936 by relaying televised telephone calls from Berlin to Leipzig, 180 km (110 mi) away, by cable.^[3]

AT&T laid the first L-carrier coaxial cable between New York and Philadelphia, with automatic signal booster stations every 10 miles (16 km), and in 1937 they experimented with transmitting televised motion pictures over the line.^[4] Bell Labs gave demonstrations of the New York–Philadelphia television link in 1940–1941. AT&T used the coaxial link to transmit the Republican national convention in June 1940 from Philadelphia to New York City, where it was televised to a few hundred receivers over the NBC station.^[5]

NBC had earlier demonstrated an inter-city television broadcast on February 1, 1940, from its station in New York City to another in Schenectady, New York by General Electric relay antennas, and began transmitting some programs on an irregular basis to Philadelphia and Schenectady in 1941. Wartime priorities suspended the manufacture of television and radio equipment for civilian use from April 1, 1942 to October 1, 1945, temporarily shutting down expansion of television networking. However, in 1944 a short film, "Patrolling the Ether", was broadcast simultaneously over three stations as an experiment.

The DuMont Television Network in 1949. DuMont's network of stations stretched from Boston to St. Louis. These stations were linked together via AT&T's coaxial cable feed, allowing the network to broadcast live television programming to all the stations at the same time. Stations not yet connected received kinescope recordings via physical delivery.

The DuMont Television Network logo.

AT&T made its first postwar addition in February 1946, with the completion of a 225-mile (362 km) cable between New York City and Washington, D.C., although a blurry demonstration broadcast showed that it would not be in regular use for several months. The DuMont Television Network, which had begun experimental broadcasts before the war, launched what Newsweek called "the country's first permanent commercial television network" on August 15, 1946, connecting New York with Washington.^[6] Not to be outdone, NBC launched what it called "the world's first regularly operating television network" on June 27, 1947, serving New York, Philadelphia, Schenectady and Washington.^[7] Baltimore and Boston were added to the NBC television network in late 1947. DuMont and NBC would be joined by CBS and ABC in 1948.

In the 1940s, the term "chain broadcasting" was used when discussing network broadcasts,^[8] as the television stations were linked together in long chains along the East Coast. But as the television networks expanded westward, the interconnected television stations formed great television networks of connected affiliate television stations. In January 1949, with the signon of DuMont's WDTV in Pittsburgh, the midwest and east-coast networks were finally connected by coaxial cable (with WDTV showing the best shows of all four networks)[1]. By 1951, the four networks stretched from coast to coast, carried on the new microwave radio relay network of AT&T Long Lines. Only a few local TV stations remained independent of the networks.

Originally, each of the four major television networks only broadcast a few hours of programs a week to their affiliate stations, mostly between the hours of 7 and 10 PM when most viewers were watching television. Most of a television station's programs were still locally produced. As the networks increased the number of programs they aired, however, officials at the Federal Communications Commission grew concerned that local television might disappear altogether. Eventually, the federal regulator enacted the Prime Time Access Rule, which restricted the amount of time that the networks could air programs; officials hoped the rules would foster the development of quality local programs, but in practice, most local stations did not want to bear the burden of producing many of their own programs, and instead chose to purchase programs from independent producers. Sales of television programs to individual local stations is called broadcast syndication, and today nearly every television station in the United States obtains syndicated programs in addition to network-produced fare.

The Fox Broadcasting Company network, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, was launched on October 9, 1986 after the company purchased the television assets of Metromedia. In the 2006–2007 television season, The CW Television Network was launched by the merger of The WB Television Network and the UPN network.

Late in the 20th century, cross-country microwave radio relays were replaced by fixed-service satellites. Some terrestrial radio relays remained in service for regional connections.

Regulation[link]

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations in the United States restricted the number of television stations that could be owned by any one network, company or individual (Concentration of media ownership). This led to a system where most local television stations were independently owned, but received programming from the network through a franchising contract, except in a few big cities that had network owned-and-operated stations (O&O) and independent stations. In the early days of television, when there were often only one or two stations broadcasting in an area, the stations were usually affiliated with several networks and were able to choose which television programs to air. Eventually, as more stations were licensed, it became common for each station to be affiliated with only one network and carry all of the "prime-time" network programs. Local stations occasionally break from regularly scheduled network broadcast programming however, especially when there is local breaking news (e.g. severe weather). Moreover, when stations return to network programming from commercial breaks, the station identification is displayed in the first few seconds before switching to the network's logo.

