VIEWERS IN BARRIE, LONDON, Windsor, Ottawa, Wingham, Victoria, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary will wake up to new channels on their dials this morning.
Thanks to the company’s acquisition of Craig Media’s broadcasting assets in 2004, CHUM undertook a whole host of changes this summer, moving Craig’s A Channel from the west and shipping it east as part of a million-dollar re-branding all but three of its over-the-air stations.
So actually, in Ontario and Victoria, viewers won’t be waking up to “New” channels at all. Today the CHUM “Newnets” vanish. Say goodbye to the New RO (Ottawa), New VR (Barrie), New PL (London), New NX (Wingham/Owen Sound), New WI (Windsor) and New VI (Victoria).
And, say hello to A Channel in each region.
And, as reported today by www.cartt.ca’s western editor, Tara Blasco Raj, A Channel disappears from Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg in favour of Citytv in each city.
But there’s more than newly painted trucks and new-fangled on-screen logos in store. The company is adding brand new programming (from a different “snack bracket”, says executive vice-president TV sales and marketing David Kirkwood) and expanding the news coverage area of its Barrie-based A Channel to get it a little closer to Toronto, for example.
But despite the additions, the company still doesn’t consider itself a network. What follows is an edited transcript of last week’s chat between www.cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien and Kirkwood (right).
Greg O’Brien: What was the reasoning behind changing the Newnets to A Channels?
David Kirkwood: It’s all interrelated. The switch (in Alberta and Manitoba) to Citytv and these were all done in order to provide a Citytv in each of the major markets we serve – which we like to think of as all of the major markets – so we’re in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Toronto with Citytv.
As we see it, Citytv is a major market, urban-focused television station, reflecting in each case, each of those major markets. So, the ones outside of Toronto won’t be like Toronto’s Citytv – they’ll reflect their local market.
As for A Channel, we’re branding it as more – for lack of a better term right now – of a suburban kind of station, operating in what’s popularly known as more B-markets, I suppose. It allows us then to cross-promote more effectively. On our specialty channels, for instance, we can promote a program that’s on A Channel where it is, and City where it is, leveraging those resources to improve ratings.
And, A Channel is a good name. You think of A-List, A as being the first choice, top of the list and there’s strength even in the logo which resembles a neat triangle which is very strong.
And, in looking for names for the stations to re-brand the thing… obviously the New VR isn’t new anymore.
GOB: That was a question I always had when chatting with people at CHUM – how long can the Newnets stay new? Because it’s almost 10 years now for VR isn’t it?
DK: Yeah. And the cheeky answer to that was “how long will New York be New York?” But, I think it was time to change and it was a confluence of a number of circumstances that made (these changes ) make the most sense.
GOB: And when you say circumstances, you mean the Craig Media acquisition and rolling it all together with your existing properties?
DK: And the opportunity to buy programs that are maybe in a different snack bracket and work towards defining a difference of a brand between the two groups of stations with the kinds of programs we carried and cross-promotion and a whole lot of other things.
GOB: What goes into a re-branding such as this? It’s quite an undertaking.
DK: Yeah. It involves the adoption of logos. It’s meant everything from trucks to on-air looks and graphics – and we had some name changes too, to make it more adaptable. For instance, “The Big Breakfast” in the Prairies becomes “BreakfastTelevision” – and that makes sense because it’s a Citytv thing. We’re also changing the name of the news, too, from CityPulse to CityNews Tonight and CityNews at 6.
We looked at things which were beyond the boundaries of what was necessary specifically for the whole transition.
GOB: Now when it comes to the local programming, what differences are viewers going to see from Newnets to A Channel, other than the look and the logo and that type of thing?
DK: There’ll be some co-operation between our A Channels… but also increased regionalizing of some things that will profit viewers and us – while maintaining their unique market. We don’t want to lose the local identity of each of the stations but there are, we believe – I hate to use the word synergy, but there it is – synergies that are good for business that also will expose people in each of those markets to better programming.
