TSN Signs Biggest Deal Ever for Broadcasting 2026

The new Commissioner of the CFL Stewart Johnston is a former TSN executive and it stands to reason the teams across the league were looking for a good TV deal to give them. The league got the highest price and the most game ever across TV, cable and streaming. The estimated amount of money paid out is $500 million over six years. The previous six years was $50 million season.

Bell Media does the most in broadcasts through TSN, CTV and Crave. They will carry 60 of 81 games on Thursday Night Football  and Friday Night Football games starting on next year. DAZN becomes the new streaming partner and will start a new Saturday Night Football program for CFL that has its own broadcast crew, play by play, colour and sideline staff. All CFL broadcasts will be available on DAZN internationally for free.

DAZN is a paid service premium versus watching on basic cable. All sports watching has a fee attached, it will just be curious what one game a week on DAZN ends up costing. Their basic service now is $29.00 Canadian a month. That might be steep for a month where your team only places once or twice on the channel.

As for YouTube, they will be covering pre-season games. Not clear on if they have their own broadcast team for that. They will also cover the CFL Combine which is exciting because it really is a fan experience when done right. There will also be a lot of CFL material on YouTube such as highlights and other features. An All Access behind the scenes show is planned.

To be sure there is a need for more clarity on exactly the costs and the coverage for this extended CFL coverage. It is doubtful Americans would pay that type of money for one NFL game a week for a subscription so why would DAZN think Canadians would? Hope the company clarifies this as there are sure to be questions. Two play-off games are to be on DAZN. Do you need a year subscription to get those?

Make no mistake this is a very good news story for the CFL. They money stabilizes the league finances for years to come. There may be more TV deals coming. The U.S. rights are currently held by CBS Sports for $1 million a year. It stands to reason there may be more coming, especially if there are more teams and more product. Could we see a CBS renewal and more term and money? Or are their other sports networks out there that might want the CFL?

There are a lot of rule changes this year so we'll see if the product on the field makes for exciting football. It is still unique compared to the NFL. That has always been a strength. Too much like the NFL though and there question might be: why a CFL at all? 

Peter Young Passes Away 2026

Peter Young was the sports guy who turned CKY into a powerhouse of local in 1974 when he came aboard as sports director from background in sports reporting in Thunder Bay. The job was part time and he attended school at University of Manitoba for a Master's program at the same time. The heavy competition between radio, TV and print to cover sports in Winnipeg became a big deal when the WHA Jets came on the scene in 1972. Very few games were televised back then so it relied on radio, TV and print to cover the games in reporting form.

There have been a few reports on his passing. Take note of Marty Gold's story in the Winnipeg Sun. He does a far better job than CTV news with their 47 second story about the death of the person who helped the station take number one and keep it all these decades. His interview two years ago with Peter Young shows there is still important stories to tell on people in the city that can't come from generative AI. The sooner the owners of AI pay creators of content rather than just scraping the Internet of material they don't own, the better.

Peter Young was responsible for a lot of the sports and entertainment hires in Winnipeg. Don Percy and Rod Black both came to the city either with job offers or referrals. In one funny story related on Marty Gold's story, he helped a Blue Bomber player get a job in another city when his time ran out here. I expect the memorial service will bring out all the stories and hope some get to be made.

Peter Young was not content to do just a re-cap of a few professional sports, he set out to cover local amateur sports in a major way. It really forced other media to increase coverage. Now, most newscasts in Winnipeg don't mention much about sports at all, even professional ones. But it wasn't always that way.

My recollection of Peter Young is the multiple sports he covered including three Olympics and the Wide World of Sports where he was prolific. School athletes were always given priority and reporting on coaching and teams with player highlights was not just a tiny spot on the one hour broadcast. It was a focus of that was superior to the public broadcaster for local sports.

Sports coverage is evolving for sure. However, one thing can be said about the new digital coverage. None of it focuses on local sports. It is generally all professional sports. Peter Young showed that it was possible to do it. He gave many reporters both men and women their first chance at broadcasting. He covered so many different sports that he was indispensable in telling the story to Winnipeg and throughout Canada. 

His kind of reporting will be missed.

