Global Television Network
''"Global Television" and "Global TV" redirect here. For other uses, see
Global Television (disambiguation).
The
Global Television Network (more commonly called
Global) is a major
English-language
television network in
Canada, owned by
CanWest Global Communications.
In the
1970s, a call went out for "third" television stations in several major Canadian cities. A group of investors, led by Al Bruner and Peter Hill, founded Global Communications Ltd. with the idea of building a cross-Canada, all-
UHF network. The group had to settle for a six-transmitter network in southern
Ontario, stretching from
Windsor to
Ottawa (being denied a transmitter that would reach Montreal). The group promised a high level of Canadian content and agreed not to accept local advertising. The new network, called the Global Television Network, launched on
January 6,
1974 when CKGN-TV signed on from studios in
Don Mills. The station's main transmitter was (and still is) licenced to
Paris, but for all intents and purposes it was a
Toronto station.
The station ran into difficulty in just three months, and was purchased by
Izzy Asper, a
Manitoba politician turned broadcaster. Asper owned
CKND in
Winnipeg, which carried many of Global's programs, through his company then known as CanWest Capital. CKGN became
CIII in
1984.
|
Original logo for CIII. The stylized "G" (with the name "CanWest Global System" in block letters at its right) was also used nationally alongside individual station logos. |
A considerable portion of the schedule's programs were canceled in the spring of 1974. By fall, Global had become "another CTV", with American imports filling as much of the schedule as Canadian content rules (50 percent Canadian overall, 60 percent Canadian in prime time) would allow. Over several years, the prime late evening newscast shifted between 10 and 11 pm, and between 30 and 60 minutes. The network continued to be limited to a six-transmitter chain throughout the 1970s.
|
CanWest Global System logo (c. 1992) |
Asper went on to launch two stations in
Saskatchewan, won a legal battle for a station in
British Columbia, and acquired a fledgling system in the
Maritimes called
MITV. Although Asper's regional networks always purchased programming rights as a collective, they did not share common branding, although stations were sometimes indicated as being part of the "CanWest Global System". This ended on
August 18,
1997, when CanWest acquired the assets of a former
CBC affiliate in
Quebec City,
CKMI-TV, after the CBC set up its own facilities there. This purchase gave CanWest's stations enough coverage of Canada that it could call its system the "Global Television Network".
In
2000, CanWest acquired the conventional television assets of
Western International Communications (WIC), which owned several independent stations in Alberta, and those stations were branded as Global on September 4, 2000. The following fall, WIC's market-leading
Vancouver station
CHAN-TV (BCTV), a former CTV affiliate, was brought into the fold. Global's previous Vancouver station
CKVU-TV, as well as WIC-owned Montreal CTV affiliate
CFCF-TV, were sold off. WIC's remaining stations were maintained as
twinstick (or
duopoly) stations and were eventually integrated into a secondary system known as
CH.
Although Global network service is not available over-the-air in
Newfoundland and Labrador, the independent station there,
NTV, airs much of the Global network schedule.
In late 2004, with CTV beginning to dominate the ratings, CanWest reorganized its Canadian operations and hired a number of new executives, all formerly of various U.S. media firms, leading to a major overhaul of Global announced in December 2005. The most obvious change is a new logo, replacing the "crescent" with a new "
greater than" logo, with the Global wordmark in a new font, in use as of 6:00 a.m.,
February 5,
2006 (coinciding with Global's broadcast of
Super Bowl XL). New logos and graphics were designed for news and network promotions, and several newscasts received new timeslots and formats. Revised logos for the remaining CanWest entities which use the crescent — namely
CH,
Mystery, and
DejaView — are expected in the near future.
Winnipeg's
CanWest Global Park modified its logo in April 2006 to reflect the new Global logo, the
CanWest Performing Arts Centre in Winnipeg removed the crescent from its logo, and
Prime was rebranded
TVtropolis, with a completely different logo, on
June 1, 2006.
Since CanWest's purchase of
Southam Newspapers (now CanWest News Service) and the
National Post from
Conrad Black in
2001, their media interests have been merged into
Canwest Global under a policy of cross-promotion and
synergy. Journalists from the
Post and other Canwest papers have made frequent appearances on Global's news programs, passengers on the now-defunct serial drama
Train 48 habitually read the
Post, and Global programs are promoted in Canwest Global newspapers.
