CKXT-TV
Encyclopedia
CKXT-DT was a broadcast
television station
based in Toronto
, Ontario
, Canada
and serving much of southern and eastern Ontario, owned by Quebecor Media
through its Groupe TVA
unit. At the time of the station's closure on November 1, 2011, the station was serving as an over-the-air simulcast of Quebecor's cable news channel, Sun News Network (Sun News). The station transmitted on channel 52 in Toronto.
CKXT began broadcasting on September 19, 2003 as a general-interest independent station branded Toronto 1 and was owned by Craig Media. Following the station's sale to Quebecor, it was rebranded as SUN TV on August 29, 2005. It then began to simulcast Sun News upon that channel's launch on April 18, 2011.
Although Sun News was licensed as a Category C (optional carriage) digital specialty channel
, CKXT, as a broadcast station, had mandatory cable carriage in its over-the-air service area. Hence the simulcast meant that Sun News programming was available to analog cable subscribers throughout southern and eastern Ontario. However, the station retained its own broadcast license separate from the specialty channel. The station's Ottawa transmitter was closed on August 31, 2011, while the remaining transmitters in Toronto, Hamilton, and London were closed on November 1, 2011.
Craig Media was awarded a licence for Toronto 1 (originally stylized as "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
, which proposed a "Hometown Television" format with stations in Toronto, Hamilton, and Kitchener, was widely deemed the frontrunner for the licence. However, its proposed schedule, with minimum 85% Canadian content consisting primarily of local and regional programming and no U.S. simulcast
s, was found to be unviable by most commissioners. Several existing broadcasters were opposed to any new broadcasters being licensed in the Toronto area because of the unstable economic climate. Alliance Atlantis
and Canwest were also failed applicants. At the same time Rogers
applied for and received a licence for a second Toronto multicultural station, OMNI.2
, in a much less controversial decision.
This also marked the first time that Craig Media had been granted a licence 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 licences in Calgary
and Edmonton
, two markets it had previously avoided so as not to compete directly with Craig. The CRTC denied CHUM's applications.
The station proved to be a financial 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
called Toronto 1 a "wretched excuse for a television station".
On May 19, 2004, Craig announced that 28 Toronto 1 employees and nine employees working at CKAL
in Calgary were being laid off. In addition, a large portion of Toronto 1's original programming, including weekday morning show
Toronto Today, variety show The Toronto Show, and late evening talk show Last Call, were cancelled. Some of the hosts, such as Wei Chen
and Roz Weston
, were reassigned to other roles with the station at that point. Craig Media said the cuts were made to "further rationalize its operations and control costs".
None of the changes worked, however, and Craig was forced to sell its conventional television assets to CHUM. CHUM was required by CRTC competition regulations to divest itself of the station, owing to its already strong presence in the Toronto television market.
announced that it would acquire Craig Media for $265 million with plans to divest Toronto 1.
CHUM eventually agreed to sell the station to Quebecor Media, the media unit of Montreal-based communications conglomerate Quebecor
. The deal was completed on December 2, 2004; Quebecor gave CHUM $46 million (CAD
) and Sun Media's 29.9% share in CP24 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 renamed "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 instead to enter political life as a backroom organizer in Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty
's communications team. He soon ran as a Liberal candidate in the Toronto—Danforth
by-election in March 2006, but lost to Peter Tabuns
.
Chin's Toronto Tonight co-anchor Sarika Sehgal
was also let go at the same time. 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. In addition to anchoring and reporting, Mavridis helped create new programming for the network's broadcast radio and online divisions.
Roz Weston
joined ET Canada. Natasha Ramsahai, the morning weather person on Toronto Today, is now a meteorologist for CBLT, while Bill Coulter, the evening weather person on Toronto Tonight, is now a meteorologist for CIII
. Tracy Moore and Dina Pugliese
both joined Citytv Toronto
. Wei Chen is now a host on CBC Radio One
.
As Sun TV, the station met its Canadian content
obligations primarily by airing repeats of older Canadian series such as King of Kensington
, The Beachcombers
, Danger Bay
, Ready or Not, My Secret Identity
, Super Dave
and Side Effects, while also picking up some original non-fiction programming, including the movie review series DVD Show
, the concert series Beautiful Noise
and the food program Street Eats
.
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, was launched in May 2006 to poor reviews.
At the same time, the station stepped up its acquisitions of U.S. network series, albeit mainly the "leftovers" not obtained by other Canadian networks. The fall 2006 schedule, for instance, included Veronica Mars
, 60 Minutes
, COPS
, America's Most Wanted
and Girlfriends
. The first four programs aired on other Canadian television networks but with poor ratings.
