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| Type | Terrestrial television network |
|---|---|
| Country | Canada |
| Broadcast area | Canada parts of the United States via cable or antenna, depending on location |
| Affiliates | See§ Global stations |
| Headquarters | Corus Quay,Toronto,Ontario, Canada |
| Programming | |
| Picture format | 1080iHDTV |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Corus Entertainment |
| Key people | Jennifer Abrams (senior vice president, programming and platform, Corus Entertainment) |
| Sister channels | Home Network Flavour Network W Network Slice National Geographic Nat Geo Wild History Showcase DTour Global Reality Channel |
| History | |
| Launched | January 6, 1974; 51 years ago (1974-01-06) |
| Founder |
|
| Former names | CanWest Global System (used in the 1990s on non-Global branded Canwest stations) |
| Links | |
| Website | www |
TheGlobal Television Network (more commonly calledGlobal, or occasionallyGlobal TV) is aCanadian English-language terrestrial television network. It is currently Canada's second most-watched private terrestrial television network afterCTV, and has fifteenowned-and-operated stations throughout the country. Global is owned byCorus Entertainment — the media holdings ofJR Shaw and other members of his family.
Global has its origins in aregional television station of the same name, servingSouthern Ontario, which launched in 1974. The Ontario station was soon purchased by the now-defunctCanWest Global Communications, and that company gradually expanded its national reach in the subsequent decades through both acquisitions and new station launches, building up a quasi-network of independent stations, known as theCanWest Global System, until the stations were unified under the Ontario station's branding in 1997.
The network has its origins in NTV, a new network first proposed in 1966 byHamilton media proprietorKen Soble, the co-founder and owner of independent stationCHCH-TV through his Niagara Television company.[1] Financially backed byPower Corporation of Canada, Soble submitted a brief to theBoard of Broadcast Governors in 1966 proposing a nationalsatellite-fed network.[2] Under the plan, Soble's company would launch Canada's first broadcast satellite and would use it to relay the programming of CHCH to 96 new transmitters across Canada.[3] Soble died in December of that year; his widow, Frances, took over as president of Niagara Television,[4] while formerCTV executive Michael Hind-Smith and Niagara Television vice-presidentAl Bruner handled the network application.[5] Soble had originally formulated the plan after failing in a bid to acquire CTV.[1]
The original proposal was widely criticized on various grounds, including claims that it exceeded the board'sconcentration of media ownership limits and that it was overly ambitious and financially unsustainable.[6] As well, it failed to include any plan for local news content on any of its individual stations beyond possibly the metropolitanToronto,Montreal, andVancouver markets.[6]
By 1968, NTV put forward its first official licence application, under which the original 96 transmitters would be supplemented by 43 more transmitters to distribute a separate French-language service,[7] along with provisions for the free distribution ofCBC Television,Radio-Canada, and a new noncommercial educational television service on the network's satellite.[7] Transponder space would also be leased to CTV andTélé-Métropole, but as competing commercial services, they would not have been granted the free distribution rights the plan offered to the public television services.[7] However, after federal communications ministerPaul Hellyer announced plans to move forward with the publicly ownedAnik series of broadcast satellites throughTelesat Canada instead of leaving the rollout of satellite technology in the hands of private corporations, Power Corporation backed out of the application and left NTV in limbo.[8]
Bruner was fired from Niagara Television in 1969, purportedly because his efforts to rescue the network application were leading him to neglect his other duties with the company's existing media operations.[9] He then put together another investment team to form Global Communications, which carried the network application forward thereafter.[10] By 1970, theCanadian Radio and Television Commission had put out a formal call for "third" stations in several major cities. Global Communications put forward a revised application under which the network would launch with transmitters only inOntario, as an interim step toward the eventual buildout of the entire network originally envisioned by Soble.[8] Because Niagara Television and CHCH were no longer involved in the proposal, the 1970 application also requested a licence to launch a new station in Toronto as the chain's flagship.