The Hour of Worship Fargo and Religious TV in Winnipeg

Winnipeg knows something about faith broadcasting. Initially, it was radio with Mennonite gospel on CKRC as early as 1947. The radio station CFAM started in 1956 and had a lot of Mennonite religious programs populated the airwaves, In 2020, Winnipeg got its first faith-based channel on FM radio.

One of the reasons the CRTC came in to being was the faith-based broadcasts out of Alberta from Ernest Manning were exploding across Canada where the premier/evangelist made requests for money. This raised concern in Ottawa and the CRTC was formed so that CBC was not the arbiter of broadcasting.

Mennonites were prime drivers of religious broadcasting in Manitoba and while their start came in radio, by the 1960s moves to TV broadcasting began. In Winnipeg, Calvary Temple started Faith to Live by on CJAY which later became CKY/CTV in 1962. It is now one of the longest running TV shows in Canada.

The first faith TV broadcast began in 1950 on ABC in New York during TV's infancy. TV arrived in Canada two years later and the first broadcast in Manitoba was CBC in Winnipeg in 1954, It consisted of three hours of programming. Consumers started buying black and white TV and the programming on CBC grew and it was 1960 when CJAY joined CBWT in Winnipeg as the first private station. The same year, CBWFT, French CBC began broadcasting. 

Across the border KCND in Pembina, North Dakota began to broadcast. With rabbit ear or antennae, it could be seen in parts of the city. This brought a total of four TV stations that could be seen in the city and the 1960s saw a huge increase in programming. Some of it was Canadian, lots of it American but with literally so many hours to fill, much of it was local. Some of that was by mandate but some was practicality of it being cheaper to fill than buying elsewhere.

CJAY at two years old welcomed Calvary Temple's Faith to Live By because production was handled by the church and it filled time on Sunday mornings that the station wasn't sure what to do with. Manitoba on Sundays was very quiet. Blue Bomber games were not allowed to be played on Sundays till 1965! The churches ruled the roost. No shopping, no games and even after 1965, mornings were pretty quiet. So Faith to Live by in 1962 kind of had the audience there for it.

Cable TV did not reach River Heights where I lived until 1968. And until 1970 my parents rented so it was not up to them to install the cable at $10 and pay $5 a month. We moved into our home in late summer of 1970 and by late 1971 had both colour and cable TV. The colour TV was a gift from my grandparents.

Colour TV did not come out till 1966 in Canada but so much of broadcasting was in black and white. Literally everyone I knew was getting colour TVs between 1968 and 1972. In our house, it was Saturday morning cartoons in colour that was a huge attraction. Jetsons and Flintstones were among the the first full colour series to be produced for TV. Older Warner Bros. material that originally has been in colour on the big screen was well suited for Saturday morning.

Sunday was not a day for cartoons in the morning. In Winnipeg there wasn't even a Sunday newspaper. Today, we have Vision TV and JOY-TV for faith-based programming. However, through the 1960s and 1970s Sundays and sometimes early mornings there was faith-based programming. As mentioned, Faith to Live By was one of the earliest on the air in 1962 and now one of the longest running faith programs in Canada. A few others were around for decades like It's a New Day. Church of the Rock has been on CityTV since 1996. Meanwhile, Mennonite broadcasting is done based here in Winnipeg in multi-languages for Russian and Spanish audiences.

Most people who watched TV in the 1960s through 1990s on cable would be aware of Jimmy Swaggert, Jim Bakker, Pat Robertson and whole lost of other televangelists in the U.S. However, there was some more traditionally services on the air too. In North Dakota, a Lutheran Church founded in 1950 began to broadcast in 1967 and because of cable, it was on the dial on WDAZ from the mother channel WDAY in Fargo. This year that church is 75 years old and the broadcast continues to be seen on cable in Winnipeg.

Elim Lutheran Church is a modest church in the Fargo-Moorhead area and because of the reach of cable has been part of the Winnipeg Sunday morning programming since 1968 when cable reached the city. North Dakota and Manitoba have shared a prairies experience living along the Red River. One can imagine the Swedish meatballs that will be eaten at their celebrations as the reach age 75.

It is a reminder that while times are more difficult now, we still share a heritage. The threats weekly from the U.S. ambassador in Canada notwithstanding, it is notable that our contact with our southern neighbour have lasted decades. 