CKXT also carried both of the original MyNetworkTV
telenovela
s, Desire
and Fashion House
in 2006, although it scheduled them in the afternoons rather than in prime time. Due to low ratings, the station elected not to air future MNTV telenovelas after the first two series concluded on December 5, 2006. With the conversion of the CH television system to E! Canada, CKXT also picked up some of CHCH-TV
's former daytime programming, including the long-running American game show The Price Is Right
, which has since moved to OMNI.2
.
CKXT-TV is the only English-language independent television station outside of religious & community television stations in Canada
currently on the UHF band.
The station applied for rebroadcasters in Ottawa
and London
in 2007, in order to improve its reach across southern Ontario. The move would give the station coverage roughly equal to that of Citytv
, OMNI.1
or OMNI.2
. On September 14, 2007, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved CKXT's request, giving the station channel 26, digital 19 in London; and channel 54, digital 62 in Ottawa. SUN TV later applied to change its digital channel in Ottawa to 20; this was given approval on June 17, 2008 and began transmissions in September 2008. As of late December 2008 (exact date not known) CKXT was broadcasting in London in high definition on channel 19.1 and standard definition on channel 19.2.
On December 1, 2009, the CRTC approved an application on behalf of Quebecor Media, whereas, through a corporate reorganization, Groupe TVA would acquire SUN Media's 25% stake in CKXT.
and CHEK Media Group (current owners of CHCH-TV, CJNT-TV, and CHEK-TV which they acquired respectively after the E! system folded) announced it was acquiring the rights to virtually all of the first-run U.S. series that had aired on CKXT during the 2009-10 season, including Smallville
, Supernatural
, 60 Minutes
, and Jimmy Kimmel Live!. The programming announcement came amidst speculation that CKXT parent Quebecor Media was planning to launch a new news channel, with some of the rumours suggesting that CKXT might be part of the new venture. On June 15, 2010, Quebecor confirmed its plans for the new Sun News Network with a then-scheduled launch date of January 1, 2011. As part of its plans for Sun News, Groupe TVA submitted an application to the CRTC to replace CKXT's licence with a new three-year Category 1 specialty channel
licence for the news channel. The Category 1 application was declined by the CRTC in July 2010, but a Category 2 application was approved in November 2010. This left CKXT's fate in 2011 unclear (Quebecor management had initially stated that it did not plan to convert CKXT to an over-the-air all-news format).
For the bulk of the 2010-11 season, CKXT broadcast no local programming, and mainly broadcast movies (three movies each weekday, Monday through Friday, at 8 A.M., 1 and 8 P.M.; and a quadruple-feature of movies on Saturdays and Sundays at 3, 5, 7 and 9 P.M.), along with paid programming and a handful of "off-network" series reruns.
A CRTC filing in early 2011, seeking the authority to continue CKXT's operations following the digital conversion
in August 2011, led to speculation that Quebecor was revisiting its earlier decision to surrender its over-the-air licence. Then, in late March 2011, the station's website began to redirect to the Sun News Network URL (the station itself continued to air regular programming). Sun News later confirmed via Twitter that it will simulcast its programming on CKXT, at least initially. The simulcast began at the same time Sun News itself launched, at 4:30pm ET on April 18, 2011.
Bell Satellite TV dropped CKXT the morning of Tuesday, May 3, due to a dispute with Quebecor on whether or not carriage fees should be levied, as Sun News was broadcast via CKXT, leading to Bell treating Sun News as a terrestrial channel (i.e. available without carriage fees), while Quebecor argued that it should charge Bell TV for the rights, as it was a licensed cable specialty channel. (The outage did not affect Bell Fibe TV
in the Toronto area, which was compelled to carry CKXT.)
in Hull, Quebec left the air; all other defunct stations in Canada became repeaters of other stations almost seamlessly). In addition, CIAN-TV Calgary
& CJAL-TV Edmonton
were closed down as they became the cable-only CTV Two Alberta on August 31 that same year
. As a result, the station will not receive mandatory carriage in Toronto, Hamilton, London and Ottawa. Sun News programming will only be available on cable and satellite carrying the specialty channel. In the Toronto area, Rogers-owned CityNews Channel
took the place of CKXT on their former cable 15 channel slot shortly thereafter.
Digital channels>
Subchannel
Programming
x.1
CKXT-DT HD feed
x.2
CKXT-DT SD feed
The same program content is duplicated on both subchannels.
After the analogue television shutdown and digital conversion
, which took place on August 31, 2011, CKXT-DT remained on channel 66 until its closedown at the end of October. Through the use of PSIP
, digital television receivers would display CKXT-DT's virtual channel
as 52.1.
CKXT-DT-1 in Hamilton and CKXT-DT-2 London stayed on 15 and 19 respectively, following the transition until their closedowns.
