The first incarnation of E!, also referred to as E! Entertainment Television, was a Canadian English language privately owned
television system
In Canada, a television system is a group of television stations which share common ownership, branding and programming, but which for some reason does not satisfy the criteria necessary for it to be classified as a television network under Cana ...
that existed from 2001 to 2009 under the ownership of
Canwest
Canwest Global Communications Corporation, which operated under the corporate name Canwest, was a major Canadian media conglomerate based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with its head offices at Canwest Place. It held radio, television broadcasting an ...
. At its peak it consisted of eight local
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 earth ...
s located in
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
,
Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
and
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
, including five stations
owned and operated
In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an affiliate ...
(O&O) by Canwest and three
affiliates
In the broadcasting industry (particularly in North America, and even more in the United States), a network affiliate or affiliated station is a local broadcaster, owned by a company other than the owner of the network, which carries some or ...
owned by
Jim Pattison Group
The Jim Pattison Group is a Canadian conglomerate based in Vancouver. In a recent survey by the Financial Post, the firm was ranked as Canada's 62nd largest company. Jim Pattison, a Vancouver-based entrepreneur, is the chairman, CEO, and sole ...
.
The system was launched in 2001 as CH Television or CH (derived from the call sign of flagship
CHCH-TV
CHCH-DT (channel 11) is an independent television station in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Owned by Channel Zero, the station maintains studios on Innovation Drive in the west end of Hamilton; prior to 2021, it was located near the corner of Jack ...
in
Hamilton Hamilton may refer to:
People
* Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname
** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland
** Lord Hamilt ...
), providing a secondary schedule parallel to Canwest's larger
Global Television Network
The Global Television Network (more commonly called Global, or occasionally Global TV) is a Canadian English-language terrestrial television network. It is currently Canada's second most-watched private terrestrial television network after ...
. It initially focused on airing programs from the U.S. broadcast networks that could not fit on Global's own schedule, in order to avail of
simultaneous substitution
Simultaneous substitution (also known as simsubbing or signal substitution) is a practice mandated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) requiring broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs) in Canada to dist ...
opportunities. The system became "E!" in fall 2007, as a result of a deal with
Comcast
Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...
to carry programming from that company's U.S.-based
E!: Entertainment Television, although it continued to air much of the same American network series in primetime and the afternoon.
Following corporate financial difficulties, which eventually led to the company filing for
bankruptcy protection
Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...
and the sale of their properties to
Shaw Media
Shaw Media was the television broadcasting division of Shaw Communications. Shaw Media owned the Global Television Network, which broadcasts nationally via 13 television stations, as well as 19 specialty channels including Slice (TV channel), Sli ...
, Canwest announced in early 2009 it would look to either sell or close its E! O&Os by that fall. Those stations saw varied fates as E! ceased operations on August 31, 2009: two stations (CHCH and
CJNT-TV
CJNT-DT (channel 62) is a television station in Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, part of the Citytv network. owned-and-operated station, Owned and operated by network parent Rogers Sports & Media, the station maintains studios inside the Roge ...
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
) were sold to
Channel Zero;
CHEK-TV
CHEK-DT (channel 6) is an independent television station in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, serving Vancouver Island and Greater Vancouver. The station is owned by the CHEK Media Group, a consortium made up of station employees and local in ...
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
was sold to a consortium of local investors and station employees;
CHBC-TV
CHBC-DT (channel 2) is a television station in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, part of the Global Television Network. It is owned and operated by network parent Corus Entertainment, and maintains studios on Leon Avenue (near Water Street) in ...
Kelowna
Kelowna ( ) is a city on Okanagan Lake in the Okanagan Valley in the southern interior of British Columbia, Canada. It serves as the head office of the Regional District of Central Okanagan. The name Kelowna derives from the Okanagan word ''kiÊ ...
was converted to a Global O&O; and
CHCA-TV
CHCA-TV was a television station in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. It was owned by Canwest, and was part of the E! television system. The station was seen on VHF channel 6 and cable channel 11 in Red Deer. The station was previously Red Deer's CBC ...