Bell Media to Close CFRW Funny 1290 AM

Bell Media laid off 1,300 staff on June 14, 2023. In Winnipeg, it means CFRW Funny 1290 AM has been closed down. The 60 year old station had one of three top stations for decades and had regained some mojo as TSN Sports Radio with Winnipeg Jets coverage till 2020. But the station gave up the rights and wet to a low cost comedy format. However, even lower ratings and poor ad sales, Bell shut the station along with five others and sold three more.

This was not the only bloodletting. Bell shut down foreign bureaus, fired senior reporters and unified the news room for all radio and TV stations across the country. London and Los Angeles bureaus are shut down, Washington Bureau majorly cut. Ottawa Bureau Chief Joyce Napier, chief international correspondent Paul Workman, senior political correspondent Glen McGregor and London news correspondent Danielle  Hamandjian and Los Angeles Bureau Chief Tom Walters were all fired.

The loss of CFRW will generally only be felt by those with nostalgia. The comedy format on the AM dial was not compelling enough for audiences. However, back in the day CFRW, CKY, CKRC and CJOB battled it out. Eventually CFRW and CKY led a multi-year battle for top 40 radio listeners through the 1970s and 1980s. I was partial to CFRW myself but would flip back and forth between CKY and CFRW in the case. The yellow CFRW offices on Main Street were recognizable there for years. In recent years they have been on Pembina Highway with sister stations Virgin 103 and Bounce 99.

The growing strength of FM music station eventually led to format changes or stages where AM players moved to the FM dial. CKY was one station that jumped to GM and changed formats. CBC carries a signal on both and FM. CJOB remains the one large holdout.

In recent news, it has been announced that new cars will not have AM stations anymore. Only FM and HD Radio will be automatic (although many cars also have Sirius XM built in). and  It seems the writing is on the wall is for AM and makes you wonder when CJOB will move to FM. Stations with only an AM signal will lose audience for every new car that goes on the road. There are no HD Radio channels in Manitoba presently. For those who see it on their new cars, it is a curiosity unless they have travelled to the United States recently. Then a station will pop up and say HD radio and can have at least three other stations off the same signal. Public radio in the U.S. seems to have taken advantage of this quite well where they will have their main signal but run classical music and other fare on the other channels. A top 40 radio station might have sub-channels of Spanish or oldies.  There are a number of other provinces that have dipped their toes into this. Quebec Radio-Canada channels seems to have caught on with it. Might we see this in Manitoba?

The big concern is the combined newsroom Bell Media is talking about. Does it mean a Toronto anchor for local broadcasts in Winnipeg? Or do local news broadcasts just stop because local stations are closed and we only get a Toronto broadcast? What we do know is that CTV National news is going to be less international, less experienced and less unique in what it broadcasts. The answer for revenue is one news group for all platforms with the goal of increasing profits. But to what end? Is a sale to a U.S. hedge fund for the whole company in the works? To create the circumstances for a Rogers/Bell merger? What? Is the answer one big giant company for all of Canada for media?

In the mean time, we can reflect on the end of a 60 year old radio station in CFRW that is gone. If Canada is about to approach 40 million people, how is it that we can support less local media?

Pierre Poilevere To End CBC If Elected

By Manning Centre c/o: Jake Wright - Flickr, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32870907

The leader of the Official Opposition has made it is mission to defund the CBC. For his base supporters, this has been an objective for decades. In actuality, he wants to defund English CBC while keeping Radio-Canada which would require a change to the Broadcast Act. And likely an explanation why Canadian taxpayers should support one over the other.

The defund the CBC platform is right on the Conservative website. But why not Radio-Canada in Quebec? The answer is votes in Quebec. The Conservatives need to find votes there or some way to win a majority. The big question is whether Quebecers will believe that Conservatives would actually stop defunding at English CBC and not continue to gut the whole corporation.

Outside of the Conservative party, it is unclear whether is support for ending CBC. In recent weeks, Poilevere has been trying get Twitter to classify CBC, among others, as government funded. He succeeded in doing so and says this is evidence of the network being a propaganda arm of the Trudeau government. This is an accusation he has made against all forms of media in Canada for twenty years. It is a dubious accusation because he has never able to show marching orders coming from the Liberal government to slant stories. His argument is that it is self evident which requires no proof. This may be adequate for the base but to win an election on this will require a little more substance.

