CTV Television Network

The CTV Television Network, commonly known as CTV, is a Canadian English-language terrestrial television network. Launched in 1961 and acquired by BCE Inc. in 2000, CTV is Canada's largest privately owned television network and is now a division of the Bell Media subsidiary of BCE. It is Canada's largest privately or commercially owned network consisting of 22 owned-and-operated stations nationwide and two privately owned affiliates, and has consistently been 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.

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

There has never been an official full name corresponding to the initials "CTV"; prior to CTV's launch in 1961, it was given the proposed branding of "Canadian Television Network" (CTN). However, that branding was dropped before the network's launch when the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) objected to it, claiming exclusive rights to the term "Canadian".

History

Formation

In 1958, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker's government passed the '' Broadcasting Act'', which established the Board of Broadcast Governors (BBG), a forerunner to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), as the governing body of Canadian broadcasting, effectively 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 (December 31, 1960)
*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 Edmonton (October 1, 1961)

The first eight stations were privately owned; the Edmonton station was a CBC O&O, thus CFRN-TV, the existing local station, 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, had expressed interest in participating in the creation of a second television network, "of which we see the Toronto station as anchor". Gittins 1999, p. 26 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. This led to the July 1960 formation of the Independent Television Organization (ITO), consisting of the eight newly licensed private stations and CFRN, each having one vote in the ITO's operations regardless of the size of its audience (CFTM, being a French-language station and therefore 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.

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 any such network would be dominated by Toronto's CFTO. 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.

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.

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. 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). Although the plan was neither 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. 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.

Early years

The network finally launched as the CTV Television Network on October 1, 1961. Gittins 1999, p. 72-73 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.

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.

CTV's initial 1961–1962 season began with the following programs, five of which were Canadian productions:
* ''The Andy Griffith Show'' (United States, CBS)
* ''Checkmate'' (United States, CBS)
* ''Cross Canada Barndance'' (Canada)
* ''Maigret'' (United Kingdom, BBC
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