Terrestrial television
Terrestrial television is a mode of television broadcasting which does not involve satellite transmission or cables — typically using radio waves through transmitting and receiving antennas or television antenna aerials...
television station
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
based in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and serving much of southern and eastern Ontario, owned by Quebecor Media
Quebecor Media Inc.
Quebecor Media Inc. is a Canadian media company. Quebecor Inc. owns the controlling interest with 54.72% while CDP Capital d’Amérique Investissements Inc. owns the remaining 45.28%...
through its Groupe TVA
TVA (TV network)
TVA is a privately owned French language television network in Canada. The network is currently owned by Groupe TVA Inc. , a publicly traded subsidiary of Quebecor Media...
unit. At the time of the station's closure on November 1, 2011, the station was serving as an over-the-air simulcast of Quebecor's cable news channel, Sun News Network (Sun News). The station transmitted on channel 52 in Toronto.
CKXT began broadcasting on September 19, 2003 as a general-interest independent station branded Toronto 1 and was owned by Craig Media. Following the station's sale to Quebecor, it was rebranded as SUN TV on August 29, 2005. It then began to simulcast Sun News upon that channel's launch on April 18, 2011.
Although Sun News was licensed as a Category C (optional carriage) digital specialty channel
Specialty channel
A specialty channel can be a commercial broadcasting or non-commercial television channel which consists of television programming focused on a single genre, subject or targeted television market at a specific demographic....
, CKXT, as a broadcast station, had mandatory cable carriage in its over-the-air service area. Hence the simulcast meant that Sun News programming was available to analog cable subscribers throughout southern and eastern Ontario. However, the station retained its own broadcast license separate from the specialty channel. The station's Ottawa transmitter was closed on August 31, 2011, while the remaining transmitters in Toronto, Hamilton, and London were closed on November 1, 2011.
Toronto 1: licensing and launch
Torstar
Torstar Corporation is an independently-owned Canadian broadly based media company that is named after its principal holding, the Toronto Star daily newspaper....
, which proposed a "Hometown Television" format with stations in Toronto, Hamilton, and Kitchener, was widely deemed the frontrunner for the licence. However, its proposed schedule, with minimum 85% Canadian content consisting primarily of local and regional programming and no U.S. simulcast
Simulcast
Simulcast, shorthand for "simultaneous broadcast", refers to programs or events broadcast across more than one medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at the same time. For example, Absolute Radio is simulcast on both AM and on satellite radio, and the BBC's Prom concerts are often...
s, was found to be unviable by most commissioners. Several existing broadcasters were opposed to any new broadcasters being licensed in the Toronto area because of the unstable economic climate. Alliance Atlantis
Alliance Atlantis
Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. was a Toronto-based media company that operated primarily as a specialty service operator in Canada. Alliance Atlantis also had offices in Halifax, Los Angeles, London, Dublin, Madrid, Barcelona, Shannon and Sydney.Alliance Atlantis was acquired by Canwest...
and Canwest were also failed applicants. At the same time Rogers
Rogers Communications
Rogers Communications Inc. is one of Canada's largest communications companies, particularly in the field of wireless communications, cable television, home phone and internet with additional telecommunications and mass media assets...
applied for and received a licence for a second Toronto multicultural station, OMNI.2
CJMT-TV
CJMT-DT is a Canadian television station, which broadcasts multicultural programming in Toronto, Ontario. As one of the Omni Television stations owned by Rogers Media, it uses the on-air brand OMNI.2, and is a sister station to CFMT ....
, in a much less controversial decision.
This also marked the first time that Craig Media had been granted a licence to compete directly with a station owned by CHUM Limited
CHUM Limited
CHUM Limited was a media company based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada from 1945 to 2007. Immediately prior to its acquisition, it held full or joint control of two Canadian television systems — Citytv and A-Channel — comprising 11 local stations, and one CBC Television affiliate, one...
, which meant that CHUM lost sales revenues from the broadcast rights it had contracted to Craig's A-Channel
A-Channel (Craig Media)
A-Channel was a Canadian television system owned by Craig Media from 1997 to 2004 and CHUM Limited from 2004 to 2005. It consisted of Craig's television stations in Winnipeg, Calgary and Edmonton, and was the company's unsuccessful attempt to build a national network.CHUM Limited, which acquired...
stations. CHUM retaliated by applying for broadcast licences in Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
and Edmonton
Edmonton
Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...
, two markets it had previously avoided so as not to compete directly with Craig. The CRTC denied CHUM's applications.
The station proved to be a financial 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
Prime time
Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast programming during the middle of the evening for television programing.The term prime time is often defined in terms of a fixed time period—for example, from 19:00 to 22:00 or 20:00 to 23:00 Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast...
schedule based heavily on movies, much like CHUM's longstanding CITY
CITY-TV
CITY-DT, Channel 57 , is a television station based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada owned and operated by Rogers Media...