People will want to know what actually happens if the CBC is actually closed. Does it include radio? Does it include northern Canada? Will assets be sold to the private sector? Will Hockey Night in Canada have less of a reach in the country where some places won't be able to get it without difficulty? Will government support also be dropped for other print, radio and TV. Will Canadian content guidelines and ownership rules be eliminated?

One question leads to another and even some who might be allies ideologically with the Conservatives might come to realize implications beyond a victory of seeing the CBC ended. The big companies that own the media, including the Sun and Postmedia, also receive money from the government. Ending the CBC doesn't necessarily help if it ends their supports too. And if their supports remain, the base of the Tory party might ask why. Quite simply, the Conservatives will have to explain why they pick winners and losers for support. Keep in mind the Winnipeg Free Press, Winnipeg Sun and all the private stations including CJOB receive some sort of government money, protection or support. Does everyone get cut off? And if they do and news rooms shut down around the country, does this serve the nation well?

As for cozying up to Elon Musk and Twitter, it seems seeking legitimacy in someone who receives government money for Tesla as well as SpaceX while devaluing his overpaid asset in Twitter, is shortsighted. I left Twitter some time ago. I'm not sure what the future is there and who knows if anything will survive AI. Even Elon Musk is afraid of AI because the veracity of real human beings on the site is near impossible. A blue check make might not keep AI from flooding a site like Twitter with inhuman conversations.

But back to CBC. it seems to generate the same hatred in the far right that Trudeau does. It is a deep and ferocious anger that is slightly deranged which is ironic because that is what they often accuse the left of in terms political leaders on the right. One wonders what happens if they truly get their wish and end CBC's existence if that will make them happy. Or will they be like the dog chasing bumpers finally catching one and then not knowing what to do with themselves after as in the case of conservatives defeating Roe v Wade in the U.S.

In the case of the U.S, some Republican are wondering now that they have achieved their goal on abortion, how do they win elections after if the feeling is that they are the wrong side of how Americans actually think? For Conservatives in Canada, if they achieve a majority and end the CBC, do they find that the decision produces another majority or makes them a one term government? Do they care? I suppose they should because as demonstrated by south of the border, elections have consequences. And if your record is one of competent governance, fighting culture battles seems a waste of time and energy.

The $1.2 billion in government funds and the $500 million of commercial revenues helps run a coast to coast to coast network. Eliminating English CBC means that Radio-Canada won't have source material to provide nation-wide information in Quebec. Presently, no other network does that. And in the north, will resources still be left if place there for non-English and French programming? Or do they only get information from the south...in non-native languages? 

If Conservatives become the government, actual legislation has to be introduced to indicate what the plan is. Will the network be sold? Will assets be sold? Will the government allow international players to come in buy CBC, other Canadian networks? Will they eliminate Canadian content regulations? Will they eliminate Canadian ownership rules? It is can of worms where the outcome is unknown. Will it end up with U.S. owned media that eliminates all news in Canada and even hockey coverage because there is no mandate to produce content made in Canada?

While it might appear to be controversial bringing attention to this policy of Pierre Poilevere, it is something that he brings up in every speech. Not Ukraine, but this. He wants his policy to be known and in the absence of a defined way a Conservative government achieves this, we can envision almost anything. It is no wonder that Conservative MPS in Quebec don't want to say anything on this. They are literally hiding under their desks as Radio-Canada remains popular in Quebec. Even if this branch of CBC is preserved, questions about what changes to the Broadcast act and budget will invariably have to be discussed. 

It is possible the Conservatives believe they lost the last elections, including the one when Harper was prime minister, because of the CBC and the media. His supporters seems to think so and it isn't likely anyone can convince them otherwise. It is not much different than Republicans believing the election results were altered and instigating an insurrection. This belief that media is for the left flies in the face of print media across Canada endorsing Conservatives pretty much across the board. As for TV, they don't do editorial endorsement and every news show have Conservatives on their panels to explain policy.