Red Deer
The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or hart, and a female is called a hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of wes ...
was shut down entirely. The three Pattison-owned affiliates subsequently joined
Rogers Media
Rogers Media Inc., operating as Rogers Sports & Media, is a Canadian subsidiary of Rogers Communications that owns the company's mass media and sports properties, such as the Citytv and Omni Television terrestrial television stations, Sportsnet, ...
's
City
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
network, as did CJNT several years later. This left CHCH and CHEK as the only independent former stations of this system to still exist.
E! in the U.S. (now owned by
NBCUniversal
NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States.
NBCUniversal is primari ...
) later reached an agreement to bring the channel's brand and programming to Bell Media's
entertainment specialty channel, previously known as Star!, effective late November 2010.
History
Purchase of WIC stations by Canwest
The CH/E! system had its roots in the television stations group owned by
Western International Communications
WIC Western International Communications Ltd. (or WIC) was a Canadian media company that operated from 1982 to 2000, with operations including broadcast and specialty television, radio, and satellite distribution via a majority interest in Can ...
(WIC), which at one point owned ten stations, including three
CTV affiliates, two
CBC affiliates, three
independent stations in Alberta that mostly carried programming from Global,
Montreal multicultural station
CJNT-TV
CJNT-DT (channel 62) is a television station in Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, part of the Citytv network. owned-and-operated station, Owned and operated by network parent Rogers Sports & Media, the station maintains studios inside the Roge ...
, and independent station
CHCH-TV
CHCH-DT (channel 11) is an independent television station in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Owned by Channel Zero, the station maintains studios on Innovation Drive in the west end of Hamilton; prior to 2021, it was located near the corner of Jack ...
Hamilton.
Aside from CHCH, many of WIC's stations were involved in various types of "
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, ...
s", or a set of two stations serving one market under a single owner – specifically in the
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
Lower Mainland
The Lower Mainland is a geographic and cultural region of the mainland coast of British Columbia that generally comprises the regional districts of Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley. Home to approximately 3.05million people as of the 2021 Canadia ...
,
Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
,
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
, and
Kelowna
Kelowna ( ) is a city on Okanagan Lake in the Okanagan Valley in the southern interior of British Columbia, Canada. It serves as the head office of the Regional District of Central Okanagan. The name Kelowna derives from the Okanagan word ''kiÊ ...
markets. The second stations were, respectively,
CHEK-TV
CHEK-DT (channel 6) is an independent television station in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, serving Vancouver Island and Greater Vancouver. The station is owned by the CHEK Media Group, a consortium made up of station employees and local in ...
,
CKRD-TV, CJNT-TV, and
CHBC-TV
CHBC-DT (channel 2) is a television station in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, part of the Global Television Network. It is owned and operated by network parent Corus Entertainment, and maintains studios on Leon Avenue (near Water Street) in ...
.
WIC was an ownership group, and not a network unto itself; the company was rarely able to co-ordinate the programming of its first-string stations, much less the second-string outlets, due to the stations' different network affiliations. Even so, during the 1990s, WIC had been stepping up its acquisitions of American programming, eventually acquiring shows such as ''
Everybody Loves Raymond
''Everybody Loves Raymond'' is an American sitcom television series created by Philip Rosenthal that aired on CBS from September 13, 1996, to May 16, 2005, with a total of 210 episodes spanning nine seasons. It was produced by Where's Lunch and ...
'', ''
Will & Grace
''Will & Grace'' is an American television sitcom created by Max Mutchnick and David Kohan. Set in New York City, the show focuses on the friendship between best friends Will Truman (Eric McCormack), a gay lawyer, and Grace Adler (Debra Messing), ...
'', ''
Suddenly Susan
''Suddenly Susan'' is an American television sitcom that aired on NBC from September 19, 1996, to December 26, 2000. The series was created by Clyde Phillips and starred Brooke Shields in her first regular series. Shields played Susan Keane, ...
'', ''
Just Shoot Me
''Just Shoot Me!'' is an American sitcom television series that aired on NBC from March 4, 1997, to November 26, 2003, with a total of 145 half-hour episodes spanning seven seasons. The show was created by Steven Levitan, the show's executive p ...
'', and ''
Touched by an Angel
''Touched by an Angel'' is an American fantasy drama television series that premiered on CBS on September 21, 1994, and ran for 211 episodes over nine seasons until its conclusion on April 27, 2003. Created by John Masius and executive produced b ...