. Columnist Russell Smith of The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
called Toronto 1 a "wretched excuse for a television station".
On May 19, 2004, Craig announced that 28 Toronto 1 employees and nine employees working at CKAL
CKAL-TV
CKAL-DT is a television station based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It is part of the Citytv system as of August 2, 2005, and was previously branded as A-Channel. The station is owned by Rogers Media through its Rogers Broadcasting, Ltd. division...
in Calgary were being laid off. In addition, a large portion of Toronto 1's original programming, including weekday morning show
Breakfast television
Breakfast television or morning show , is a type of infotainment television program, broadcast live in the morning...
Toronto Today, variety show The Toronto Show, and late evening talk show Last Call, were cancelled. Some of the hosts, such as Wei Chen
Wei Chen (journalist)
Wei Chen is a television and radio journalist from Canada. She has worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and its main rival CTV. In 2003, Chen surprised many by leaving CTV, where she was a national correspondent, to work for a new local station called Toronto 1 , where she would host...
and Roz Weston
Roz Weston
Roz Weston is a Canadian entertainment reporter employeed by ET Canada and Toronto's Kiss 92.5.Weston interned with Howard Stern. He was a producer for a Toronto-based radio morning show before joining TV station Toronto 1. While there, he hosted Toronto's first live, late night talk show Last Call...
, were reassigned to other roles with the station at that point. Craig Media said the cuts were made to "further rationalize its operations and control costs".
None of the changes worked, however, and Craig was forced to sell its conventional television assets to CHUM. CHUM was required by CRTC competition regulations to divest itself of the station, owing to its already strong presence in the Toronto television market.
Sale to Quebecor Media and relaunch as SUN TV
On April 12, 2004, CHUM LimitedCHUM Limited
CHUM Limited was a media company based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada from 1945 to 2007. Immediately prior to its acquisition, it held full or joint control of two Canadian television systems — Citytv and A-Channel — comprising 11 local stations, and one CBC Television affiliate, one...
announced that it would acquire Craig Media for $265 million with plans to divest Toronto 1.
CHUM eventually agreed to sell the station to Quebecor Media, the media unit of Montreal-based communications conglomerate Quebecor
Quebecor
Quebecor Inc. is a communications company based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was founded by Pierre Péladeau, and remains run by his family. Quebecor Inc. owns 55% of Quebecor Media Inc...
. The deal was completed on December 2, 2004; Quebecor gave CHUM $46 million (CAD
Canadian dollar
The Canadian dollar is the currency of Canada. As of 2007, the Canadian dollar is the 7th most traded currency in the world. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or C$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies...
) and Sun Media's 29.9% share in CP24 for CKXT. Ownership was split, 75%/25%, between QMI's publicly traded broadcasting unit Groupe TVA
TVA (TV network)
TVA is a privately owned French language television network in Canada. The network is currently owned by Groupe TVA Inc. , a publicly traded subsidiary of Quebecor Media...
and wholly owned publishing subsidiary Sun Media
Sun Media
Sun Media Corporation is the owner of several widely read tabloid and broadsheet newspapers in Canada and the 49 percent owner of Sun News Network...
.
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 renamed "SUN TV" on August 29, 2005. A late-night sports talk show, The Grill Room, premiered on September 1.
Ben Chin
Benjamin Byung Kyu Chin , known for short as Ben Chin, is Vice President, Energy Conservation Incentives at Air Miles for Social Change, and a former Canadian political adviser and television journalist.-Personal life and education:...
announced he would be moving to Global Television Network
Global Television Network
Global Television Network is an English language privately owned television network in Canada, owned by Calgary-based Shaw Communications, as part of its Shaw Media division...
as a senior news correspondent; later that summer he decided instead to enter political life as a backroom organizer in Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty
Dalton McGuinty
Dalton James Patrick McGuinty, Jr., MPP is a Canadian lawyer, politician and, since October 23, 2003, the 24th and current Premier of the Canadian province of Ontario....
's communications team. He soon ran as a Liberal candidate in the Toronto—Danforth
Toronto—Danforth
Toronto—Danforth is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1979. It lies to the east of Downtown Toronto....
by-election in March 2006, but lost to Peter Tabuns
Peter Tabuns
Peter Charles Tabuns is a Canadian politician. He is serving as a member of the Ontario Legislative Assembly where he represents the riding of Toronto-Danforth as a member of the New Democratic Party. He launched a bid to lead the party after the previous leader, Howard Hampton, resigned. A...
.