Sadly, many government and opposition parties are frequently avoiding media and are more reluctant to share any information or take questions. Case in point is Joe Biden has down fewer news conferences than Ronald Reagan. This is deliberate on his part. Canada's House of Commons makes it more difficult to hide from questions. However, Question Period is a poor format for information and is more about talking points. It is why journalism can be so effective. It is this journalism that Poilevere depended on this week to reveal Prime Minister Trudeau's visit to Jamaica to a billionaire's house.

Poilevere reaching out to Twitter feels childish and angry. Elon Musk is pushing all the buttons there while the adults in business are heading for the doors. There has to be some serious concern with Conservatives being a freaking train wreck firing Bank of Canada Governor, ending the CBC and ending all the carbon taxes in the first 100 days and watching some serious responses. Not all of it will come from Canada. Much of it will come from world markets. 

It isn't entirely clear that Poilevere can pivot from Opposition to Government. His permanent campaign of anger and accusation that nothing is working means his approach might be a bull in china shop. It also doesn't bode well for letting his cabinet operate independently. It could very well be him in the Prime Minister's Office not telling anyone what he is doing akin to Brian Pallister. Except, you can expect it to be more of a disaster than a premier ditching WWII ceremonies to go on a tour of Europe and visit businesses without their staff.

If the Conservatives expect to win the next election, they need to look less unhinged. They really don't appear to be able to show they are competent enough to take over for a government that walks into rakes all too regularly. It doesn't look great that they walk into rakes just as much.

Gord Leclerc Laid Off from CTV News Winnipeg

At one time CBC News in Winnipeg was number 1. CKY and later CKND and much later than that MTN were way behind in the ratings. Garth Dawley read the news from 1970 to 1983 and CBC was solidly in front. In 1983, CBC enhanced that success with the changes both nationally and locally. The National and The Journal had moved to 10 PM and the Winnipeg 24 Hours supertime broadcast had Sandra Lewis in 1985 and Kevin Evans in a solid combination that dominated the 1980s news. Often full length 24 Hours documentaries from Winnipeg would headline The Journal. The product being produced was that good.

CBC would tinker with the format nearly non-stop from 1990 to 2000 due to cutbacks or news format changes such as the Canada Now experiment that tried to place a national news broadcast at the supper hour. That experiment extended to the national news moving to 9 PM with poor results till it moved back to 10 PM.

Sandra Lewis would move on and the news in Winnipeg would be anchored by Diana Swain from 1995 to 2000 with some maternity leave breaks in there as well. It was around 2000 when Swain left that the local news in Winnipeg switched. It was no longer number 1 in the market. They stuck it long term with some familiar faces that were not headed off to Toronto like Lewis and Swain. It was a bit of a revolving door after that. Krista Erikison and Jennifer Rattray along with some fill in anchors for seven years with multiple format changes with Canada Now.

Meanwhile, CKY stuck to its knitting. They brought a reporter called Gord Leclerc in 1995 and in 2002 he became the news anchor. The one format remained intact and they allowed for community personalities to evolve. Sylvia Kuzyk in weather gave a sense of continuity. Janet Stewart as Leclerc's co-anchor and John Sauder would add to 6:00 PM lock on number 1 for CTV News.

In a uprising change though, Janet Stewart left CTV tin 2006 to anchor CBC News at Six in January of 2007. She would not make the move alone, John Sauder who had also been at CTV since 2000 would also join the CBC broadcast team in 2007. Sauder was a well known commodity for Winnipeg for being the pilot and traffic reporter for Winnipeg from 1984 and flying at "Captain John" for decades. Alas, Stewart and Sauder were not able to break the stranglehold CTV had on 6 PM news. However, you could say that a partnership was more solidly worked out with the radio division using TV news people that has helped CBC Radio One achieve number 1 status in Winnipeg and across the country.

Leclerc at CTV would be eventually joined by Maralee Caruso in 2007. Caruso was a veteran of the newsroom since 2001. Together, the two anchors continued CTV News at Six dominance despite the efforts of CBC to re-take lead with Stewart and Sauder.

In 2019, CTV News in Winnipeg unceremoniously dumped Gord Leclerc and wiped him from website. It was described purely a budgetary matter. All of the past years has seen CTV cutting staff. They're not the only ones. CBC across the country wielded the hatchet this week, mostly in Toronto.

