TORONTO – Quebecor Media-owned broadcaster Toronto 1 will begin the new fall 2005 season with a brand new name, borrowed from a corporate sister, www.cartt.ca has learned.
Sales representatives for the channel have been quietly telling media buyers in Toronto that the name Toronto 1 will be dumped in favor of SUN TV, named after Quebecor Media’s Toronto tabloid newspaper, The Toronto Sun.
Craig Media, which bet the farm while founding the station in the fall of 2003 and was then forced to sell out entirely to CHUM in 2004 when revenue at the Toronto station came nowhere near expectations, came up with Toronto 1 name, but it has largely failed to capture the attention or imagination of Torontonians. (CHUM then had to sell the Toronto station to Quebecor while keeping the rest of the Craig assets.)
However, SUN TV – given the longevity and popularity of “the little paper that could” – will be far more familiar to those living in Hogtown, and provide an immediate improvement in awareness for the stand alone broadcaster (and may, in turn, boost the paper, too).
Also – look for the channel’s local content to feature a fair number of SUN staffers on the air in its current affairs programming.
E-mails send to Toronto 1 for comment were not immediately returned.
Click back to www.cartt.ca for more on this as it becomes available.