Chin's Toronto Tonight co-anchor Sarika Sehgal
Sarika Sehgal
Sarika Sehgal is a Canadian broadcast journalist. Sehgal's broadcasting career began in Toronto as a producer for a national morning show. From there, she served as an anchor and reporter for CICI in Sudbury. Similar duties soon followed at CKEM in Edmonton where she was a key part of the special...
was also let go at the same time. In late 2005, Sehgal joined the 24-hour news channel CBC Newsworld
CBC Newsworld
CBC News Network is a Canadian English language Category C specialty news channel owned and operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation . It broadcasts into over 10 million homes in Canada. It is the world's third-oldest television service of this nature, after CNN in the United States and...
as a host. In the winter of 2003, Toronto Tonight correspondent Chris Mavridis left to join CBS News
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...
as a New York based network correspondent. In addition to anchoring and reporting, Mavridis helped create new programming for the network's broadcast radio and online divisions.
Roz Weston
Roz Weston
Roz Weston is a Canadian entertainment reporter employeed by ET Canada and Toronto's Kiss 92.5.Weston interned with Howard Stern. He was a producer for a Toronto-based radio morning show before joining TV station Toronto 1. While there, he hosted Toronto's first live, late night talk show Last Call...
joined ET Canada. Natasha Ramsahai, the morning weather person on Toronto Today, is now a meteorologist for CBLT, while Bill Coulter, the evening weather person on Toronto Tonight, is now a meteorologist for CIII
CIII-TV
CIII-DT-41 is a television station owned by Shaw Communications that serves much of the population of the Canadian province of Ontario. It is a flagship station of the Global Television Network...
. Tracy Moore and Dina Pugliese
Dina Pugliese
Dina Pugliese is an Canadian television personality, currently the co-host of Citytv Toronto's Breakfast Television. She joined the show in 2006, replacing Liza Fromer....
both joined Citytv Toronto
CITY-TV
CITY-DT, Channel 57 , is a television station based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada owned and operated by Rogers Media...
. Wei Chen is now a host on CBC Radio One
CBC Radio One
CBC Radio One is the English language news and information radio network of the publicly-owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial free and offers both local and national programming...
.
As Sun TV, the station met its Canadian content
Canadian content
Canadian content refers to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission requirements that radio and television broadcasters must air a certain percentage of content that was at least partly written, produced, presented, or otherwise contributed to by persons from...
obligations primarily by airing repeats of older Canadian series such as King of Kensington
King of Kensington
King of Kensington was a Canadian television sitcom which aired on CBC Television from 1975 to 1980.The show starred Al Waxman as Larry King, a convenience store owner in Toronto's Kensington Market who was known for helping friends and neighbours solve problems. His multicultural group of friends...
, The Beachcombers
The Beachcombers
The Beachcombers is a Canadian comedy-drama television series that ran from October 1, 1972 to December 12, 1990 and is the longest-running dramatic series ever made for English-language Canadian television...
, Danger Bay
Danger Bay
Danger Bay is a Canadian television series, produced in Vancouver, with first-run episodes broadcast on CBC Television starting October 18, 1984 and the Disney Channel starting October 7, 1985...
, Ready or Not, My Secret Identity
My Secret Identity
My Secret Identity is a Canadian television series starring Jerry O'Connell and Derek McGrath. Originally broadcast from September 1, 1988 to May 1, 1991 on CTV in Canada, the series also aired in syndication in the United States.-Synopsis:...
, Super Dave
Super Dave (TV series)
Super Dave is a Canadian/American variety show starring and hosted by the fictional character Super Dave Osborne . It ran from 1987 to 1991 on Showtime in the US and the Global Television Network in Canada...
and Side Effects, while also picking up some original non-fiction programming, including the movie review series DVD Show
DVD Show
DVD Show is a Canadian movie review series, which airs on mentv, CLT and SUN TV. In 2009, the series is now hosted by Jenny Steele and Max Sinclair, with 2 guest reviewers every week. Heath McCoy previously hosted the series but left when its new season premiered...
, the concert series Beautiful Noise
Beautiful Noise (TV series)
Beautiful Noise is an HD television music profile and performance series produced in Canada by Original Spin Media. The series premiered on Rave HD in the United States in the summer of 2006. The programs debuted in Canada on Sun TV in January 2008 and CBC Bold in March of 2009. The series is...
and the food program Street Eats
Street Eats
Street Eats is a Canadian television show, which airs on Sun TV. Hosted by Ali Rizvi and Joy Olimpo, the series profiled world cuisine through magazine features on restaurants and ethnic food shops in the Toronto area, including cooking and shopping tips....
.
