2001 Vancouver TV Realignment - Effects in Vancouver

Effects in Vancouver

The affiliation switch took place on September 1, 2001. However, as that date fell on the Labour Day long weekend, some changes resulting from the switch (e.g. the new 5-7 a.m. timeslot for CIVT's morning newscast) did not occur until September 4.

CHAN's local newscast had historically been the overwhelming ratings leader in the Vancouver market, leaving CIVT's news team in the position — rare for CTV — of having to build a reputation and an audience against the market dominance of another station. To that end, CIVT recruited Bill Good and Pamela Martin from CHAN to serve as its primary anchor team. CIVT also adopted BC CTV as its on-air name; it is widely believed that this brand name was deliberately chosen to confuse viewers, as CHAN had previously been branded BCTV and continued to call its news operation "BCTV News on Global" until 2006 (although CHAN began to de-emphasize the hybrid branding in 2003). CIVT changed its on-air name to simply CTV exactly 10 months later on July 1, 2002; CTV British Columbia (or, occasionally, CTV9) is used where disambiguation from the network or other CTV O&Os is warranted.

CIVT's news ratings rose significantly: the station's 6 p.m. newscast attracted around 36,000 viewers in 2002; the number improved to 72,000 viewers by December 2010, and occasionally reaches as high as 100,000, though still well back of CHAN's 303,000 from the same period. CIVT thus became Vancouver's second-place television news operation, replacing CKVU, which lost approximately half of its audience and dropped to last place when it adopted the CityPulse format. CKVU's newscasts continued to struggle in the ensuing years, and the 6 and 11 p.m. bulletins were cancelled in 2006, ahead of CHUM's merger with CTVglobemedia and the subsequent sale of the Citytv stations (including CKVU) to Rogers Media in 2007 (CKVU continues to produce Breakfast Television, which was launched in 2002 in conjunction with the Citytv brand).