The network licence was approved by the CRTC on July 21, 1972.[11] The group was granted a six-transmitter network inSouthern Ontario, stretching fromWindsor toOttawa.[12] They had also sought a seventh transmitter inMaxville that could reachMontreal,[12] but were turned down because of a CRTC moratorium on new English stations in the Montreal market.[11] The transmitters would all be fed from a central studio in Toronto.[12] The group promised a high level ofCanadian content and agreed not to accept local advertising.
The station's initial plan was to broadcast only during prime time hours from 5 p.m. to midnight, while leasing daytime hours to theOntario Educational Communications Authority to broadcast educational programming.[11] However, the offer never came to fruition, with the OECA opting instead to expand what would eventually becomeTVOntario by launching its own transmitters.[citation needed]
The new Global Television Network, with the callsignCKGN-TV (now CIII-DT), launched on January 6, 1974,[12] from studios located at a former factory in theDon Mills neighbourhood inNorth York (now in Toronto) at 6 p.m.[13] local time. Global remains based there today. Although the Ontario station has always been based in Toronto, its main transmitter was licensed to Paris, Ontario; halfway betweenKitchener-Waterloo and Hamilton, transmitting on Channel 6, until 2009. Repeating transmitters were originally located nearWindsor, Ontario on Channel 22;Sarnia, Channel 29,Uxbridge, Ontario on Channel 22, to serve the metro Toronto area; Bancroft, on Channel 2; andHull, Quebec, to cover the Ottawa area, on Channel 6.
Global's original prime time schedule includedPatrick Watson's documentary seriesWitness to Yesterday,Pierre Berton's political debate showThe Great Debate, a Canadian edition ofBernard Braden's British consumer affairs newsmagazineThe Braden Beat,William Shatner's film talk showFlick Flack, Sunday nightToronto Toros hockey games and a nightly variety series calledEverything Goes,[12] as well as a few imported American series, includingChopper One,Dirty Sally, andDoc Elliot. In March, the station drew a formal complaint from MPJames McGrath against its airing of the 1969 Western filmHeaven with a Gun, as the film featured scenes of violence that McGrath considered inappropriate.[14]
The station ran into a financial crisis within just three months. Due to the CRTC decision, it was forced to launch at midseason. Many companies had already allocated their advertising budgets for the season and had little money left to buy time on the newly minted network,[15] and even some of the advertisers who had booked time on the network backed out in light of the1973 oil crisis.[16] In addition, the short-lived American adoption of year-rounddaylight saving time in January 1974 and the Ontario government's refusal to follow suit had unexpectedly forcedEverything Goes, promoted as the network's flagship show, into airing directly oppositeThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and thus attracting disastrous ratings.[17] As a result of the crisis, the station quickly lost access to its line of credit.[15]
Unable to meet daily expenses, Global initially approached potential bidders, includingChannel Seventynine,Denison Mines,Standard Broadcasting, and theJim Pattison Group,[15] and was soon bailed out by IWC Communications, owned by broadcasterAllan Slaight, and Global Ventures Western Ltd., a syndicate that included Winnipeg movie theatre ownerPaul Morton andIzzy Asper, aManitoba politician turned broadcaster.[18] Asper's company, CanWest Capital, was in the process of obtaining the licence for what would becomeCKND-TV in Winnipeg, which planned to carry some of Global's programs under a syndication deal.[18]
In the spring of 1974, Global cancelled a significant number of its scheduled programs. By that fall, it was obvious that Global's original model was unsustainable, and it was forced to pick up a large amount of American programming to fill in the gaps. With American imports filling as much of the schedule as Canadian content rules would allow (60% Canadian overall, 50% Canadian in prime time), Global had effectively become "anotherCTV."[19] With the exception of the nightly newscasts, few other Canadian-produced programs remained on the station, and the ones that did exist were largely criticized as cheaply produced filler.[19] John Spalding, the station's original program director, quit in 1975 after being unable to convince the station's owners to invest more money into higher-quality production.[20] To replace him, the company recruited programmer Bill Stewart away from CKCO-TV, Kitchener. Stewart's savvy program purchases in the ensuing years were largely credited with keeping the network viable while its viewership grew. The company enhanced its senior talent pool in 1979 with the arrival of sales guru Dave Mintz, formerly ofKVOS-TV, as the network's president,[21] a post he held until his retirement in 1993, taking Global from the lowest-rated station in Toronto to the ratings leader along the way.[22] Over several years, the prime late evening newscast shifted between 10 and 11 p.m. and between 30 and 60 minutes. CKGN changed its callsign toCIII-TV in 1984, deferring to its widespread CATV distribution on Cable 3.