The performance of CKXT under Quebecor was no better than it was under Craig — in March 2006, the Canadian Media Guild
Canadian Media Guild
The Canadian Media Guild is a trade union representing employees at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation , the Canadian Press, Thomson Reuters, Agence France-Presse, S-Vox, the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, CW Television, CJRC Radio in Gatineau, Que., and TVOntario.It is a local of The...
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, was launched in May 2006 to poor reviews.
At the same time, the station stepped up its acquisitions of U.S. network series, albeit mainly the "leftovers" not obtained by other Canadian networks. The fall 2006 schedule, for instance, included Veronica Mars
Veronica Mars
Veronica Mars is an American television series created by Rob Thomas. The series premiered on September 22, 2004, during television network UPN's final two years, and ended on May 22, 2007, after a season on UPN's successor, The CW Television Network. Veronica Mars was produced by Warner Bros...
, 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
, COPS
COPS (TV series)
Cops is an American documentary/reality television series that follows police officers, constables, and sheriff's deputies during patrols and other police activities...
, America's Most Wanted
America's Most Wanted
America's Most Wanted is an American television program produced by 20th Television, and was the longest-running program of any kind in the history of the Fox Television Network until it was announced on May 16, 2011 that the series was canceled after twenty-three years, with the final episode...
and Girlfriends
Girlfriends
Girlfriends is an American comedy-drama sitcom that premiered on September 11, 2000, on UPN and aired on UPN's successor network, The CW, before being cancelled in 2008...
. The first four programs aired on other Canadian television networks but with poor ratings.
CKXT also carried both of the original MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
telenovela
Telenovela
A telenovela is a limited-run serial dramatic programming popular in Latin American, Portuguese, and Spanish television programming. The word combines tele, short for televisión or televisão , and novela, a Spanish or Portuguese word for "novel"...
s, Desire
Desire (TV series)
Desire is an American telenovela which debuted at 8:00PM Eastern/7:00PM Central on September 5, 2006, on the American network MyNetworkTV, and ended on December 5. It was produced by Twentieth Television...
and Fashion House
Fashion House
Fashion House is an American telenovela that aired at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT Monday through Saturday on MyNetworkTV stations. The series premiered on September 5, 2006 and concluded on December 5, 2006...
in 2006, although it scheduled them in the afternoons rather than in prime time. Due to low ratings, the station elected not to air future MNTV telenovelas after the first two series concluded on December 5, 2006. With the conversion of the CH television system to E! Canada, CKXT also picked up some of CHCH-TV
CHCH-TV
CHCH-DT, channel 11, is a television station originating in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, with transmitters located throughout Ontario. CHCH currently operates as an independent station, having previously served as a CBC Television affiliate, and more recently as the flagship station of the...
's former daytime programming, including the long-running American game show The Price Is Right
The Price Is Right (U.S. game show)
The Price Is Right is an American game show which was created by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman. Contestants compete to identify the pricing of merchandise to win cash and prizes. The show is well-known for its signature line of "Come on down!" when the announcer directs newly selected contestants to...
, which has since moved to OMNI.2
CJMT-TV
CJMT-DT is a Canadian television station, which broadcasts multicultural programming in Toronto, Ontario. As one of the Omni Television stations owned by Rogers Media, it uses the on-air brand OMNI.2, and is a sister station to CFMT ....
.
CKXT-TV is the only English-language independent television station outside of religious & community television stations in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
currently on the UHF band.
The station applied for rebroadcasters in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
and London
London, Ontario
London is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, situated along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. The city has a population of 352,395, and the metropolitan area has a population of 457,720, according to the 2006 Canadian census; the metro population in 2009 was estimated at 489,274. The city...
in 2007, in order to improve its reach across southern Ontario. The move would give the station coverage roughly equal to that of Citytv
CITY-TV
CITY-DT, Channel 57 , is a television station based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada owned and operated by Rogers Media...
, OMNI.1
CFMT-TV
CFMT-DT, channel 47, is a television station based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, with rebroadcasters in Ottawa and London. The station broadcasts multicultural programming targeting European and Latin American communities throughout Southern Ontario. Part of the Omni Television group of stations...
or OMNI.2
CJMT-TV
CJMT-DT is a Canadian television station, which broadcasts multicultural programming in Toronto, Ontario. As one of the Omni Television stations owned by Rogers Media, it uses the on-air brand OMNI.2, and is a sister station to CFMT ....
. On September 14, 2007, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved CKXT's request, giving the station channel 26, digital 19 in London; and channel 54, digital 62 in Ottawa. SUN TV later applied to change its digital channel in Ottawa to 20; this was given approval on June 17, 2008 and began transmissions in September 2008. As of late December 2008 (exact date not known) CKXT was broadcasting in London in high definition on channel 19.1 and standard definition on channel 19.2.