''.
These programs were broadcast on CHCH (which was rebranded "
ONtv" in 1997 in an effort to broaden the station into a province-wide outlet, a change that was not popular with the station's core Hamilton audience
), and on its other stations when timeslots were available. For example, in the
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
area in the late 1990s, CTV network programming – i.e. the 40 hours per week not aired on
VTV – would air in-pattern on
BCTV, with some WIC programming airing in the remaining timeslots. On CHEK, the same CTV programs would generally air out-of-pattern, with additional WIC programming scheduled for the remaining timeslots when BCTV was airing network programs. This effectively gave WIC one "full" station to program itself in the Vancouver market. Similarly, in Alberta, Global or WIC programs that could not fit onto the schedules of WIC's
Calgary
Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...
or
Edmonton
Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...
stations would instead air on
Red Deer
The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or hart, and a female is called a hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of wes ...
CBC affiliate CKRD, available on cable in much of the province, in non-network timeslots.
Canwest reached an agreement to purchase WIC's conventional television arm in 1999. Its plan to keep all of the WIC stations, save
CFCF-TV
CFCF-DT (channel 12) is a television station in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, part of the CTV Television Network. It is owned and operated by network parent Bell Media alongside Noovo flagship CFJP-DT (channel 35). Both stations share studios at ...
in Montreal, faced strong opposition from competitors and advocacy groups. However, Canwest convinced the
Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; french: Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes, links=) is a public organization in Canada with mandate as a regulatory agency for broadcasti ...
(CRTC) that such twinstick operations would allow the company to support the "underserved" communities these stations were originally intended to serve,
arguing that no other company could provide the same level of support (CJNT would not be sustainable financially, while the other stations would turn their focus to larger neighbouring markets such as
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
or Vancouver). For instance, Canwest promised to relaunch CHCH as a station with a renewed focus on Hamilton. As a result, Canwest was able to maintain the B.C. and Alberta twinsticks, re-align CJNT with
CKMI-TV, and most importantly secure a new twinstick in the major market of Toronto with both its own
CIII-TV
CIII-DT (channel 41) is a television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, serving as the flagship station of the Global Television Network. Owned and operated by network parent Corus Entertainment, CIII-DT maintains studios at 81 Barber Green ...
and WIC's CHCH.
The launch of CH
In February 2001, CHCH dropped its "ONtv" branding, becoming the first to adopt the CH brand.
It was followed by CHEK (newly
disaffiliated from
CTV) and multicultural station CJNT that September. The initial CH schedules largely consisted of the programming Canwest had inherited from WIC – indeed there were almost no programming changes initially at CHCH, since the branding change came mid-season. However, a handful of WIC programs would eventually be "cherry-picked" by Global. The stations also began to cross-promote heavily with the local Global stations. While CH briefly used the slogan "Closer to Home" when it launched, the letters "CH" were derived from the
call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...
of flagship CHCH. On the other hand, CJNT referred to the initials as Canal Horizon, or CH Horizon, until 2002.
CKRD joined in 2005 after disaffiliating from the
CBC (having carried CH programming in non-CBC timeslots like it did during the WIC era prior to this), and reverted to its original call letters (CHCA) in the process.
Kelowna's CHBC and
Kamloops
Kamloops ( ) is a city in south-central British Columbia, Canada, at the confluence of the South flowing North Thompson River and the West flowing Thompson River, east of Kamloops Lake. It is located in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, w ...
's
CFJC, the latter owned by the
Jim Pattison Group
The Jim Pattison Group is a Canadian conglomerate based in Vancouver. In a recent survey by the Financial Post, the firm was ranked as Canada's 62nd largest company. Jim Pattison, a Vancouver-based entrepreneur, is the chairman, CEO, and sole ...
, also disaffiliated from the CBC in February 2006 and joined CH. Although CFJC was not owned by Canwest, its joint sales agreement with CHBC necessitated its affiliation switch. With a replacement brand for CH expected in the near future, both CHBC and CFJC maintained their own local identities for the remainder of the "CH" era.
Rebranding to E!