Asper bought a controlling interest in 1985, making him the first western-based owner of a major Canadian broadcaster. In 1989, Asper and Morton tried to buy each other out, a struggle that was resolved in favour of Asper and Canwest.
For its first decade, the network remained restricted to its six-transmitter chain in Ontario. However, soon after Asper bought controlling interest in Global, he seemed eager to grow his chain of stations into a third national network. He started by launchingCFRE-DT inRegina andCFSK-DT inSaskatoon,[23][24] and winning a legal battle forCKVU-DT in Vancouver[25] during the second half of the 1980s. He also acquired the fledglingCIHF-DT inHalifax in the early 1990s.[26] Canwest's stations now reached seven of Canada's ten provinces. The Canwest stations purchased many of their programs collectively, and consequently had similar—although not identical—broadcast schedules. They did not share common branding, however—although stations were sometimes indicated as being part of the "CanWest Global System" as a secondary brand, throughout the 1980s and early 1990s they each retained their own branding and continued to function as an ownership group of independent stations rather than as a fully unified network.

In 1997, Canwest bought a controlling interest in theCBC affiliate inQuebec City,CKMI-TV, fromTVA,[27] which retained a 49% interest until 2002. With the acquisition of CKMI, Canwest now had enough coverage of Canada that it seemed logical to rebrand its station group as a network. Accordingly, on August 18, 1997, Canwest scrubbed all local branding from its stations and rebranded them as the "Global Television Network," the brand previously used solely by the Ontario outlet. On the same day, CKMI disaffiliated from CBC, set up rebroadcasters in Montreal andSherbrooke, and became the Quebec outlet of the newly minted network. It also built a new studio in Montreal and moved most of its operations there, though the licence nominally remained in Quebec City until 2009. Canwest's acquisition of CKMI expanded Global's reach to eight of Canada's 10 largest markets, with only rebroadcasters serving Ottawa and Montreal.
Even so, Global was still not a fully national network, as it did not have stations inCalgary andEdmonton. The CRTC turned down bids by Canwest for stations in those cities in the 1980s. As a result, Global continued its long-standing secondary affiliations in those cities on independent stationsCICT-TV andCITV-TV, respectively. Similarly, Global lacked a full-time station inSt. John's, where Global programming was carried by longtime CTV affiliateCJON-TV.
In 2000, Canwest acquired the conventional television assets ofWestern International Communications (WIC).[28] WIC's stations in Calgary, Edmonton, andLethbridge had been airing some Global programs since 1988, and those stations formally joined the network on September 4, 2000.
The following fall, WIC's long-dominant Vancouver stationCHAN-TV was brought into the fold after its existing affiliation agreement with CTV expired, setting offa sweeping realignment of television affiliations in southwestern British Columbia. Indeed, one main reason why Canwest bought WIC's television assets was because of CHAN's enormous translator network, which covered 97% of British Columbia. Global's previous Vancouver station,CKVU-TV, as well as WIC-owned Montreal CTV affiliateCFCF-TV, were sold off. WIC's remaining stations were maintained astwinstick stations and were eventually integrated into a secondary system known as CH (rebranded asE! in 2007 in a partnership withthe American channel of the same name), although financial pressures forced Canwest to sell or fold the E! stations in 2009.
Full network service is still not available over-the-air inNewfoundland and Labrador. However, CJON, having disaffiliated from CTV in 2002, now clears the vast majority of Global programming in that province, most recently adding the network's national newscast in mid-2009. Any remaining programs there may be accessed on cable or satellite through Global stations from other markets (most commonly Edmonton's CITV) or through the network's website.