GOB: So, for example, will VR in Barrie expand its coverage area to go beyond what it’s been doing?
DK: That’s concurrent with this change, too. (VR is now) targeting the York Region to a large extent. They’ve set up a bureau there and the focus of the local programming will be far more inclusive of the York Region (the 800,000-plus person area north of Toronto but south of Lake Simcoe which includes the rapidly growing towns of Newmarket, Markham, Richmond Hill, King Township, Vaughn, and Aurora).
GOB: Will it be the same in Ottawa and London and Victoria?
DK: Those haven’t stretched beyond their boundaries of say Ottawa and Pembroke. And, of course, London…
GOB: You’ve already got three stations in southwestern Ontario anyway, so it would be hard to expand those regions any more than they already are.
DK: That’s true. But, I think we saw in York Region an area where some could say has fallen through the cracks. They don’t really have a station that’s serving them as locally as VR could.
GOB: I guess though you’d have to keep your eye on any sort of Barrie backlash where you’re covering too much of the big city and not as much of the near north, I suppose.
DK: That’s right. We don’t want this to exclude the coverage that we give to the Barrie and Muskoka regions.
GOB: Now as far as your other programming, the U.S. stuff, what sort of changes are on tap for that in the fall. You mentioned earlier you’re in a different snack bracket now.
DK: It’s obvious for me to say something like this but I’ve had other people concur, that this is the best program schedule we’ve ever gone into a fall with. I can’t remember us having a regular series t
hat there was such a buzz about. I mean, we’ve had buzz about The Bachelor and Temptation Island and Joe Millionaire and stuff like that but we have a situation here where critics and buyers, the media – are all talking about Everybody Hates Chris, the Chris Rock show which we’re happy to have (the program, pictured at right, is about the comedian’s upbringing in New York and is narrated by him).
GOB: What night will that be on?
DK: Thursday nights at 8 p.m. It’s a simulcast with UPN, which doesn’t mean very much in the Toronto market but it makes a big difference in Vancouver.
And, Three Wishes – Amy Grant’s new (reality) show, is getting good reviews.
We have more network simulcasts – Wanted (TNT), Supernatural (WB), Hope & Faith (ABC) and we’re introducing Hot Properties (ABC)… on Friday nights. There’s just a lot more of that episodic network simulcast than we’ve ever had before.
GOB: There’s a lot more of the traditional TV fare as opposed to the Amazons and Relic Hunters which used to be on City.
DK: Right. That’s very perceptive of you. It’s new for CHUM to really be involved in any kind of sitcoms. That was typically a sandbox we didn’t play in.
GOB: Now that you’re national – other than Montreal and the east – it now presents a good national buy, an alternative, for advertisers, whereas before, there were holes.
DK: I guess we’re seeing ourselves as two unwired networks we can offer – and we’re looking for more. We just did Battle of the Bridges (a prime time golf special) in a semi, kind of unwired network way. We’re doing Monday Night Football across the country and that’s getting good results.
We’re not a network and we’re not here to shave a piece off CTV by any stretch of the imagination but there is a convenience to advertisers to be able to take a position on something like Monday Night Football and know that they can cover off five markets. There’s efficiency there in that coverage and just being able to do the one buy in all those markets.
And we’ll do that with The Bachelor and America’s Next Top Model and all those kinds of things, too, for sponsorship or branding or promotions surrounding it – it’s just that much more effective to do it that way.
And, we’ll be partnering things with our specialty channels – in particular, we will be doing more co-operative programming between our Citytvs and MuchMusic – either cross-promoting the programming or simulcasting or working in a co-operative effort between those two vehicles.
GOB: Any examples?
DK: In the past we’ve done it with the MMVAs (MuchMusic Video Awards) and there’s one coming up. I can’t say what it is but it’s a national, promotional, sponsorship live event program that is going to be very active on a number of our stations, but it hasn’t been released yet.
GOB: When?
DK: Activity will begin in the fall.