Published reports in early 2006 suggested that Canwest was looking to rebrand the CH stations. However, that brand remained in use for more than a year. In April 2007, Canwest finally announced that the CH stations would be relaunched as E! that fall; the changes took effect on September 7. E! (U.S.) owner
Comcast
Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...
licensed the brand name and programming, but it did not obtain ownership in the Canadian E! network.
The launch of E! in Canada marked the first adoption of a
specialty channel
A specialty channel (also known in the United States as a cable channel or cable network) can be a commercial broadcasting or non-commercial television channel which consists of television programming focused on a single genre, subject or targeted ...
-type schedule by an over-the-air system in Canada, essentially a loophole in a
CRTC
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; french: Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes, links=) is a public organization in Canada with mandate as a regulatory agency for broadcasti ...
policy which permitted only one specialty channel per programming genre; this policy would be revoked in 2015. (Terrestrial stations have no restrictions on the genres of programming they can air, so long as they meet their Canadian content and local programming requirements.) Previously, E! programming had aired on
Star!, which was launched in 1999 as the Canadian specialty channel with genre exclusivity for the entertainment / celebrity niche.
Pattison announced in September 2007 that its two remaining CBC affiliates,
Prince George's
CKPG-TV
CKPG-TV (Analog television, analogue channel 2) is a television station in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada, affiliated with Citytv. The station is owned by the Jim Pattison Group#The Jim Pattison Media Group, Jim Pattison Broadcast Group, ...
and
Medicine Hat
Medicine Hat is a city in Southern Alberta, southeast Alberta, Canada. It is located along the South Saskatchewan River. It is approximately east of Lethbridge and southeast of Calgary. This city and the adjacent Town of Redcliff, Alberta, ...
's
CHAT-TV
CHAT-TV ( analogue channel 6) is a television station in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada, affiliated with Citytv. Owned by the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group, the station has studios at 10 Boundary Road SE in the nearby town of Redcliff, and its tra ...
, would drop their current affiliation in favour of programming from Canwest effective fall 2008. CKPG affiliated with E! instead of Global due to the presence of a
Global BC
CHAN-DT (channel 8), branded on-air as Global BC (formerly British Columbia Television or BCTV), is a television station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, serving as the West Coast flagship of the Global Television Network. Owned and ope ...
rebroadcaster in the market; CHAT joined E! as well, despite the absence of an over-the-air Global signal serving Medicine Hat.
Demise
Despite the rebranding and increased coverage, the system continued to trail in the ratings, and ultimately remained unprofitable. On February 5, 2009, amid rising debt and increasing pressure from creditors, Canwest announced it would explore "strategic options", including possible sale or closure, for its E! O&Os, saying "a second conventional TV network is no longer key to the long-term success" of the company. The company later announced it would sell two of those stations, CHCH and CJNT, to
Channel Zero, which said it would operate both as independent stations.
Canwest also made clear that it would not be running the remaining E! stations as of fall 2009, and in late July announced the rebranding of CHBC, and the closure of CHCA and CHEK, all effective September 1.
However, as discussed below, the CHEK decision was later reversed, with an agreement to sell the station to a local consortium.
The transition for each station on Monday, August 31, 2009, was as follows:
* Channel Zero took control of programming at CHCH as of midnight EDT Monday morning, and at CJNT as of 6:00 a.m. (although the latter station's new programming did not actually take air until mid-morning).
* CHCA ended regular programming by 5:00 a.m. MDT. At that point it began airing a
slide
Slide or Slides may refer to:
Places
* Slide, California, former name of Fortuna, California
Arts, entertainment, and media Music Albums
* ''Slide'' (Lisa Germano album), 1998
* ''Slide'' (George Clanton album), 2018
*''Slide'', by Patrick Glees ...
thanking viewers for their support, before leaving the air on September 1.
* CHBC joined Global (by simulcasting
CHAN-TV
CHAN-DT (channel 8), branded on-air as Global BC (formerly British Columbia Television or BCTV), is a television station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, serving as the West Coast flagship of the Global Television Network. Owned and oper ...
's morning news) at 5:30 a.m. PDT.
