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Canadian media & the CRTC

It will be interesting to see how the split between CITY and CP24 is made.
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My guess...CP24 will cease to exist. Something called "CTV Toronto Newsnet" will be born.

It will be interesting to see how CTV ends up using the City space (if they use it at all)
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I'm going to guess again and say that CFTO will be in the CHUM-CITY building within five years. Their newscast has been increasingly embracing the downtown and urban-type stories. It would only be a natural that they'd want to take advantage of such an iconic building for their local newscast. It would certainly generate more free publicity than 1 Channel 9 Court ever has. I think they'll delay this announcement though until Rogers decides where they are putting CITY (if they get CITY that is). Also, current City staff would have a fit if they knew CFTO was moving in. They'll keep that one under wraps for a while methinks.

Rogers will own CityTV so CTVglobemedia won't really have any say with what goes on. I'd think Rogers would be smart enough to keep them all downtown - perhaps near the Rogers Centre with Sportsnet. Dundas Square would be a good spot too.
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Rogers knows a good thing and I doubt they'll be messing too much with City's success. In fact, I think they are more likely to return the station to its more local footing that has been lost over the last few years as the national CHUM network was built. Moreover, I'd 100% expect them to find a downtown site. If the CRTC forces Rogers to sell the OMNI's (which it probably will), I think Lake Shore W & Bathurst is quite likely our new home for City-TV. I can also see 1 Mount Pleasant, Rogers Centre, Torch or some other iconic building (Roundhouse anyone?) being sought out as well.

Honestly, despite loosing City-TV on Queen W, the CRTC's decision will actually help that franchise. If Bell owned it, it would have eventually had its local newscast cancelled (as happened out west) in order for it to NOT compete with the CTV offering. Moreover, it would have been a spillover channel for some of the cheaper American fare it couldn't fit on CFTO. It wouldn't resemble much the City-TV we all grew up with.

Rogers is a fairly good company when it comes to investing (and believing in) Canadian and local content. I'm not thrilled by all this, but I think the future of a unique and somewhat independent-minded City-TV is more assured with Rogers than it ever was with Bell.

Now what will become of those OMNI's....
 
I agree with Darkstar. Rogers likes visibility so I'm confident that they'll go for a flagship-type location somewhere downtown.
 
No plans to change Citytv brand, says Rogers
Marise Strauss
June 12, 2007.

On the heels of its announced $375-million purchase of the five Citytv stations, Rogers Media says there are no major changes in store for the former CHUM channels, which it acquired after the CRTC ordered CTVglobemedia to sell them last week as a condition of its purchase of CHUM.

"There are no plans right now to change the brand... We're very excited about the profile of the stations and by their persona," Rogers Media spokesperson Jan Innes tells Playback Daily, adding that the City stations in Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary "really complement our other media assets."

Of the five, Citytv Toronto stands to see the most immediate change from the deal, since it will have to move out of the flagship CHUM building on Queen Street in downtown Toronto, following CRTC approval of the transaction.

"We will have to find a new home for the City station in Toronto, since CTVglobemedia owns that building," Innes says. "It's different in each center. In some cases they're just leases, so it depends on whether real estate is owned or not." She notes that Rogers is not planning any staff changes at the Citys at this time.

Industry analyst Ian Morrison of watchdog group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting favors Rogers' purchase of the City stations, and says the Toronto channel's pending move from the CHUM building is largely irrelevant in the overall scope of things.

"The biggest change would have been if the Citytv stations had been taken over by CTV... that would have been the biggest change to their culture," he says. "It doesn't matter what building they're in -- there are still three private TV networks in Canada, and there would've been only two."

The City stations are the latest acquisition for Rogers Communications, which also owns Rogers Cable and Telecom -- Canada's largest cable operator -- as well as numerous publications, the Toronto Blue Jays, Rogers Sportsnet, and Omni Television, which operates stations in regions including Victoria, Winnipeg and Toronto.

The new owner sees little crossover between the Omnis and Citys.

"The Citytv station [in Toronto] is an English station and quite different from the other two [Omni] stations that we currently have in the market," says Innes, noting that the Omni stations in Toronto air in different languages.

Morrison believes that Rogers will eventually want to rebrand the City stations, as it did when it acquired Rogers Sportsnet, formerly CTV Sportsnet, and the Rogers Centre, formerly known as SkyDome.

"They might well want to get the Rogers name out there," he says, though he doesn't foresee any other major alterations to the brand.

"Rogers is a sophisticated company and I don't think they would muck around with a successful brand," Morrison adds. "They spent money on it so they're going to want to make it work."
 
Apart from maybe Znaimer buying back his babies, Rogers owning CityTV is likely the best case scenario of a bad CRTC decision to allow the merger in the first place. Now I wonder though if CTVgm has regrets about its purchase with such a big asset.

While the OMNI stations have multilingual programming, a lot of it is filler crap like Tyra Banks and old shows like syndicated Law & Order reruns. More crossover than one may think.

