City TV Channel Coming to Montreal

Looks like Montreal is next inline to get the 'City TV' channel.......they are all over the place, Rogers bought these station for next to nothing & it looks like they are going to use them for their own expansion..I hope it good for Montreal maybe more of a local content type of station ? 

I still think of Montreal' s News Channel as being 'CFCF Pulse' remember that,.now it's all just CTV , I think more of a local stamp is what is neaded for any city......here's the Gazette story on this................................Cheers! HF&RV - Les

MONTREAL - Citytv could be coming to Montreal soon.

Rogers Media announced on Thursday that it had reached a deal to purchase Montreal multicultural television station Metro 14 (CJNT) from Toronto-based Channel Zero Inc.

Rogers plans to turn CJNT into a Citytv station, expanding the national network’s presence. Citytv has stations in Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. The company also announced that it will sign long-term affiliation agreements with three stations owned by the Jim Pattison Group: CHAT-TV in Medicine Hat, Alta., CJFC-TV in Kamloops, B.C., and CKPG-TV in Prince George, B.C. All three have been Citytv affiliates since 2009, and are, like CJNT, former members of the Canwest CH/E! network. Rogers also announced in January it would purchase educational regional cable channel Saskatchewan Communications Network from Bluepoint Investment Corp. and rebrand it as Citytv Saskatchewan.

"Citytv up until recently has only been available in 7.2 million homes, and when we buy and produce programming, the cost of that is similar to what other networks pay when they buy national footprint rights," Rogers Media President of Broadcast Scott Moore told The Gazette. "It's essential for us to expand our footprint."

Though the new deals give Citytv good coverage west of Montreal, there are no stations east of the city. Moore said there are no specific plans for expansion into Atlantic Canada, but said it represented a gap in the network and "we'll continue to work on that in the next 6-12 months."

The deal must be approved by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission before Rogers Media can take over. In the meantime, Rogers and Channel Zero have signed an affiliation agreement that will see Citytv programming on CJNT as of June 4. Citytv programs include American shows like New Girl, Modern Family and How I Met Your Mother, as well as original Canadian productions like Canada’s Got Talent and the upcoming The Bachelor Canada. Channel Zero President Cal Millar told The Gazette the station would also air some programming from Rogers's OMNI network of ethnic stations.

Channel Zero also owns CHCH television in Hamilton, Ont. It purchased CHCH and CJNT from Canwest in 2009 after the struggling company (which also owned The Gazette) decided to shut down its secondary network of conventional television stations. The purchase price for both stations was $12.

Moore said he would not comment about the purchase price, but joked that it was "more than double" the $12 Channel Zero paid for it.

CJNT's license from the CRTC requires it to broadcast 14 hours of local ethnic programming each week. But after the sale from Canwest to Channel Zero, the station stopped producing its ethnic programming. It has since been airing reruns - some of them three years old - of its local ethnic shows. The rest of its schedule is made up of music videos, foreign films and some low-rated U.S. programming whose Canadian rights haven't been scooped up by CTV, Global or Citytv.

Moore did not comment on any changes Rogers might propose for CJNT's license, or whether it would continue to be a multiethnic station. "We'll be spending the next couple of months in Montreal speaking with stakeholders in the community," he said.

As far as local programming, Moore said it was still too early to tell, but it was unlikely the station would produce a daily newscast. "I don't know that Montreal needs another English-language supper-hour newscast," he said. Citytv stations outside of Toronto meet local programming requirements with morning shows. Moore said it was "a good bet" that a similar strategy would be used in Montreal.

Millar said the sale was bittersweet for Channel Zero, which he said had been making progress building its audience with a new morning show that's heavy on music videos. He said Rogers has been trying to buy the station since "shortly after we acquired it" and made multiple offers. But this time, "Rogers was more determined than ever to expand their national reach," MIllar said. "It was far more valuable to them at that point than to us."

Channel Zero had been in talks with a local producer to bring back some local ethnic programming this fall. Millar said he doesn't know if those plans will continue as the company waits for a decision on the acquisition.

Rogers said it would expect a decision by the CRTC in the fall.

  ..Cheers ! Have Fun & Remember Verdun........................................................ - Les