* CHEK was scheduled to carry regular programming until 7:00 p.m., when it was to air an hour-long look back at the best of their
newsmagazine
A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published magazine, radio or television program, usually published weekly, consisting of articles about current events. News magazines generally discuss stories, in greater depth than do newspapers or new ...
show, ''Island 30'' and a two-hour retrospective of its 53 years covering local news, before signing off permanently at 10:00 p.m. However, by late afternoon on the 31st, negotiations to sell the station had resumed, delaying the station's signoff indefinitely; nevertheless, CHEK no longer carried E! programming as of September 1. An agreement to sell the station to an employee-led group (pending approval from the CRTC) was finalized on September 4, thereby allowing CHEK to remain on the air.
* Program schedules for the Pattison stations indicated that they would carry "regular" E! programming throughout the broadcast day, with the last Canwest-supplied program, ''
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
''The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Scottish actor and comedian Craig Ferguson. This was the third iteration of the ''Late Late Show'' franchise, airing from January 3, 2005, to December 19, ...
'', concluding at approximately 1:38 a.m. PDT on September 1; however, it is not clear whether all of the primetime and late-night programming actually made air, since, by that point, it was not scheduled to air on any Canwest station. The Pattison stations began carrying national Citytv programming later that morning.
The rights to most of the system's non-E! primetime programs were acquired by other broadcasters, with most going to
Citytv
Citytv is a Canadian television network owned by the Rogers Sports & Media subsidiary of Rogers Communications. The licence of the original Citytv station, granted the callsign of CITY-TV by the CRTC on November 25, 1971 to Cable Television Ass ...
. Meanwhile, Canwest had been believed to retain the Canadian rights to E! (U.S.)'s original programming under its original long-term contract with
Comcast
Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...
. These programs were expected to move to the company's other channels such as
Global
Global means of or referring to a globe and may also refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003
* ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007
* ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 1989
* ''Global'' (Todd Rundgren album), 2015
* Bruno ...
or
Slice, the latter having carried some E! programs in the past, or potentially even a new or rebranded E! cable channel (provided such a channel did not interfere with Star!'s exclusivity in the celebrity/entertainment genre). However, no such move occurred.
The closure of E! did not put an end to Canwest's financial troubles, and the company filed for creditor protection towards the end of 2009. Its broadcasting assets, including CHBC and the other Global O&Os, were eventually auctioned off to
Shaw Communications
Shaw Communications Inc. is a Canadian telecommunications company which provides telephone, Internet, television, and mobile services. Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Shaw provides home telecommunications services primarily in Alberta and Br ...
, and became part of the new
Shaw Media
Shaw Media was the television broadcasting division of Shaw Communications. Shaw Media owned the Global Television Network, which broadcasts nationally via 13 television stations, as well as 19 specialty channels including Slice (TV channel), Sli ...
unit in late 2010. Shaw Media was in turn, acquired by
Corus Entertainment
Corus Entertainment Inc. is a Canadian mass media company. Formed in 1999 as a spin-off from Shaw Communications, it has prominent holdings in the radio, publishing, and television industries. It is headquartered at Corus Quay in Toronto, Onta ...
on April 1, 2016.
In fall 2010, CTVglobemedia (later renamed
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 ...
after its purchase by
BCE Inc.) reached a new deal with Comcast to move E! programming back to
Star!, which was renamed E! on November 29, 2010.
The circumstances under which Canwest/Shaw Media's contract with E! programming ended – that is, whether the deal had expired, or had been cancelled by one or both sides – are unclear.
Subsequent connections
Following their respective sales, CHCH and CHEK both began airing a lineup consisting primarily of
rolling news
The 24-hour news cycle (or 24/7 news cycle) is 24-hour investigation and reporting of news, concomitant with fast-paced lifestyles. The vast news resources available in recent decades have increased competition for audience and advertiser attent ...
during the daytime hours, and a featured movie each evening. While it is likely that some of the same movies have been aired on both stations, there has been no apparent coordination between the stations in terms of either news coverage or scheduling – that is, the two stations would not typically air the same movie on the same night.
Since September 2010, CHCH, CJNT and CHEK have once again carried some of the same programming on the same date, having each acquired regional rights to various U.S. series, such as ''
Smallville
''Smallville'' is an American superhero television series developed by writer-producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, based on the DC Comics character Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The series was produced by Millar Gough ...
'', ''
Supernatural
Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...
