A-Channel (Craig Media) - History

History

A-Channel was first used by Craig Media as it sought to develop a national presence. Originally, Craig owned only two stations in Manitoba: CKX-TV, a CBC Television affiliate in Brandon; and CHMI, an independent station (branded as the Manitoba Television Network, or MTN) in Portage la Prairie and serving Winnipeg. Looking to expand, Craig decided to counter CanWest Global's attempts to obtain licenses from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for television stations in Alberta, with a proposal it dubbed "The Alberta Channel", or "A-Channel" for short. During the first round of hearings in the early 1990s, neither company obtained a licence. However, after a second round in the mid-1990s, Craig won against CanWest. (CanWest later bought out Western International Communications and assumed control of its Alberta-based stations.)

A-Channel stations in Edmonton (CKEM-TV) and Calgary (CKAL) were launched in 1997. They billed themselves as very locally-oriented stations, with programming decisions made in Alberta and not Toronto. Programming included the local morning show The Big Breakfast, CityLine and Prime Ticket Movies, a brand initially used at MTN. MTN joined the A-Channel system in 1999.

Craig established the A-Channel Production Fund which provided financing for made-in-Alberta television movies which A-Channel would air. The most notable of these was an adaptation of A Christmas Carol starring Jack Palance.

In the late 1990s, Craig tried to expand the A-Channel network to other markets, either by acquisition or by pursuing new licenses. When Canwest purchased WIC, Craig attempted to force the company to resell WIC's Hamilton station CHCH (as Canwest already owned CIII in the Toronto/Hamilton market). It also pursued stations up for grabs in Montreal (CFCF-TV) and Vancouver (CKVU), and applied for a new licence in Victoria. All these attempts failed: Canwest was allowed to keep CHCH; Craig was outbid by other buyers for CFCF and CKVU; and CHUM won the Victoria licence (CIVI). However, in 2001, the company's persistence seemed to pay off: The CRTC granted Craig a licence for a station in Toronto, CKXT (known as Toronto 1), which was not officially part of the A-Channel system, but aired a similar program lineup and also adopted a similar logo. CKXT went on air on September 19, 2003.

A-Channel Edmonton's employees went on strike on September 17, 2003 during negotiations for a first contract. The station filled airtime primarily with live feeds of MTV Canada. The labour dispute was resolved on February 14, 2004.

On April 12, 2004, CHUM Limited announced a deal to purchase Craig Media for $265 million. The sale was approved by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission on November 19, 2004, and was completed on December 1. CHUM had to sell off Toronto 1, because it already owned stations in Toronto (CITY) and nearby Barrie (CKVR). Toronto 1 was sold to Quebecor Media, owners of the media units TVA and Sun Media.

In February 2005, CHUM announced it would align Craig's A-Channel stations with its existing major-market stations under the Citytv name. The change took effect on August 2 of the same year, when the A-Channel name was transferred to CHUM's NewNet stations.

With the subsequent takeover of CHUM Limited in 2007, all three of the Craig Media's A-Channel stations were sold to Rogers Communications and are now owned by Rogers Media under the Citytv banner which is currently branded as City in late 2012, while the former NewNet stations along with most of CHUM Limited's former assets were sold to CTVglobemedia in 2007 which was subsequently sold to Bell Canada in 2011 and are now owned by Bell Media branded as CTV Two.