After nearly 25 years, Leclerc was erased from the news. Were it not for his industry friends, it is likely no one would have known the day it happened. Not even an acknowledgement the broadcast took place. Maralee Caruso continues to be solo anchor but it must have caused a chill for all of CTV Winnipeg. The rumour has been that the network has been interested in maybe cutting even more.

The years of community engagement and charity work counted for nothing. And while it is a business, it is a pretty cruel one. The chasing of ratings and advertising money has meant people come and go. However, it is worth noting that Leclerc helped them achieve and maintain number 1 in the market. The very stability and consistency that made CTV number 1 might tip the tables back in favour of the CBC News at Six program.

Can a job offer from other media in Winnipeg for Leclerc be in the offing? Or will all those years of community engagement bring other job offers.

Still, if CBC really wanted to stick CTV in the high, they would hire Gord Leclerc.

Jerry Lewis Telethon and the Start of CKND 1975

The star in the middle is supposed to represent Winnipeg for the Jerry Lewis Telethon.

It was 44 years ago this week (August 31, 1975 to be exact) that CKND went on the air. A half hour program called Introducing CKND aired at 9 PM and then at 9:30 PM the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon came on the air. At 10 years old I had never really seen a Jerry Lewis film before. We had only gotten cable four years earlier after starting the decade in 1970 with a black and white TV and only two English channels CBWT and CKY.

We got cable in fall of 1971 which brought KTHI, WDAZ and KXJB from Fargo and Grand Forks, North Dakota. Suddenly a flood of new television programming was flooding in from five English networks and one French network. In 1975 they were joined by two more channels Prairie Public Television and CKND.

CKND was anagram for KCND which broadcast into Winnipeg from Pembina, North Dakota from 1959 to 1975. Izzy Asper and partners bought all the equipment from the station, set up in an old supermarket on St. Mary's, hired 17 of the former owner's staff and on Labour Day weekend went on the air. The 21 1/2 hour MDA Telethon would dominate the airwaves that weekend. There was a lot of excitement and the live performances by so many stars would captivate people the city in a major way.

Our family was home that weekend after camping for a month to Florida. Like most people in the city, we tuned into the new channel. I went to bed after midnight and was up at the crack of dawn fascinated that the same program was soldiering on. And on. The cutaways to local call ins for Winnipeg would not start till a year later so the program pretty much was non-stop Jerry Lewis.

The telethon would be the first time I ever saw Frank Sinatra perform live. I was actually more familiar with Nancy Sinatra (picture below) as her song These Boots Were Made For Walking was played on Winnipeg radio stations and on the Cliffords department store ads. Watching Sinatra perform though with his orchestra was a command performance.

The year 1975, as mentioned, was also the year Prairie Public Television came to Winnipeg. Its starts was less glitzy but together with CKND brought older movies to the screen that the rest of the networks did not. History films like Where Eagles Dare with Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton would air on PBS. CKND, on the other hand, would broadcast The Bowery Boys and all the Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin movies.

By the time 1976 came along, many young people were up to speed up on Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin and a host of others. The 1st anniversary of CKND would bring another WDA Jerry Lewis Telethon and at the behest of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin would go on the Labour Day show. It would be the first time since 1956 that Lewis and Martin would re-unite.

The 1976 telethon would be the most watched of all the Jerry Lewis broadcasts ever and include the most stations. Families in Winnipeg watched together because many kids by this point were as familiar with the stars as their parents were. CKND featured cutaways to their call center and local celebrities were on and MDA took in the most donations in their new history at the time.

Despite seeing so many Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin movies in the first year of CKND's broadcast, I had felt that Dean Martin was the bigger celebrity and movie star. Although, I was really too young to see it, I was aware of the Dean Martin Show on NBC. To be honest, as a kid I was more happy with the Saturday morning cartoons of the U.S. major networks and Space: 1999 on CBC. As as family we were more likely to watch the Sonny and Cher or Carol Burnett shows.

However, on NBC in 1973, the movie Airport was shown on TV and had the highest ratings ever since Love Story broadcast by ABC the previous year. Our whole family watched Airport which had been released theatrically in 1970. I was probably too young to see it as I was scared about flying after. In my mind though, Dean Martin was a star.

