CIPA-TV ( analogue channel 9) is a

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the ea ...

Prince Albert, Saskatchewan Prince Albert is the third-largest city in Saskatchewan, Canada, after Saskatoon and Regina. It is situated near the centre of the province on the banks of the North Saskatchewan River. The city is known as the "Gateway to the North" because ...

, Canada, part of the

CTV Television Network The CTV Television Network, commonly known as CTV, is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television network. Launched in 1961 and acquired by BCE Inc. in 2000, CTV is Canada's largest privately owned List of Canadian ...

. Owned and operated by network parent

Bell Media Bell Media Inc. (French: ) is a Canadian company formed by the amalgamation of several companies. Establishment (2011–13) On December 9, 2011, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan announced the sale of its majority stake in Maple Leaf Sports ...

, it is a

semi-satellite A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tran ...

CFQC-DT CFQC-DT (channel 8) is a television station in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, part of the CTV Television Network. Owned and operated by network parent Bell Media, the station has studios on 1st Avenue North and 23rd Street East in the Central ...

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

. CIPA-TV's studios are located on 10 Street West (near the

North Saskatchewan River The North Saskatchewan River is a glacier-fed river that flows from the Canadian Rockies continental divide east to central Saskatchewan, where it joins with the South Saskatchewan River to make up the Saskatchewan River. Its water flows event ...

) in Downtown Prince Albert, and its transmitter is located between Louis Reil Trail/ Highway 11 and Highway 2, south-southwest of the city. The station operates rebroadcast transmitters in Alticane, Big River, Melfort and

Nipawin Nipawin () is a town in Saskatchewan, Canada, on the Saskatchewan River portion of Tobin Lake. The town lies between Codette Lake, created by the Francois-Finlay Dam (built in 1986) and Tobin Lake, created by the E.B. Campbell Dam built i ...

History

CIPA began transmission on January 12, 1987. In 2002, CTV parent company Bell Globemedia (now Bell Media) sold CIPA's former CBC- affiliated

twinstick A duopoly (or twinstick, referring to "stick" as jargon for a radio tower) is a situation in television and radio broadcasting in which two or more stations in the same city or community share common ownership. United States In the United States, ...

sister station,

CKBI-TV CKBI-TV was a television station in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada. The station was in operation from 1958 to 2002 as a private affiliate of CBC Television. History CKBI was established on January 27, 1958, by Edward Rawlinson, the founder ...

, to the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the governmen ...

, which then made CKBI a rebroadcaster of

CBKST CBKST, VHF analogue channel 11, was a CBC Television owned-and-operated station licensed to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, which operated from 1971 to 2012. The station was owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. CBKST's master contr ...

in Saskatoon. CBC shut down the transmitter in 2012, leaving CIPA as the only over the air broadcast in Prince Albert.

News programming

CIPA has made several attempts at local newscasts over the years. However, due to recent cutbacks, currently its only local newscast is ''CTV News at Noon''. It otherwise simulcasts CFQC's newscasts, which include reports from Prince Albert.

Former transmitters

^* The Big River transmitter was among a long list of CTV rebroadcasters nationwide to have shut down on or before August 31, 2009, as part of a political dispute with Canadian authorities on paid

fee-for-carriage Fee-for-carriage, value-for-signal, negotiation for value, or the "TV tax" all refer to a proposed Canadian television regulatory policy which would require cable and satellite television companies to compensate conventional, over-the-air telev ...

requirements for

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

operators. A subsequent change in ownership assigned full control of

CTV Globemedia Bell Media Inc. (French: ) is a Canadian company formed by the amalgamation of several companies. Establishment (2011–13) On December 9, 2011, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan announced the sale of its majority stake in Maple Leaf Sports ...

Bell Canada Enterprises BCE Inc., formerly Bell Canada Enterprises Inc., is a publicly traded Canadian holding company for Bell Canada, which includes telecommunications providers and various mass media assets under its subsidiary Bell Media Inc. Founded through a corp ...

; as of 2011, these transmitters remain in normal licensed broadcast operation. On February 11, 2016, Bell Media applied for its regular license renewals, which included applications to delete a long list of transmitters, including CIPA-TV-1, CIPA-TV-2, CKBQ-TV and CKBQ-TV-1. Bell Media's rationale for deleting these analog repeaters is below:

"We are electing to delete these analog transmitters from the main licence with which they are associated. These analog transmitters generate no incremental revenue, attract little to no viewership given the growth of BDU or DTH subscriptions and are costly to maintain, repair or replace. In addition, none of the highlighted transmitters offer any programming that differs from the main channels. The Commission has determined that broadcasters may elect to shut down transmitters but will lose certain regulatory privileges (distribution on the basic service, the ability to request simultaneous substitution) as noted in Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2015-24, Over-the-air transmission of television signals and local programming. We are fully aware of the loss of these regulatory privileges as a result of any transmitter shutdown."

At the same time, Bell Media applied to convert the licenses of

CTV 2 Atlantic CTV 2 Atlantic is a Television in Canada, Canadian cable television, cable television channel serving Atlantic Canada owned by Bell Media, with its studios located in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Owned by the Bell Media subsidiary of BCE Inc., it operat ...

(formerly ASN) and

CTV 2 Alberta CTV 2 Alberta is a Canadian English language entertainment and former educational television channel in the province of Alberta. Owned by the Bell Media subsidiary of BCE Inc., it operates as a ''de facto'' owned-and-operated station of its se ...

(formerly ACCESS) from satellite-to-cable undertakings into television stations without transmitters (similar to cable-only network affiliates in the United States), and to reduce the level of educational content on CTV2 Alberta.

References

External links

CTV Prince AlbertCTV SaskatoonCTV Saskatchewan News
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cipa IPA-TV IPA-TV Television channels and stations established in 1987 Mass media in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan 1987 establishments in Saskatchewan