Origins
The realignment resulted from Canwest Global's acquisition of Western International Communications (WIC) in 2000. In most involved markets, the acquisition gave Canwest Global independent stations which were integrated into either Canwest's Global Television Network or the newly formed CH television system; in one case a CTV-affiliated station (CFCF-TV Montreal) was sold directly to CTV to become a network owned-and-operated station (O&O). In Vancouver, however, the acquisition gave Canwest Global one of the most lucrative prizes in the entire country: control of CHAN-TV (more commonly known as BCTV), the market's CTV affiliate and highest-rated television station.
CHAN's relationship with the CTV network in the years prior to the realignment had been rocky. Historically, CHAN and some of the other western affiliates had resented the dominance of the eastern affiliates, especially flagship CFTO-TV Toronto, in the production of network programming, both in entertainment series and in newscasts. The station had desired for years to host a national news program; when it was rebuffed by CTV, it instead launched the early-evening Canada Tonight on the WIC stations group in 1993.
These issues were exacerbated when Baton Broadcasting, the original owners of CFTO who had been steadily buying out CTV affiliates across the country, took control of the network itself in 1997, and shortly thereafter revamped the network schedule incorporating the programming of the former Baton Broadcast System. That same year, Baton launched a new Vancouver station, CIVT (known on air as Vancouver Television or VTV). These changes meant that CTV now maintained two different programming streams: a base "network" schedule which aired on all CTV stations, both O&Os and affiliates, under the network's existing affiliation agreements; and a separate "non-network" block of programming which aired in its entirety on O&Os, although CTV would offer rights on a per-program basis to affiliates in markets where the company did not have a station of its own.
In much of Canada, this was a meaningless distinction, as most CTV stations were already O&Os, but in Vancouver the network programming aired on CHAN while the O&O programming aired on CIVT (CHAN's Victoria-based sister station CHEK was itself a CTV affiliate and hence carried the same stream of network programming as CHAN; however, since the Vancouver stations' footprint covered much of the Victoria area and vice versa, CTV network programs would usually air on CHEK on alternative nights and/or in different timeslots compared to CHAN).
This meant that for the four years between CIVT's launch and the 2001 realignment, CHAN and CIVT were effectively in competition with each other for programming to which CTV held the broadcast rights — the network sometimes reclassified programs from one stream to the other, possibly to help boost CIVT in the Vancouver ratings, in any event often leaving CHAN with little control over parts of its own program schedule. It was also widely expected, although not publicly confirmed by CTV until after Canwest announced its plans for CHAN, that the network would simply transfer all of its programming to CIVT when its affiliation agreements with CHAN and CHEK ended.
As a result of the WIC takeover, Global assumed ownership of CHAN and chose to retain it instead of its less powerful existing O&O CKVU-TV. Due to the rules on concentration of media ownership set forth by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), Global could not retain both stations simultaneously with Victoria's CHEK, so it put CKVU on the market. CKVU's sale to CHUM Limited for $125 million was announced on April 13, 2001, and was approved by the CRTC on October 15 of the same year.
CHAN and CHEK's affiliation agreements with CTV were originally due to end in 2000; in view of the uncertainty surrounding the local media landscape, CTV and Canwest renewed those agreements to expire on September 1, 2001, which became the date for the affiliation switch.
Read more about this topic: 2001 Vancouver TV Realignment
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