CKXT-TV

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CKXT-TV
Image:SUN-TV.png
Toronto, Ontario
Branding	SUN TV
Slogan	Fun to watch
Channels	52 (UHF), cable 15 analog, 66 (UHF) digital
Translators	CKXT-TV-1 Hamilton 45 (a) / 15 (d)
Affiliations	Independent
Owner	Quebecor Media, via Groupe TVA (75%) and Sun Media (25%) (SUN TV Company)
Founded	September 19, 2003
Call letters meaning	CKX (call sign of the first television station owned by CKXT's original owners, Craig Media) Toronto
Website	suntv.canoe.ca

CKXT-TV is an independent broadcast television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada which uses the on-air brand of SUN TV. The station is currently owned by Quebecor Media, and is one of very few truly independent stations in Canada in that it does not air the programming of any larger Canadian network or system, including French-language sister network TVA.

The station began broadcasting on September 19, 2003, on channel 52. The station also has a rebroadcast transmitter in Hamilton on channel 45. It also broadcasts in ATSC on channel 66 in Toronto and on channel 15 in Hamilton. The station was known as Toronto 1 until August 29, 2005.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Toronto 1: Licensing and launch 1.2 Sale to Quebecor and relaunch 2 Current programming 3 External links

History

Toronto 1: Licensing and launch

Craig Media Inc. was awarded a license for Toronto 1 (originally rendered "Toronto One") by the CRTC on April 8, 2002 in a non-unanimous and somewhat controversial decision regarding five competing applications for new Toronto-area TV stations. Torstar was widely deemed the frontrunner for the licence, but its proposed schedule, which many called an "innovative" locally-oriented proposal, was found to be unviable by most commissioners. Several existing broadcasters were opposed to any new broadcasters being licensed in the Toronto area, due to the unstable economic climate. (Alliance Atlantis and CanWest Global were also failed applicants. At the same time Rogers applied for and received a second Toronto multicultural station licence, OMNI.2, in a much less controversial decision.)

This also marked the first time that Craig Media had been granted a license to compete directly with a station owned by CHUM Limited, which meant that CHUM lost sales revenues from the broadcast rights it had contracted to Craig's A-Channel stations. CHUM retaliated by applying for broadcast licenses in Calgary, Alberta and Edmonton, Alberta, two markets it had previously avoided so as not to compete directly with Craig. The CRTC ended up denying CHUM's applications.

The station proved to be a complete disaster for Craig. It was frequently criticized in the Toronto media when it launched, particularly for flashy but vacuous and repetitive local content, and for an uninspired prime time schedule based heavily on movies, much like CHUM's longstanding CITY. Columnist Russell Smith of The Globe and Mail even went so far as to call Toronto 1 a "wretched excuse for a television station." (The Globe and Mail at the time was owned by the same company that owned competitor CTV).

On May 19, 2004, Craig announced that 28 Toronto 1 employees, in addition to 9 employees working at CKAL in Calgary, Alberta, were being laid off. In addition, a large portion of Toronto 1's original programming, including weekday morning show Toronto Today and late evening show Last Call, were cancelled. Some of the hosts, such as Wei Chen and Roz Weston, remained with the station in other roles at that point. Craig Media said the cuts were made to "further rationalize its operations and control costs". [1]

None of the changes worked, and Craig was forced to sell its conventional television assets to CHUM. CHUM was required, due to CRTC competition regulations, to divest itself of the station, owing to its already strong presence in the Toronto television market.

Sale to Quebecor and relaunch

CHUM eventually agreed to sell the station to Quebecor Media, the media unit of Montreal-based communications congomerate Quebecor. The deal was completed on December 2, 2004; Quebecor gave CHUM $46 million (CAD) and Sun Media's 29.9% share in CablePulse24 for CKXT. Ownership was split, 75%/25%, between QMI's publicly-traded broadcasting unit Groupe TVA and wholly-owned publishing subsidiary Sun Media.

Subsequent to the station's sale to Quebecor, the new management cancelled its evening news program, Toronto Tonight, and announced it would expand its entertainment magazine program The A-List to one hour in length, airing weeknights from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m (which was later reduced to a weekend only timeslot, effective March 24, 2006). The station was officially rebranded "SUN TV" on August 29, 2005. A late-night sports talk show, The Grill Room, premiered on September 1.

Even before Toronto Tonight ended on June 30, 2005, former Toronto Tonight co-anchor Ben Chin announced he would be moving to Global Television Network as a senior news correspondent; later that summer he decided to enter political life instead as a member of Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty's communications team. He soon ran an unsuccessful campaign in an Ontario by-election in March 2006. Fellow Toronto Tonight co-anchor Sarika Sehgal was also let go. In late 2005, Sehgal joined the 24-hour news channel CBC Newsworld as a host. In the winter of 2003, "Toronto Tonight" correspondent Chris Mavridis left to join CBS News as a New York based network correspondent. Considered by many as a news innovator, it was reported he'd been in the center of a heated bidding war between CBS and NBC. In addition to anchoring and reporting, Mavridis later consulted for CBS News, creating new programming for the network's broadcast and online divisions.

Current programming

Under its current management and branding, the station has met its Canadian content obligations primarily by airing repeats of old CBC Television series such as King of Kensington, The Beachcombers and Side Effects.

The performance of CKXT under Quebecor was no better than it was under Craig -- in March 2006, the Canadian Media Guild announced that 13 employees would be laid off from the station, including its entire marketing department, and Inside Jam (the rebranded A-List) would be relegated to weekends only. A new program, Canoe Live, launched in May 2006 to poor reviews.

At the same time, the station has stepped up its acquisitions of U.S. network series, albeit mainly the "leftovers" of other Canadian networks. The fall 2006 schedule, for instance, includes Veronica Mars, 60 Minutes, COPS, America's Most Wanted, Girlfriends, and both of the original MyNetworkTV telenovelas, Desire and Fashion House. The first four programs aired on other Canadian television networks but with poor ratings. The station has apparently elected not to air future MNTV programming after the first two series concluded on December 5, 2006.

The station has recently applied for rebroadcasters in Ottawa and London in order to improve its reach across southern Ontario; the move would give the station coverage roughly equal to that of CITY, OMNI.1 or OMNI.2.

Wikipedia information about CKXT-TV This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "CKXT-TV". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.