'', ''
Everybody Hates Chris
''Everybody Hates Chris'' is an American television semi-autobiographical sitcom that is inspired by the memories of the teenage years of comedian Chris Rock. The show is set from 1982 to 1987, although Rock himself was actually a teenager from ...
'', ''
Chuck
Chuck is a masculine given name or a nickname for Charles or Charlie. It may refer to:
People
Arts and entertainment
* Chuck Alaimo, American saxophonist, leader of the Chuck Alaimo Quartet
* Chuck Barris (1929–2017), American TV producer
* C ...
'', ''
Nightline
''Nightline'' (or ''ABC News Nightline'') is ABC News' late-night television news program broadcast on ABC in the United States with a franchised formula to other networks and stations elsewhere in the world. Created by Roone Arledge, the progra ...
'', ''
20/20
Visual acuity (VA) commonly refers to the clarity of vision, but technically rates an examinee's ability to recognize small details with precision. Visual acuity is dependent on optical and neural factors, i.e. (1) the sharpness of the retinal ...
'', ''
60 Minutes
''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique styl ...
'', ''
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. The nightly hour-long show debuted on January 26, 2003, at Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywood, Los ...
'', ''
48 Hours Mystery'', and selected ''
NBA on ABC
The ''NBA on ABC'' is an American presentation of National Basketball Association (NBA) games produced by ESPN, and televised on ABC. After the ABC Sports division was integrated with its cable sister network in September 2006, broadcasts have s ...
'' season and playoff games, most of which were shed by
Sun TV as part of its transition to the
Sun News Network
Sun News Network (commonly shortened to Sun News) was a Television in Canada, Canadian Canadian English, English language Category C services, Category C news channel owned by Québecor Média through a partnership between two of its subsidiaries ...
. However, the stations retain their existing ownership and branding, and are expected to continue scheduling movies and selling advertising independently. As a result, this does not currently appear to be a revival of the former CH/E! system.
CJNT withdrew from this partnership as of June 4, 2012, due to its pending sale by Channel Zero to
Rogers Media
Rogers Media Inc., operating as Rogers Sports & Media, is a Canadian subsidiary of Rogers Communications that owns the company's mass media and sports properties, such as the Citytv and Omni Television terrestrial television stations, Sportsnet, ...
, and an associated interim affiliation agreement for CJNT with Rogers'
Citytv
Citytv is a Canadian television network owned by the Rogers Sports & Media subsidiary of Rogers Communications. The licence of the original Citytv station, granted the callsign of CITY-TV by the CRTC on November 25, 1971 to Cable Television Ass ...
television system.
Programming
E! aired a number of programs from the U.S. broadcast networks, sharing a library of programs with Global. Initially, it was not uncommon for Global, which was carried in more cities nationwide, to cherry-pick some of CH's hits and air them on the main network. Conversely, Global programs were sometimes sent "down" to CH if two programs aired by Global begin to air simultaneously on separate U.S. networks, so Canwest could maximize its
simultaneous substitution
Simultaneous substitution (also known as simsubbing or signal substitution) is a practice mandated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) requiring broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs) in Canada to dist ...
opportunities. Following the start of E!, the practice was for the most part abandoned, although such series might be exchanged between the two systems from one season to the next.
Content from the American E! network started to air throughout the system's daytime, late night, and weekend schedule upon its re-branding on September 7, 2007; this was to include Canadian-produced series aired on E! channels internationally, although the extent of this was unclear. E! programming had previously aired on
Star! until the launch of E! in Canada. As a result of this change, E! programming was not available in all areas where it could be seen previously, although E! stations were generally available on
digital cable
Digital cable is the distribution of cable television using digital data and video compression. The technology was first developed by General Instrument. By 2000, most cable companies offered digital features, eventually replacing their previou ...
, as well as both of Canada's
satellite
A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...
providers. Primetime programming continued to be sourced primarily from the major U.S. broadcast networks.
As CH, local stations (except for CHBC and CFJC) used the "CH" brand throughout the day, titling their newscasts ''CH News'' as opposed to using their often well-known
call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...
s. Similar network-based branding practices have been common at most local TV stations in Canada, including the O&Os of Canwest's primary Global network, since the late 1990s. Upon converting to E!, that brand became similarly predominant for most of the broadcast day.