So Rogers renaming its asset as with SkyDome? I hope it doesn't become the Rogers Network. (cue Rogers jingle)
 
While the OMNI stations have multilingual programming, a lot of it is filler crap like Tyra Banks and old shows like syndicated Law & Order reruns. More crossover than one may think.
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Indeed, it seems they are straight out of the gates claiming that despite OMNI & City being terrestrial broadcasters in the same market, that they have nothing in common. We'll see if the CRTC agrees.
 
Why would Much Music get kicked out when the owner of the building .. and them is still CTV...

If your referring to city TV they're getting kicked out - The torch would be a good location … check that, amazing. But I don't think it’s nearly big enough.
 
syn said:
Rogers will own CityTV so CTVglobemedia won't really have any say with what goes on. I'd think Rogers would be smart enough to keep them all downtown - perhaps near the Rogers Centre with Sportsnet. Dundas Square would be a good spot too.
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I know. My point is that I hope Citytv stays downtown and also that Citytv leaving the building on Queen allows CTV to move in from Scarborough if they choose.

Come to think of it, CTV and Citytv almost sound the same.
 
I know. My point is that I hope Citytv stays downtown and also that Citytv leaving the building on Queen allows CTV to move in from Scarborough if they choose.
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They have a LOT out there. I'm not sure it could all fit into the CHUM-CITY building to be honest, especially since CHUM's properties aren't leaving (save City). You may however see some of CTV's cable channels (Discovery, Travel, etc.) moving to 299 Queen W. along with CFTO.

In time, you could see all of CTV leave Agincourt and combine with the Globe & Mail somewhere downtown for a new building for the rest of their properties.
 
Today's Star is saying the truck might come down today. The full article includes tourists' reactions.

Citytv's landmark truck to be grounded

Vehicle bursting out of building to disappear as part of station's move

Jul 03, 2007 04:30 AM
Iain Marlow
Staff Reporter

"The ornamental Citytv news truck – tourist-camera magnet; pigeon nest – is coming down, perhaps as early as today.

"The truck, a backdrop for oodles of pop concerts at Queen and John Sts., is being torn down as part of CHUM-City's eventual move to a new locale, address still unknown.

"MuchMusic operations, however, are expected to stay put at the Queen St. W. building.

"The change comes after Rogers Media scooped up five Citytv stations, including the flagship Toronto location, from CTVglobemedia Inc. for $375 million.

"The truck is Toronto's second cultural landmark threatened of late by business deals. Earlier this month, Sam the Record Man's spinning neon signage narrowly escaped demolition after a public campaign, including online at Facebook, led to heritage status.

"The Citytv truck also has a Facebook group – "Save the City TV Truck!!" – but its membership, about 300 yesterday, was miles behind Sam's at around 17,000.
 
"The truck, a backdrop for oodles of pop concerts at Queen and John Sts., is being torn down as part of CHUM-City's eventual move to a new locale, address still unknown.
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The article isn't quite correct as CHUM is owned by Bell now. It's only CITY that's leaving.

In other news...

Rogers looks to keep Toronto OMNIs
Etan Vlessing (Jul 3, 2007)

Rogers Communications' takeover of five Citytv stations may depend on the willingness of the CRTC to let the cable giant keep its twin OMNI-branded multilingual stations in Toronto.

To make its $375-million purchase of the City stations from CTVglobemedia more palatable to the regulator, Rogers has offered to sell off its OMNI-branded TV stations in Vancouver and Winnipeg. But Rogers is betting that holding on to the OMNI 1 and OMNI 2 stations in Toronto will not violate the CRTC's twin-stick policy that bars broadcasters from owning more than one conventional TV station in any major market.

The five conventional City stations landed in Rogers' lap after the CRTC gave the thumbs-down to CTVglobemedia holding on to them as part of the latter's $1.7-billion takeover of CHUM Ltd.

Rogers also has plans to launch new OMNI-branded ethnic TV stations in Calgary and Edmonton after receiving the broadcast licences for them from the CRTC -- ironically, on the same day the City stations were denied to CTVglobemedia, forcing their sell-off.

Representatives from Rogers refused to comment on their application to the CRTC for regulatory approval of the City stations' acquisition. Hearings on the application are set for Aug. 29.

To get around the twin-stick policy, Rogers executives are expected to argue that the two Toronto OMNI stations serve a range of ethnic communities with third-language programming, thus the cable giant's operation of Citytv Toronto would not contravene the CRTC's policy of maintaining a diversity of broadcast voices.

At the same time, the multilingual Toronto OMNIs could prove problematic for the CRTC commissioners, as the stations air popular U.S. shows in primetime to drive ratings and advertising sales.
 
The truck isn't going anywhere for the time being...

Toronto must grant approval before Citytv truck is removed from headquarters
Mark Medley, National Post

Published: Wednesday, July 04, 2007

The wheels on the Citytv truck will be spinning for a little while longer. Contrary to reports yesterday, the truck, which explodes from the side of the station's Queen Street headquarters, pictured, is safe for now. Toronto's Preservation Services says the city must grant approval before the truck is removed. "People are not allowed to make alterations to heritage buildings in this city without approval," said Mary MacDonald, co-ordinator for Heritage Preservation Services. "If alterations are made without approval, then that is a serious matter." Mary Powers, senior vice-president of corporate communications for CTVglobemedia, acknowledged it intends to remove the truck.

© National Post 2007
 
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