TORONTO – Tape-delayed news and current affairs just doesn’t cut it in 2008, even if it’s only a couple of hours old, CTV’s president of news and current affairs, Bob Hurst, told Cartt.ca Wednesday.
That was the thinking behind the broadcaster’s announcement that Canada AM, the top morning program in the country, will expand to six hours and go live, coast to coast as of January 28th, adding an anchor desk in Vancouver.
This is the first time a national North American morning show on a conventional network will be live across all time zones. Not even the Today Show or Good Morning America do this.
“Canada AM is a great, national show and has been a Canadian icon since 1971, but it has always been kind of held back because it is taped as it goes out west,” Hurst told Cartt.ca in an interview.
“We now have the capability at CTV to tie in all of our stations through a kind of a television super highway that we have built over the last few years so it now becomes much more business-plan feasible to open up a west coast anchor team and take this show live across the country.
“News and public affairs in the 21st century, really, has to be live, live, live,” added Hurst. “News spoils very quickly,” too quickly for a tape delay to be acceptable any more.
The move will also alleviate some practical concerns and open up new opportunities for stories from Manitoba, westward. For example, no longer will a Vancouver guest have to stumble into the BCCTV studio bleary eyed and coffee-fueled at 4 a.m.
“We’ll have a much greater ability to tell Western stories on this national morning show,” added Hurst. The set is currently being built, with two weeks of rehearsals planned for the next couple of weeks.
Another consideration driving this leap is what’s happened to the ease of transmission for such a Western feed. “On the transmission cost issue, CTV has built, in house, this electronic superhighway to tie together all the CTV stations,” what the CTV folks call their “Gateway” and “Video Express”.
CTV can “deliver material or programs or sporting events at no cost,” said Hurst. A decade ago, the network would need backhaul on satellite or by fibre – and it was costly – say, $1,500 for a 10 minute window. Going for three hours couldn’t even be considered.
Here’s a breakdown of the changes to Canada AM:
* Every weekday morning, Canada AM will produce a total of six hours of live programming between 6 a.m. and 12 Noon ET. Local CTV stations across the country will join Canada AM live between 6 and 9 a.m. local time.
* A new Canada AM Western team: Canada AM will expand its on-air family with the addition of a Western anchor team joining Beverly Thomson, Seamus O’Regan, Jeff Hutcheson and Marci Ien. Veteran British Columbia journalist Mi-Jung Lee joins Canada AM as co-host, based from the show’s new Vancouver studio. Popular weather anchor Rena Heer – also based in Vancouver – joins the team and will deliver weather and special reports.
Rounding out the Canada AM team is Vancouver native and news anchor Omar Sachedina, who will join Canada AM’s Western team to deliver the latest breaking news.
* The first hour of Canada AM will feature headline, national and local news with Marci Ien, along with weather and special features from Jeff Hutcheson. Canada AM co-hosts Beverly Thomson and Seamus O’Regan will then lead coverage from Toronto starting at 7 a.m. ET. They will continue to deliver Canada AM’s unique blend of hard news and lifestyle stories with top newsmakers, celebrities and musical stars.
* Western viewers will see Mi-Jung Lee take over hosting Canada AM at 7 a.m. PT from Vancouver with Rena Heer handling weather and Omar Sachedina delivering the latest news developments. Local anchors from each market across the country will join Canada AM throughout the morning to deliver the latest in local news, weather and traffic.
* Complete Canada AM on CTV Newsnet: A complete, six hour, live edition of Canada AM will air every Monday to Friday morning on CTV Newsnet beginning at 6 a.m. ET.