On December 1, 2009, the CRTC approved an application on behalf of Quebecor Media, whereas, through a corporate reorganization, Groupe TVA would acquire SUN Media's 25% stake in CKXT.
Transition to Sun News
On June 14, 2010, Channel ZeroChannel Zero Inc.
Channel Zero is an independent Canadian broadcasting and media group, which holds assets in television broadcasting and film distribution.The company is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.-Ownership structure:...
and CHEK Media Group (current owners of CHCH-TV, CJNT-TV, and CHEK-TV which they acquired respectively after the E! system folded) announced it was acquiring the rights to virtually all of the first-run U.S. series that had aired on CKXT during the 2009-10 season, including Smallville
Smallville
Smallville is the hometown of Superman in comic books published by DC Comics. While growing up in Smallville, the young Clark Kent attended Smallville High with best friends Lana Lang, Chloe Sullivan and Pete Ross...
, Supernatural
Supernatural (TV series)
Supernatural is an American supernatural and horror television series created by Eric Kripke, which debuted on September 13, 2005 on The WB, and is now part of The CW's lineup. Starring Jared Padalecki as Sam Winchester and Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester, the series follows the brothers as they...
, 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
, and Jimmy Kimmel Live!. The programming announcement came amidst speculation that CKXT parent Quebecor Media was planning to launch a new news channel, with some of the rumours suggesting that CKXT might be part of the new venture. On June 15, 2010, Quebecor confirmed its plans for the new Sun News Network with a then-scheduled launch date of January 1, 2011. As part of its plans for Sun News, Groupe TVA submitted an application to the CRTC to replace CKXT's licence with a new three-year Category 1 specialty channel
Category 1 specialty channel
A Category A service is a Canadian specialty television channel which, as defined by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, must be carried by all digital cable and direct broadcast satellite providers that have the capability to do so....
licence for the news channel. The Category 1 application was declined by the CRTC in July 2010, but a Category 2 application was approved in November 2010. This left CKXT's fate in 2011 unclear (Quebecor management had initially stated that it did not plan to convert CKXT to an over-the-air all-news format).
For the bulk of the 2010-11 season, CKXT broadcast no local programming, and mainly broadcast movies (three movies each weekday, Monday through Friday, at 8 A.M., 1 and 8 P.M.; and a quadruple-feature of movies on Saturdays and Sundays at 3, 5, 7 and 9 P.M.), along with paid programming and a handful of "off-network" series reruns.
A CRTC filing in early 2011, seeking the authority to continue CKXT's operations following the digital conversion
Digital television in Canada
Digital television in Canada is transmitted using the ATSC standards developed for and in use in the United States. Because Canada and the U.S...
in August 2011, led to speculation that Quebecor was revisiting its earlier decision to surrender its over-the-air licence. Then, in late March 2011, the station's website began to redirect to the Sun News Network URL (the station itself continued to air regular programming). Sun News later confirmed via Twitter that it will simulcast its programming on CKXT, at least initially. The simulcast began at the same time Sun News itself launched, at 4:30pm ET on April 18, 2011.
Bell Satellite TV dropped CKXT the morning of Tuesday, May 3, due to a dispute with Quebecor on whether or not carriage fees should be levied, as Sun News was broadcast via CKXT, leading to Bell treating Sun News as a terrestrial channel (i.e. available without carriage fees), while Quebecor argued that it should charge Bell TV for the rights, as it was a licensed cable specialty channel. (The outage did not affect Bell Fibe TV
Bell Fibe TV
Bell Fibe TV is an IP-based television service offered by Bell Canada in Ontario and Quebec. It is bundled with Bell Fibe Internet, and uses the Microsoft Mediaroom platform....
in the Toronto area, which was compelled to carry CKXT.)
Closedown
The CRTC had questioned Quebecor in early July on its usage of the station to simulcast Sun News, noting "Quebecor should expect to be asked to demonstrate why this is the best use of the radio spectrum". Quebecor management told the CRTC that it would shut the station down, rather than to renew the over the air licence. Quebecor was true to its word, closing down CKXT completely on November 1, 2011, becoming the fifth major TV station in Canada (and the first in a big-three Canadian city) to have gone dark since 1977 (when CFVO-TVCFVO-TV
CFVO-TV is a defunct television station that broadcast from Hull, Quebec. It was the immediate predecessor to today's CHOT-TV, and launched on September 1, 1974 under the ownership of a company known as La Coopérative de Télévision de l'Outaouais...
in Hull, Quebec left the air; all other defunct stations in Canada became repeaters of other stations almost seamlessly). In addition, CIAN-TV Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
& CJAL-TV Edmonton
Edmonton
Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...
were closed down as they became the cable-only CTV Two Alberta on August 31 that same year
2011 in Canadian television
- January :- February :- March :- April :- May :- June :- August :- Seoptember :- October :- November :- Debuts :Series currently listed here have been announced by their respective networks as scheduled to premiere in 2011...
