MCTV
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MCTV is a system of four television stations in Northern Ontario, Canada, owned by the CTV Television Network.
The MCTV stations are:
- CICI - Greater Sudbury, Ontario
- CKNY - North Bay, Ontario
- CITO - Timmins, Ontario
- CHBX - Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
All four stations refer to themselves on air as MCTV, not by their call letters. Station information and history is discussed on each station's own page.
MCTV also formerly owned CBC twinsticks in each city:
These stations were also referred to on air as MCTV; the stations were distinguished from each other by use of their network affiliation (ie. "MCTV-CTV" and "MCTV-CBC".) Additionally, MCTV owned CHRO in Pembroke, a market with no other television stations. CHRO used the same logo and programming schedule as MCTV's other stations, and changed affiliation from CBC to CTV during its time in the MCTV group, but it always used its own callsign, rather than MCTV, as its on-air identification.
Mid-Canada Television, or MCTV, was created in 1980 when Cambrian Broadcasting, which owned the CTV affiliates in Sudbury, North Bay and Timmins, merged with J. Conrad Lavigne's Mid-Canada Communications, which owned the CBC affiliates. This structure was permitted by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission because both companies were on the brink of bankruptcy due to their aggressive competition for limited advertising dollars in small markets.
CHBX and CJIC were owned by Huron Broadcasting, and remained under different ownership and branding until 1990.
MCTV became a division of Northern Cable, the region's cable television provider, and the station owners became shareholders in Northern. In 1986, MCTV also acquired the Mid-Canada Radio Network of stations.
In 1990, Northern Cable began divesting itself of its media properties. Pelmorex purchased Mid-Canada Radio, and Baton Broadcasting acquired MCTV. Baton also purchased Huron Broadcasting in 1990, and converted those stations to the MCTV branding. As well, Baton reaffiliated CHRO with CTV. Baton eventually became the sole corporate proprietor of CTV, and sold CHRO to CHUM Limited in 1998.
Baton retained the CBC twinsticks until 2002, when it sold them to the CBC. Once the deal was finalized in early 2003, the CBC converted them to retransmitters of CBLT, Toronto's CBC-owned station. All four stations surrendered their old call letters.
In the same year, CTV merged the news production facilities of the MCTV stations into a single regional newscast, with only short inserts for each city's local coverage. The regional newscast is produced at CICI. This created extensive controversy, with many public interest groups across Canada raising concerns about the disappearance of local news coverage in small markets.
Organizations in Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay and Timmins began to call for a boycott of MCTV news, and local public interest groups have attempted to create new alternative sources for local news.
In 2003, MCTV's master control was transferred to CTV facilities in Toronto.
Slogans
- Since 2000 - News for the North
External link
- MCTV (http://www.mctv.ca/)