Following Canwest's purchase ofSoutham Newspapers (later Canwest Publishing) and theNational Post fromConrad Black in 2001, their media interests were merged under a policy ofcross-promotion andsynergy. Journalists from thePost and other Canwest papers made frequent appearances on Global's news programs, passengers on the now-defunct serial dramaTrain 48 habitually read thePost, and Global programs were promoted in Canwest newspapers. However, this practice has now been largely abandoned, particularly after Canwest's breakup in 2010.
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 that was announced in December 2005. The most obvious change was a new logo, replacing the "crescent" with a new "greater than" logo, with the Global wordmark in a new font, that was introduced on February 5, 2006 (coinciding with Global's broadcast ofSuper Bowl XL).[29] New logos and graphics were designed for news and network promotions, and several newscasts received new timeslots and formats. The company subsequently removed the crescent, which had been a common design element in many Canwest logos, from other properties it owned or sponsored over time.
On April 10, 2008, the network announced that its Toronto and Vancouver stations would start broadcasting their over-the-air signals in those markets inhigh definition. CIII and CHAN officially started transmitting in HD on April 18, 2008.[30] The network has also launched digital signals at its stations inCalgary (CICT-DT) andEdmonton (CITV-DT) as of July 2009.
Following Canwest seekingcreditor protection in late 2009,Shaw Communications acquired Canwest's broadcasting assets on October 27, 2010, and folded them into a new division,Shaw Media, of which Global is the flagship.[31] Canwest's newspaper assets had been sold off earlier in the year asPostmedia Network.
On April 1, 2016, as part of a corporate reorganization (marketed as being an acquisition), Shaw Media was subsumed by Shaw's sister company,Corus Entertainment.[32][33]
In television listings such asTV Guide, where space limitations usually require television networks to be referred to by a three-letter abbreviation, the abbreviations "GLO," "GLB," or "GTV" are commonly used, depending on the publication. None of these abbreviations has any standing as an official name for the network, however—the network's own short form name for itself is always "Global."
Global News is the news and current affairs division of the Global Television Network, which is based in Vancouver. National programs broadcast by the division include Global's flagship national newscastGlobal National and newsmagazine shows such as16x9. The network also offers various amounts of local news programming on its eleven O&Os. Local news programming on most of Global's O&Os mirror the newscast schedules of many U.S. television stations; most Global-owned stations carry a morning newscast of three or four hours in length, a noon newscast, supper hour newscasts of between 30 and 90 minutes and a half-hour to hour-long late evening newscast. Global-owned stations in certain major markets also carry locally basedpublic affairs programs under theFocus brand.
In addition, Corus also operates several Global-branded news/talk radio stations across Canada under theGlobal News Radio moniker.
Global does not have what can be called a main schedule, apart from news. Even before the WIC purchase, the Global stations had widely varying program lineups, and the WIC purchase only exacerbated the differences. For example, CHAN held the British Columbia rights to many shows that aired on CTV until 2001, except forThe Oprah Winfrey Show. Factors influencing the stations' programming include time zone differences, local programming, and ratings for non-Global shows.
Global has built its business on profitable entertainment programming produced in the United States and has long been criticized for not investing enough inCanadian content. Canadian programming carried on the network, such as a revival of 1960s American science fiction seriesThe Outer Limits, or the Chicago-set dramaZoe Busiek: Wild Card, has often avoided Canadian themes, presumably to focus on sales to United States and internationalcable orsyndication markets – althoughPsi Factor did include Canadian themes, including a "killer wheat" episode and episodes set in Northern Quebec and Halifax. Series initially intended for the U.S. and international market are sometimes called "industrial" productions and largely disappeared with the collapse of the international action hour market.
From the late-1990s to the mid-2000s, Global aired somewhat more identifiably Canadian entertainment programming, including the long-running finance dramaTraders, the British-Canadian animated comedyBob and Margaret, the police procedural dramaBlue Murder, the nightlyimprovised dramaTrain 48, the sitcomThe Jane Show and the reality showMy Fabulous Gay Wedding. In 2003, Global signed comedianMike Bullard, host of the nightlyOpen Mike with Mike Bullard onCTV andThe Comedy Network, to a multi-year contract for a new nightlytalk show on Global, but that series was cancelled after 60 episodes amid poor ratings.