Another FCC regulation, the Prime Time Access Rule, restricted the number of hours of network programming that could be broadcast on the local affiliate stations. This was done to encourage the development of local programming, and to give local residents access to broadcast time. More often, the result included a substantial amount of syndicated programming, usually consisting of old movies, independently produced and syndicated shows, and reruns of network programs. Occasionally, these shows were presented by a local host, especially in programs that showed cartoons and short comedies intended for children. See list of local children's television series (United States).

Canada[link]

A number of different definitions of "network" are used by government agencies, industry, and the general public.

Under the Broadcasting Act, a network is defined as "any operation where control over all or any part of the programs or program schedules of one or more broadcasting undertakings is delegated to another undertaking or person"^[9] and must be licensed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

Only four national over-the-air television networks are currently licensed by the CRTC: the government-owned CBC (English) and Radio-Canada (French), French-language private network TVA, and a network focused on Canada's indigenous peoples, APTN. A third French-language service, V, is licensed as a provincial network within Quebec, but not nationally.

Currently, licensed national or provincial networks must be carried by all cable systems (in the country or province, respectively) with a service area above a certain population threshold, as well as all satellite providers. However, they are no longer necessarily expected to achieve over-the-air coverage in all areas (APTN, for example, only has terrestrial coverage in parts of northern Canada).

In addition to these licensed networks, the two main private English-language over-the-air services, CTV and Global, are also generally considered to be "networks" by virtue of their national coverage, although they are not officially licensed as such. CTV was previously a licensed network, but relinquished this licence in 2001 after acquiring most of its affiliates, making operating a network licence essentially redundant (per the above definition).

Smaller groups of stations with common branding are often categorized by industry watchers as television systems, although the public and the broadcasters themselves will often refer to them as "networks" regardless. Some of these systems, such as CTV Two, Citytv, and the now-defunct E!, essentially operate as mini-networks, but have reduced geographical coverage. Others, such as Omni or CTS, have similar branding and a common programming focus, but schedules may vary significantly from one station to the next.

Most local television stations in Canada are now owned and operated directly by their network, with only a very few affiliates still operating.

Europe, Asia, Africa and South America[link]

This section's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. Please help improve the article by updating it. There may be additional information on the talk page. (October 2009)

Most television services outside North America are national networks established by a combination of publicly funded broadcasters and commercial broadcasters.^{[citation needed]} Most nations established television networks in a similar way: the first television service in each country was operated by a public broadcaster, often funded by a TV licensing fee, and most of them later established a second or even third station providing a greater variety of content. Commercial television services also became available when private companies applied for television broadcasting licenses. Often, each new network would be identified with their channel number, so that individual stations would often be numbered One, Two, Three, and so forth.

United Kingdom[link]

The first television network in the United Kingdom was provided by the BBC, but commercial broadcasting was established in order to create a second television network. Rather than creating a single network with local stations owned and operated by a single company (as is the case with the BBC), each local area had a separate television station independently owned and operated, although most of these stations shared a number of programmes. Gradually, each of these stations formed the ITV Network.

When UHF television allowed a greater number of television stations to broadcast, the BBC launched a second network, BBC Two (and the original service was later renamed BBC One). A fourth nationwide commercial network was launched, Channel 4, although Wales introduced a Welsh-language service instead, S4C. A fifth network, currently called Channel 5, was later launched. Since the introduction of digital television, the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 each introduced a number of digital-only channels. The large amount of remaining channels are operated by satellite and virgin media cable only BSkyB and free to view UKTV who operate a number of channels including Dave, GOLD, Watch, yesterday and other more specific channels

Netherlands[link]

Until 1989, Netherlands Public Broadcasting was the only television network in the Netherlands, with three stations, Nederland 1, Nederland 2 and Nederland 3. Rather than having a single production arm, there are a number of public broadcasting organizations that create programming for each of the three stations, each working relatively independently. Commercial broadcasting in the Netherlands is currently operated by two networks, RTL Nederland and SBS Broadcasting, which together broadcast seven commercial stations.

