TORONTO – If you put together CHCH, CHEK, NTV and YesTV and help power it with sales agency Airtime Television Sales (which also reps Thunder Bay’s two TV stations), did you know you had a network of independents which cover 93% of Canadians?
That’s the pitch IndieNet (which is what the group calls themselves) has been making to advertisers now for two years. Airing an eclectic mix of local news, their own locally produced shows, new U.S. programming, old (but-much-loved-and-please-call-them-retro-instead) series, classic popular movies and other independent programming, these broadcasters offer up a diverse, pan-Canadian audience. Since IndieNet was formed, has placed the stations back on national buyers’ radar, boosting sales for all four, say the station owners.
The biggest of the IndieNets is Hamilton’s CHCH, which covers local news for the 1.3 million people who live in Southern Ontario’s Golden Horseshoe (Oakville to Niagara) and is very well distributed nationally on satellite and terrestrial carriers, too.
Its fall will see the return of Fox’s Empire (in simulcast) as well as titles such as Wynona Earp and The Tudors – and Friday night ABC simulcast with Fresh off the Boat and Speechless. This goes along with the U.S. newsmagazines like 48 Hours and 20/20, its mid-day reru, er, retro block shows like Laverne & Shirley, Cheers, and Mork & Mindy, its 24.5 hours a week of news and their own shows andPop and Inside the Story.
CHCH will add some additional sports on the weekend featuring the likes of Junior Hockey and Canadian University games, said Chris Fuoco (pictured), Channel Zero’s vice-president of sales and marketing. (CZ is CHCH’s parent company)
Victoria’s employee co-owned CHEK, which also is available on satellite as well as all across British Columbia, makes a number of its own local lifestyle and magazine type shows (such as Cooking on the Coast) to go with its news programming, but also will have Speechless in the fall to go along with staples like Blue Bloods, 48 Hours, and Last Man Standing. Of course, the 7 o’clock hour is Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy time.
The channel also “airs” a show called Morning CHEK – an early weekday morning program just on Facebook. CHCH also streams all of its news shows live on its web site and uses Facebook for breaking news.
St. John’s NTV bills itself still as Canada’s Superstation and is a sort of hybrid of its own news and other programming, classic movies – and a co-affiliate of sorts of both CTV and Global (It airs Global and CTV simulcast shows but also Global National at 7 p.m. CTV National News at 11 p.m.). NTV’s Lorraine Pope noted Wednesday her channel’s news audiences, especially when you count online platforms are increasing, and that she just returned from the L.A. Screenings and new shows “are more diverse, relevant and entertaining than ever before.”
Burlington’s YesTV (which also has OTA stations in Edmonton and Calgary) is a religious programmer, of course, whose non-religious programming is geared towards family-friendly content. It, too features Wheel and Jeopardy at 7 but interspersed with its religious shows are titles such as Judge Judy, Little Mosque on the Prairie, Chicago Hope, Frasier and Everybody Loves Raymond. It also features a simulcast of NBC’s philanthropic series Give.
YesTV had planned to feature Roseanne reruns in the fall, too, but thanks to the star of that show’s ugly, racist meltdown earlier this week which rightly caused every company she was associated with to immediately condemn her comments and/or fire her, that’s off.
Upfront season continues next week with Rogers Media, Corus Entertainment and Bell Media. Cartt.ca will be there, too.