It is no surprise then that when Dean Martin appeared with Jerry Lewis and Frank Sinatra on stage at the 1976 MDA Telethon that it was a huge moment in TV history. It was also a fairly amazing 1st anniversary for CKND as well.

The 1970s was really when cable exploded in Winnipeg. TV might have been around since the mid 1950s but for many families like ours, it was no longer just two channels and black and white.

The End of Space Channel

Space, the Imagination Station came into existence in 1997 primarily to block the entry of the American Sci-Fi Channel which started in 1992. The CHUM network was the original owner and where it might not have had a lot of original Canadian dramatic material produced in the beginning, it did produce innovative entertainment and news covering sci-fi and science in general.

The first movie aired was Forbidden Planet followed a commentary from Canadian author Robert Sawyer. Mars Attacks! came next. And so it was that a mix of old and new sci-fi became the staple of programming with zippy documentary style snippets in between. Canadian programming produced on other networks such as Relic Hunter would find a home on Space as did Stargate SG-1. In the past such programming might find it hard to land a spot as second run or syndicated programming. Not every program such as Star Trek was as lucky to be continually running in syndication. On Space, not only Star Trek but every American as well as Canadian program that had even an inkling of sci-fi in it would land on the network.

In some ways Space was able to land programming that even Sci-Fi Channel in the U.S. couldn't land as studios would direct their second run stuff to affiliated cable networks. In Canada, Space was almost always the central repository of sci-fi programming whatever country, network or studio originally aired it. CTVglobemedia acquired CHUM in 2007 and the formula continued of broadcasting sc-fi from around the world and from Canada. in 2011, Space went high definition. That same year Bell took 100% control of Space.

In 2013, Bell began its first re-branding of Space by changing the logo and the slogan to "It's all around you." This coincided with the Canadian co-production of Orphan Black and the network was concerned that the audience associated Space with Star Trek and the like and not on fantasy or speculative fiction.

This was untrue of course. The original slogan of the network was "The imagination station." It was an attempt to broaden Bell's programming restrictions which they chafed at constantly. They always wanted less Canadian in CRTC hearings and as it turned out, less sci-fi programming. Somehow the least sci-fi program Castle was broadcast non-stop on the station.

In the U.S., the Sci-Fi Channel was re-branded SyFy in the same year of 2013 to give Universal a trademark name. This spread all over the world or alternatively Universal channel which was owned by NBCUniversal. To the annoyance of sci-fi fans as early as 2006 the U.S. network was airing Law and Order spin-offs and well as other non-sci-fi entertainment.

Space remains Canadian owned and this will fall will be re-branded once more at CTV Sci-Fi. It will have sister stations CTV Drama, CTV Life and CTV Comedy. The CRTC remains steadfast on Canadian content and the success of some Canadian produced shows has encouraged networks not only to broadcast material but take ownership stakes in it.

Canada is a top producer of TV and film programming but it remains to be seen if the new CTV branding strategy is to help production or to package the entire company for an international sale under a new government.

City TV's Breakfast Television Blown Up

Breakfast TV on City TV Winnipeg was the first to really do local content on early morning TV in Winnipeg. They had the market to themselves. CBC, CTV and Global were all latecomers to the game.

The first version of the show was called The Big Breakfast and started on the old A Channel way back in 1997 and featured Jimmy Mac and Jon Ljungberg. The Craig family-owned stations mimicked Toronto's CityTV program The Big Breakfast started back in 1989.

CityTV used to be a very cutting edge television enterprise and Winnipeg's A-Channel used quite a lot of their programming to fill their Canadian content regulations. However, for their local broadcasts, they had The Big Breakfast which did very well and seemed to not attract any notice from the big players in the market.

For years CKY was content to play Canada AM from Toronto in the Winnipeg market. The ratings were probably sufficient to justify it. CBC also used Newsworld programming in the early hours.

In 2004, the Craig family sold their interests in A-Chanel to CityTV and The Big Breakfast was replaced with Breakfast Television in 2005. Not much really changed as the format was pretty much identical. Aside from hosting changes, BT had the local market to themselves.

However, in 2011 and 2012 CTV and Global Television  entered the local breakfast television market and it appears the first one to blink was CityTV's Breakfast Television.