Russia[link]

Soviet era[link]

The first television network of Soviet Union appeared on 4 November 1967 when the Channel One of USSR Central Television became all-union one. Until 1989 there were six TV channels, all owned by the USSR Gosteleradio. This changed during Gorbachev's Perestroika when the first independent television network, 2×2, was launched.

1990s[link]

Following a breakup of the Soviet Union, USSR Gosteleradio ceased to exist as well as its six channels. Only Channel One had a smooth transition to the Ostankino Channel One and the network itself survived. The other 5 networks were Ground Zero. This free airwave space allowed many private television networks like NTV and TV-6 to appear in the mid-1990s.

2000s[link]

2000s were marked by the increased state intervention in Russian Television. On 14 April 2001 NTV television channel had its management changed following the expulsion of former oligarch and the founder of NTV Vladimir Gusinsky. As a result most of the star reporters left the channel. Later, on 22 January 2002, the second biggest private television network TV-6, where the former NTV staff took refuge, was shut down allegedly because of its editorial policy. Five months later, on 1 June TVS was launched, mostly consisting of NTV/TV-6 staff, only to stop airing 1 year later. Since then four biggest TV networks (Channel one, Russia 1, NTV and Russia 2) are state-owned.

Still, 2000s saw a rise of several independent TV networks like REN (its coverage increased vastly allowing it to become federal channel), Petersburg — Channel Five (overall the same), the relaunched 2×2 and others. Now the TV audience is mainly shared by 5 leading companies: Channel one, Russia 1, NTV, TNT and CTC.

Australia[link]

Australia has two national public networks, the ABC and SBS. The ABC operates eight stations as part of its main network ABC1, one for each state and territory, as well as three digital-only channels, ABC2, ABC3 and ABC News 24. SBS currently operates two stations, SBS One and SBS Two.

The first commercial networks in Australia involved commercial stations in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and later Perth, sharing programming, with each network forming networks based on their allocated channel numbers: TCN-9 Sydney, GTV-9 Melbourne, QTQ-9 Brisbane, NWS-9 Adelaide and STW-9 Perth together formed the Nine Network, while their equivalents on VHF channels 7 and 10 formed the Seven Network and Network Ten respectively. Until 1989, areas outside of these main cities had access to only a single commercial station, and these rural stations often formed small networks such as Prime Television. Beginning in 1989, however, television markets in rural areas began to aggregate, allowing these rural networks to broadcast over a larger area, often an entire state, and become full-time affiliates to one specific metropolitan network.

Philippines[link]

In the Philippines, in practice, the terms network, station and channel are used interchangeably as programming line-ups are mostly centrally planned from the networks' main offices, and since provincial/regional stations usually just relay the broadcast from their parent company network's flagship station (usually based in the Mega Manila area). Hence VHF networks are sometimes informally referred to by the channel number they are seen on terrestrial TV in the Mega Manila area (e.g. Channel 2 or Dos for ABS-CBN, Channel 5 or Singko for TV5, and Channel 7 or Siyete for GMA Network) while some networks have the channel numbers in their name (e.g. TV5, Studio 23 and Net 25 which are seen on channels 23 and 25 respectively).

Unlike the US where networks get programmes from various production houses, the two largest networks in the Philippines produce all their prime time programmes except for Asianovelas. Other networks adopt block-time programming whose programming arrangements are similar to the relationship between a US network and station. And also Philippines has network wars in which the fans of the 2 major networks defend their favorite channel, or when the 2 major networks produce similar and rival programming, and example of this, is when an ABS-CBN fan tells an insult on GMA (usually being called cheap), and a GMA fan would answer and make another insult (usually the answer is that ABS-CBN is mayabang, arrogant in English), and an exchange of insults would occur, usually on social networking sites, especially Facebook. In terms of programming, for example, after the launch of Showtime, GMA launched Diz Iz It!, but was cancelled due to the former's popularity, and the latter was called a copycat and cheap. But the real definition of the network wars is that the 3 networks battle for ratings supremacy.

References[link]

See also[link]

Look up television network in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Cable television in the United States
• Concentration of media ownership
• List of television networks by country
• Parent company
• Television system

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