Although Global stations had always carried local news in various forms, the first tentative steps towards a national presence came in the mid-1990s with
First National with
Peter Kent, an early-evening program focusing on national and international news but airing only in central Canada. In
2001, Global replaced
First National and the similar WIC newscast
Canada Tonight with a new newscast aired on all Global stations,
Global National, anchored by
Kevin Newman. The program initially aired only on weekdays; in February of
2006,
Global National launched a weekend edition anchored by
Tara Nelson.
From 1997 to 2006, local newscasts on Global stations had a standard title,
Global News. The long-dominant
CHAN (BCTV) had been an exception since it joined Global in 2001. In connection with the above-noted rebranding, effective February 6, local newscast titles and timeslots were
standardized, following the BCTV model, as follows. Note that the exact lineup of newscasts and titles varies by station.
*
Morning News - weekday mornings
**
Saturday/Sunday Morning News - weekend mornings
*
Noon News or
Noon News Hour - weekdays (or daily) at noon (for 30-minute and 60-minute newscasts respectively)
** Exceptions:
The Noon Show (non-news regional lifestyle show on
CIHF) and
Scene and Heard (non-news regional lifestyle show on
CISA)
*
Early News - weekdays at 5:00 (5:30 AT)
*
Global National - nightly at 5:30 (6:30 AT)
*
Evening News or
News Hour - nightly at 6:00
*
News Final or
News Hour Final - nightly at 11:00 (10:30 CT)
Since the relaunch,
Global National has quickly gained ground on longtime number-one
CTV National News, overtaking it on several occasions.
Over the network's history, there has been some evidence that Global considers its news coverage subordinate to its usual primetime lineup of entertainment programming. While coverage of some breaking events has increased since the launch of
Global National, the network attracted controversy in 2003 when CKND aired its usual programming schedule on the night of the
Manitoba provincial election rather than providing any special news programming, and when CIII bumped its
Ontario provincial election coverage to
CHCH in order to avoid preempting
Survivor.
Global has built its business on profitable entertainment programming produced in the
United States, and has long been criticized for not investing enough in
Canadian content. Canadian programming carried on the network, such as a revival of
1960s American
science fiction series
The Outer Limits, or the
Chicago-set drama
Zoe Busiek: Wild Card, has often avoided Canadian themes, presumably to focus on sales to United States and foreign
cable or
syndication markets.
In recent years, Global has aired somewhat more identifiably Canadian entertainment programming, including the long-running finance drama
Traders, the
British-Canadian animated comedy
Bob and Margaret (with a British theme), the police procedural drama
Blue Murder, the nightly
improvised drama
Train 48, the sitcom
The Jane Show and the
reality show My Fabulous Gay Wedding. In
2003, Global signed comedian
Mike Bullard, host of the nightly
Open Mike with Mike Bullard on
CTV and the
Comedy Network, to a multi-year contract for a new nightly
talk show on Global, but
The Mike Bullard Show was cancelled after 60 episodes amid poor ratings.
Global recently purchased the rights to produce a Canadian edition of the popular entertainment magazine
Entertainment Tonight;
ET Canada launched on
September 12,
2005. It also secured Canadian production rights to the American
reality series The Apprentice, but there is no word on when, or if, a Canadian version will air.
Hit American shows currently airing on Global include first-run episodes of
Survivor,
The Simpsons,
Family Guy,
24,
House and
Prison Break. On
July 21,
2006, Global signed a deal with
World Wrestling Entertainment to broadcast the new
ECW brand, starting on
August 11 and then every Friday night in a late night slot. [
1]
Global profits due to Canada's
simultaneous substitution (or "simsub") regulations, which allows the owner of content to control programming rights for that show in Canada. So when an American broadcast network is broadcasting the same show at the same time that Global is (such as
Survivor), Canadian cable subscribers can only watch the Global Television broadcast, even when trying to view the American stations. This law gives them double exposure for their content and a larger share of advertising revenue, effectively blocking American border cities from access to the Canadian market. This was done to help give money to the networks to fund Canadian content development. Global is certainly not the only Canadian broadcaster to use simsubs; nonetheless, some complaints, specific to Global, have arisen due to the following related practices:
*Some Global stations superimpose the phrase
on Global on program's main titles, often in a font that poorly replicates that of the title itself. Often this means that a single superimposed version is used with each episode, which may interfere with running gags within the opening credits. For instance, the opening of
American Dad features a news headline that changes with each episode, but — for a time — the same headline might be shown on multiple episodes on Global, an issue that has since been rectified.