. As a result, the station will not receive mandatory carriage in Toronto, Hamilton, London and Ottawa. Sun News programming will only be available on cable and satellite carrying the specialty channel. In the Toronto area, Rogers-owned CityNews Channel
CityNews Channel
CityNews Channel is a Canadian English language local news and information channel for the Greater Toronto Area . Owned by Rogers Media and licenced as a Category B digital cable specialty channel, it is currently available in Ontario and broadcasts a single feed in high definition which is also...
took the place of CKXT on their former cable 15 channel slot shortly thereafter.
Transmitters
| Station | City of licence City of license A city of license or community of license, in American and Canadian broadcasting, is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator.... |
Channel Channel (broadcasting) In broadcasting, a channel is a range of frequencies assigned by a government for the operation of a particular radio station, television station or television channel. In common usage, the term also may be used to refer to the station operating on a particular frequency.-See also:*Broadcast... |
ERP Effective radiated power In radio telecommunications, effective radiated power or equivalent radiated power is a standardized theoretical measurement of radio frequency energy using the SI unit watts, and is determined by subtracting system losses and adding system gains... |
HAAT Height above average terrain Height above average terrain is used extensively in FM radio and television, as it is actually much more important than effective radiated power in determining the range of broadcasts... |
Transmitter Coordinates |
| CKXT-DT-1 (defunct as of October 31, 2011) | Hamilton Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe... |
15 (UHF Ultra high frequency Ultra-High Frequency designates the ITU Radio frequency range of electromagnetic waves between 300 MHz and 3 GHz , also known as the decimetre band or decimetre wave as the wavelengths range from one to ten decimetres... ) Virtual Virtual channel In telecommunications, a logical channel number , also known as virtual channel, is a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel on which the signal travels.... : 45.1 (PSIP Program and System Information Protocol The Program and System Information Protocol is the protocol used in the ATSC digital television system for carrying metadata about each channel in the broadcast MPEG transport stream of a TV station and for publishing information about television programs so that viewers can select what to watch... ) |
8.6 kW | 193.1 m | 43°12′27"N 79°46′27"W |
| CKXT-DT-2 (defunct as of October 31, 2011) | London London, Ontario London is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, situated along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. The city has a population of 352,395, and the metropolitan area has a population of 457,720, according to the 2006 Canadian census; the metro population in 2009 was estimated at 489,274. The city... |
19 (UHF Ultra high frequency Ultra-High Frequency designates the ITU Radio frequency range of electromagnetic waves between 300 MHz and 3 GHz , also known as the decimetre band or decimetre wave as the wavelengths range from one to ten decimetres... ) Virtual Virtual channel In telecommunications, a logical channel number , also known as virtual channel, is a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel on which the signal travels.... : 19.1 (PSIP Program and System Information Protocol The Program and System Information Protocol is the protocol used in the ATSC digital television system for carrying metadata about each channel in the broadcast MPEG transport stream of a TV station and for publishing information about television programs so that viewers can select what to watch... ) |
7.0 kW | 313.6 m | 42°57′20"N 81°21′19"W |
| CKXT-DT-3 (defunct as of August 31, 2011) | Ottawa Ottawa Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario... |
20 (UHF Ultra high frequency Ultra-High Frequency designates the ITU Radio frequency range of electromagnetic waves between 300 MHz and 3 GHz , also known as the decimetre band or decimetre wave as the wavelengths range from one to ten decimetres... ) |
9.3 kW | 332.9 m | 45°30′11"N 75°51′01"W |
Digital television and high definition
Subchannels were for the London and Ottawa digital repeaters only.The same program content is duplicated on both subchannels.
After the analogue television shutdown and digital conversion
Digital television in Canada
Digital television in Canada is transmitted using the ATSC standards developed for and in use in the United States. Because Canada and the U.S...
, which took place on August 31, 2011, CKXT-DT remained on channel 66 until its closedown at the end of October. Through the use of PSIP
Program and System Information Protocol
The Program and System Information Protocol is the protocol used in the ATSC digital television system for carrying metadata about each channel in the broadcast MPEG transport stream of a TV station and for publishing information about television programs so that viewers can select what to watch...
, digital television receivers would display CKXT-DT's virtual channel
Virtual channel
In telecommunications, a logical channel number , also known as virtual channel, is a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel on which the signal travels....
as 52.1.
CKXT-DT-1 in Hamilton and CKXT-DT-2 London stayed on 15 and 19 respectively, following the transition until their closedowns.