For similar reasons, the E! branding was downplayed somewhat during sports programming such as
PGA Tour
The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...
coverage, when the system's
bug was not seen. The bug was, however, used during some shows outside of the "entertainment" genre, such as lifestyle programming aired during the daytime schedule.
News
Local news coverage and other regional programming on the E! stations used the ''CH News'' brand. When CH became E!, it reverted to their local branding, such as "
CHCH News" in Hamilton, and "
CJNT Montreal" for multicultural programming on the Montreal station. Local branding was also used for most local community sponsorships. This decision was made at least partly to avoid confusion with the entertainment news show ''
E! News
''E! News'', previously known as ''E! News Daily'' and ''E! News Live'', is the entertainment news operation for the cable network E! in the United States. Its former on-air weekday newscast debuted on September 1, 1991, and primarily reports ...
'', but it was likely also intended to ensure that local newscasts were not themselves perceived as celebrity-oriented.
Some E! stations also aired Global's national newscasts ''
Global National
''Global National'' is the English language flagship national newscast of Canada's Global Television Network. Editorial and production staff are based out of Global's national news centre at Global BC in Burnaby, British Columbia, with Dawna Fries ...
'' though CHCH aired ''Live @ 5:30'' talk show.
E! HD
On April 18, 2008, E! launched a
high-definition simulcast of its Ontario station (
CHCH
Christchurch ( ; mi, ÅŒtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River ...
). The channel was available on digital cable in many areas, and also via
an aerial signal in the Hamilton-Toronto-Buffalo area on CHCH-DT Channel 18. CHCH retains this digital signal under its new ownership. In addition, CHBC, CHEK and CJNT have since converted to digital signals due to the 2011 analog-to-digital conversion.
E! stations
Owned-and-operated
''Note:''
:''1) Italicized channel numbers indicate a digital channel allocated for future use by the
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; french: Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes, links=) is a public organization in Canada with mandate as a regulatory agency for broadcasti ...
.''
Affiliates and secondary carriers
E!'s three affiliates were all owned by the
Jim Pattison Group
The Jim Pattison Group is a Canadian conglomerate based in Vancouver. In a recent survey by the Financial Post, the firm was ranked as Canada's 62nd largest company. Jim Pattison, a Vancouver-based entrepreneur, is the chairman, CEO, and sole ...
as ex-
CBC Television
CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-l ...
affiliates. They nevertheless also adopted the on-air news look of the Canwest E! stations. All three began carrying
Citytv
Citytv is a Canadian television network owned by the Rogers Sports & Media subsidiary of Rogers Communications. The licence of the original Citytv station, granted the callsign of CITY-TV by the CRTC on November 25, 1971 to Cable Television Ass ...
programming on September 1, 2009.
Many Global stations in markets not served by E!, however, plus other stations not owned by Canwest, also broadcast programs usually seen on the E! system. Those stations include, former private CBC affiliates such as
CHEX
Chex is an American brand of breakfast cereal currently manufactured by General Mills. It was originally produced and owned by Ralston Purina of St. Louis, Missouri, using the name Chex starting in 1950. The Chex brand went with corporate spi ...
and
CKWS, then CTV affiliate
CJBN and the
Thunder Bay Television
Dougall Media is a Canadian media company, which has several television, radio and publishing holdings in Northwestern Ontario.
Television
Dougall Media owns CKPR, a CTV affiliate (formerly a CBC affiliate until August 31, 2014), and CHFD, a ...
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, ...
of
CKPR and
CHFD as well as
Lloydminster
Lloydminster is a city in Canada which has the unusual geographic distinction of straddling the provincial border between Alberta and Saskatchewan. The city is incorporated by both provinces as a single city with a single municipal administrati ...
twinstick of
CKSA and
CITL.
Slogans
*As CH:
** 2001: Closer to Home
** 2001-2005: CH Has It All!
** 2001-2007: Closer to You!
*As E!
** 2007-2009: Everything Entertainment
See also
*
2007 Canada broadcast TV realignment
References
{{Authority control
*
Television channels and stations established in 2001
Television channels and stations disestablished in 2009
2001 establishments in Canada
2009 disestablishments in Canada
Defunct Canadian television channels
Former Corus Entertainment networks