*Split-screen credits are also used to allow for network promos. On some shows, including
The Simpsons and
Family Guy, there are special closing credits that may use additional scenes or special music that is altered or lost when Global uses a split screen.
*In some cases, next-episode previews, such as those on
The Apprentice, are not shown. This may be because these promos are made in-house by the network (in this case,
NBC), and cannot be edited ahead of broadcast.
*Starting a show earlier than the American network's airing. A recent practice on several American networks has been to start certain shows shortly before or after :00 or :30 past the hour to avert audience loss. Global does not necessarily follow this practice, meaning the last few minutes of the preceding show may be lost to those watching the U.S. network. For instance, if NBC schedules
The Apprentice to start at 9:02 but Global schedules its start for exactly 9:00, the last two minutes of NBC's 8:00 program may be blocked by the Global signal. This is not unique to Global and may vary by service provider, since cable/satellite providers, not the networks, are responsible for scheduling and initiating simsubs.
*Global is the Canadian broadcast-television rightsholder for the
National Football League and, hence, the
Super Bowl. As with any other U.S. network program, Global can and does simsub the American feed. However, the Super Bowl is particularly controversial, as the U.S. network
Super Bowl commercials, likely the most anticipated set of commercials of any given year, cannot be seen on either Global or the applicable U.S. station. Instead, while some international advertisers (such as
Budweiser) do buy time on Global for the U.S. ads, many Canadian companies simply run ads introduced long before the game. Nonetheless, in recent years, nearly all American commercials have been available via various websites after the game, which may placate some complainants.
In October 2004, Global started airing select American programs in Widescreen
HDTV; since then, some Canadian series such as
Falcon Beach have been added to its HD lineup.
Global cross-promotes heavily with other CanWest properties, most frequently CH in the growing number of markets where both services operate in parallel.
*
CHAN - Global BC (
Vancouver, British Columbia)
*
CITV - Global Edmonton (
Edmonton, Alberta)
*
CICT - Global Calgary (
Calgary, Alberta)
*
CISA - Global Lethbridge (
Lethbridge, Alberta)
*
CFRE - Global Regina (
Regina, Saskatchewan)
*
CFSK - Global Saskatoon (
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan)
*
CKND - Global Winnipeg (
Winnipeg, Manitoba)
*
CIII - Global Ontario (licensed to
Paris, Ontario, operations in
Toronto)
*
CKMI - Global Quebec (licensed to
Quebec City, Quebec, operations in
Montreal)
*
CIHF - Global Maritimes (
Halifax, Nova Scotia)
Most of these stations serve their entire province through a network of relay stations as a part of the key station's license, although some of their transmitters may air separate advertising targeted to their local community.
:''See main article:
CH (television system)Global also maintains a second system of independent stations, branded as
CH. They are permitted to share a limited amount of programming with Global-branded stations, but presently do so very rarely. The CH stations are:
*
CHEK - CH Vancouver Island (
Victoria, British Columbia)
*
CHBC - CHBC Television (
Kelowna, British Columbia)
*
CHCA - CH Red Deer (
Red Deer, Alberta)
*
CHCH - CH Hamilton (
Hamilton, Ontario)
*
CJNT - CH Montreal (
Montreal, Quebec)
Regional Affiliates
*
CFJC - CFJC TV7 (
Kamloops, British Columbia) Owned by Jim Pattison Broadcasting Group.
*
1974: "Your New Point of View"
*
1975-2006: "Global's got it!"
*
2006-Present: None
*
List of programs broadcast by Global*
Official Site