This week 14 or the 25 staff were given the axe and 11 were assigned to a new radio and TV format hosted by 92 CITI FM star Wheeler and his co-hosts Phil Aubrey and Rena Jae. Two CITYTV hosts Drew Kozub and Jenna Khan have survived the cut and will join the new 6 to 9 program.

It is hard to know how this program will look and feel. It will be shot in the studios of CITYTV at The Forks. The understanding is that when music is played for the radio show, the cut away will be to the CITYTV hosts. If this sounds confusing them you're not alone.

CBC Manitoba will also be doing a radio and TV hybrid where their morning radio hosts will be seen on TV. This is more akin to what we saw with Q, the big CBC radio product formerly hosted by Jian Ghomeshi. The show was routinely broadcast for television as well as radio.

The big difference for CBC's entry into the market is that it really is just a radio show being televised.

It is very difficult to know what this new radio and television concept will look like for CITYTV. However, it is obvious that it has fewer staff, it won't be doing any location work and probably will conduct less community content.

My big question is for 92 CITI is: what do you get out of this? The Wheeler show is one of the top rated radio programs in Winnipeg. Will this help or hinder your status as being on top.

My big question for CITYTV is: Are your costs that much higher that you have to dump so many staff from one of your marquee local programs? Is Rogers looking to get every dollar they can from committing to $5 billion for NHL hockey?

I guess we will also see next week how this plays out.

The loss of CKX

A news story on February 19 indicated that CTV was looking to sell its CKX station in Brandon, Manitoba. The CBC agreement to broadcast its signal over CKX's tower ends in the summer.

The advent of digital programming and the costs associated with it means that CKX is not needed by the CBC to get it signal to the Brandon area. CTV appears to have no interest in the market for its own use despite the fact that it serves over 125,000 people at present.

CKX was founded in 1955 and employs about 40 people.

One wonders how WDAZ can operate in Grand Forks in North Dakota and broadcast in digital no less.

Smaller market stations are threatened all over Canada at the moment as debt laden companies look to cut costs. Winnipeg has already played the part of pawn with stations like Joytv and CityTV changing hands repeatedly.

We already know that Joytv constributes next to nothing to local content and Citytv got rid of its evening newscast.

Now it looks like Brandon will have to get its TV news from Winnipeg. That is, if we don't lose our local news ourselves.



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Winnipeg TV Stations Part 1

From a Winnipeg perspective, one TV station has been a virtual non-entity in terms of local content. That station is OMNI 11 which as of September 1 will be JOYTV.

It was licenced to Trinity Television in 2002 as a religious broadcaster. Just as it was about to go on the air, Rogers bought the station and folded it into its Omni group of stations. While Onni Toronto was a cultural station that delivered news made in Toronto in a variety of the languages of the city, Winnipeg's Omni was religious broadcasting that was mostly produced elsewhere. Both stations padded the rest of their hours with American syndicated programs and an outrageous amount of paid programming.

In 2007, Rogers Communications bought Citytv which included its Winnipeg affiliate, the former MTN. CTVglobemedia had acquired the station in 2006, thereby giving them two stations in Winnipeg. At the time of the takeover, the station was called A Channel.

The Craig family, owners of A Channel had run into trouble in 2003-2004 with labour issues at their Edmonton A-Channel affiliate. Combined with the ongoing trouble keeping its Toronto 1 station afloat, the family looked for an exit. Toronto 1, awarded by the CRTC in 2001 had first looked to be a perfect fit for the growing network of station owned by the Craigs. Instead, it was money loser that dragged the company down.

It was CHUM that came knocking in 2004 with a $265 million buy-out. The Craigs gave up their attempt at another national network and handed the baton to CTV.

The first thing that happened upon the takeover was the axing of the local Citytv news. It seems astounding that it was allowed to happen by the CRTC.

The CRTC had bigger fish to fry. They effectively told CTV they couldn't own Citytv and CTV stations in the same city and forced them to sell off the division. CTV kept the other parts of the CHUM empire and Rogers Communications stepped in to buy the Citytv network.

And all this lead back to Winnipeg's Onni, Channel 11 station. Rogers Communications ended up running into the same problem CTV did: owning two stations in the same market.

The CRTC once again weighed in and forced Rogers to sell one of the two stations they owned in Winnipeg. That station was Omni.

(to be continued)



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