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Post by TV News on Feb 3, 2005 18:47:49 GMT -5
CHUM Television's recently acquired A-Channel stations in Calgary, Edmonton and Manitoba will be rebranded as Citytv stations for the 2005 Fall TV Season.
Joining Citytv Vancouver and Toronto, the stations will provide a strong local voice to Alberta and Manitoba viewers. The Citytv format specializes in intensely local, urban-oriented, culturally-diverse television in CHUM's signature interactive style. Viewers will enjoy a unique combination of original programming, high energy news and a highly stylized presentation of acquisitions reflecting the Citytv roster of primetime movies and specials. For 50 years, CHUM has been creating powerful brands that inspire strong connections with radio and television audiences. CHUM's strength continues to be its attention to its viewers, its devout localism and its commitment to produce Canadian stories that reflect the lives of the communities it serves.
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Post by Tim on Feb 3, 2005 21:23:14 GMT -5
This signifies the end of strong, high-quality independent local television in Canada. What a shame  |
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Post by BCTVforever on Feb 4, 2005 11:05:09 GMT -5
I'm quite annoyed myself. This is as dumb as CHEK and CJNT being CH.
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Post by Gordon on Feb 4, 2005 11:42:08 GMT -5
There are rumours that The New VI on the Island may become an A Channel outlet. This info came from Media Buzz on CKNW earlier this week. ;D
Gordon
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Post by Tim on Feb 4, 2005 20:22:41 GMT -5
It just rubs me the wrong way because A-Channel is such an amazing channel - in just 7 years, they built a strong audience and are already competing with Global for 2nd place in the supper-hour weekday news. Now, they have to switch BACK to uncontemporary, deskless news which probably put them into a tailspin. Plus I don't think anybody in Calgary will want to see Baby Blue Movies on, even at 1am.  |
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Post by mikezstein on Feb 6, 2005 1:41:18 GMT -5
There are rumours that The New VI on the Island may become an A Channel outlet. This info came from Media Buzz on CKNW earlier this week. ;D Gordon doubtful as the recent news from CHUM indicates that the "A-Channel" brand will become nothing but a memory (effective this fall) Someone please create a new Channel M logo.  |
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Post by mikezstein on Feb 6, 2005 1:43:15 GMT -5
this only leaves the provinces of Sask, Montreal, PEI, NS, NB, and NFLD without CHUM television coverage. They still don't have a national televisio network.
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Post by NewsDUDE on Feb 6, 2005 4:03:15 GMT -5
It just rubs me the wrong way because A-Channel is such an amazing channel - in just 7 years, they built a strong audience and are already competing with Global for 2nd place in the supper-hour weekday news. Now, they have to switch BACK to uncontemporary, deskless news which probably put them into a tailspin. Plus I don't think anybody in Calgary will want to see Baby Blue Movies on, even at 1am. Ahh, glad you made that a bit clearer. A-Channel Calgary is performing well, yes. A-Channel Winnipeg? I'm not too sure about. A-Channel Edmonton...is doing quite poorly. It definitely doesn't have a strong audience... it BARELY has an audience as it is - that strike didn't help, that's for sure. And it definitely, by no means, is "amazing." |
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Post by Tim on Feb 6, 2005 22:04:10 GMT -5
Yeah, I think switching the A-Channel outlets in Winnipeg and Edmonton is a good idea - they need a change to attempt to boost their audience, but Calgary's too conservative for this sort of thing - A-Channel Calgary has tuned into the conservative style of broadcasting more since their earlier days, that's one major reason why it has done so well.
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Post by mikezstein on Feb 7, 2005 21:50:02 GMT -5
doesn't CHUM already have a 60% ownership in Access Alberta (Educational channel). So that means they will have control of two stations in the same market!
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Post by Tim on Feb 7, 2005 22:11:55 GMT -5
Access is one station that broadcasts to Edmonton and Calgary from their studios at the U of A in Edmonton. So it's like a semi-duopoly.
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Post by Calgaryperson on Feb 9, 2005 23:21:45 GMT -5
I kinda saw this coming.
I wonder what people are gonna think when the A-Channel building on 7th Avenue is changed again.
No doubt that CHUM will change the exterior of the site so it's gonna be noticeable.
Some of my friends don't like A-Channel too much so perhaps Citytv will be welcome. I like the news, but still prefer Global News. This really is the end of an era.
MTV Canada? Any news on that?
Some of us at Radio-Info.com thought that this would happen. I figured that A-Channel Calgary would become Citytv Calgary (and on cable in Edmonton), A-Channel Edmonton would become The New EM Edmonton (and on cable in Calgary), A-Channel Manitoba becoming Citytv Winnipeg/Manitoba and CKX Brandon becoming The New KX Brandon.
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Post by Tim on Feb 10, 2005 1:52:07 GMT -5
Ah, you go to Aberhart, eh? Fine school, that. I was supposed to go to Beav but moved to Vancouver in the middle of grade 9. Back on topic... that is a very reasonable assumption and probably something that CHUM should do considering how many viewers A-Channel gets in Calgary and how little it gets in Edmonton (and obviously in Brandon because there are only 23,000 people there ). |
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Post by NewNet on Feb 10, 2005 5:12:49 GMT -5
To further what Gordon said he heard on NW that The New VI's gonna change to A Channel, could this mean that CHUM might be thinking of totally renaming their 'NewNet' fleet of stations so they're all just 'A Channel? I'd say it'd save them costs of creating graphics, music and such for a bunch of stations when they have just two sets across the board, CityTV for the big markets and A Channel for the smaller. But my opinion is that just the name 'A Channel' has always been the most ridiculous name for a station. It's so easy to make fun of.
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Post by BCTVforever on Feb 10, 2005 7:56:36 GMT -5
To further what Gordon said he heard on NW that The New VI's gonna change to A Channel, could this mean that CHUM might be thinking of totally renaming their 'NewNet' fleet of stations so they're all just 'A Channel? I'd say it'd save them costs of creating graphics, music and such for a bunch of stations when they have just two sets across the board, CityTV for the big markets and A Channel for the smaller. But my opinion is that just the name 'A Channel' has always been the most ridiculous name for a station. It's so easy to make fun of. There is a rumour going around at the Canadian Satellite Forums about NewNet rebranding possibly occuring this fall. The poster, who claims to have connections to CHUM, said something like "how long can these stations stay 'new'?" They'd better not go the route of identical branding...in Ontario for example I'd like to see The New VR become just "VR", maybe The New RO become "RO-6", as it is on cable 6 in its coverage area. |
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