Global purchased the rights to produce a Canadian version of the popular entertainment magazineEntertainment Tonight;ET Canada launched on September 12, 2005. It also secured Canadian production rights to the Americanreality seriesThe Apprentice, but a Canadian version of the program never came to fruition. They also produce a Canadian version of thereality seriesBig Brother.
Global, like all Canadian broadcast outlets, benefits from Canada'ssimultaneous substitution (or "simsub") regulations, which allow content owners to control programming rights for a particular show in Canada. When an American broadcast network is broadcasting the same show at the same time that Global is (such as the programs mentioned above), Canadian cable subscribers may 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 not the only Canadian broadcaster to use simsubs; nonetheless, some complaints, specific to Global, have arisen due to the following related practices:
Global cross-promotes heavily with other Corus Entertainment properties in the markets where both services operate in parallel.
On June 6, 2007, the Canadian actors' unionACTRA picketed Global's fallupfronts presentation to protest the lack of Canadian content on current television network schedules.[34]
In 1979, Global – then a regional network in Ontario – purchased theToronto Blizzard soccer team and produced and aired coverage of the team's games in-house. The team was not a success on the field, in attendance or ratings, and Global sold the franchise in 1981 but continued to broadcast seven games a year until 1983.[35]
Aside from its brief experiment with soccer, the Global network has never had an in-house sports production division as do CBC, CTV/TSN, & Citytv/Sportsnet. Network sports broadcasts are eithersimulcast with American networks or outsourced to independent producers such asMolstar. During the1987 and1988 Stanley Cup playoffs,Global aired NHL games syndicated byCarling O'Keefe. Global was the longtime broadcaster ofNational Football League football games in Canada, an association that ended in 2007 whenCTV outbid Global for the NFL broadcast package. The network was a long-time broadcaster ofPGA Tour events.
Beyond event coverage, many Global stations were well known for local late-night sports highlights shows, such asSportsline in Ontario,Sports Page in Vancouver (later moved to former sister stationCHEK-TV),2&7 Sports at 11 in Calgary andSports Night in Edmonton. Most of these programs were later unified under theGlobal Sports brand. However, due to declining audiences, by fall 2005 all but the Ontario program had been cancelled, although stations continued to cover sports in their local newscasts. Global Ontario's sports program was finally cancelled in January 2007; at that point, the station closed its sports department entirely, and for a time outsourced sports coverage toSportsnet andThe Score / Sportsnet 360.
Some Global O&Os outside of Ontario (such as CHAN Vancouver and CITV Edmonton) continue to feature locally produced sports segments on their local newscasts. On the other hand, the sports segments aired during local newscasts onCIHF-DT in Saint John andCKMI-DT in Montreal are produced from CHAN's Vancouver studio, presented by that station's sports anchors.
Until the discontinuation ofFox Sports World Canada,CKND-DT in Winnipeg also produced theFox Soccer Report, which was seen on the network andFox Soccer in the United States. It was replaced in 2012 by theSportsnet-producedFox Soccer News.
In 2015, Global broadcast coverage of theCanada West conference's university football championship, including coverage of one semi-final game, and theHardy Cup game the following week. The telecasts were produced throughShaw TV'sCanada West Football on Shaw package.[36]
Global streams live and on-demand programming via its website and apps for mobile devices anddigital media players. In 2020, the Global apps were relaunched to includestreaming for subscribers of most of Corus Entertainment's specialty channels, mirroring a similar move announced by CTV.[37]

In October 2004, Global launched a1080ihigh definition simulcast feed of its Toronto stationCIII-TV called Global HD and started airing select American programs in HD; some Canadian series such asFalcon Beach eventually began to be included among its HD programs. At the time, the service was only available viadigital cable. On April 18, 2008, Global officially launched a digital transmitter in Toronto, making the HD simulcast of CIII-TV available over-the-air. The network also launched an HD simulcast feed of its Vancouver station (CHAN-TV) on the same day.
Global HD is available nationally via satellite and on digital cable as well as for freeover-the-air using a regular TV antenna and a digital tuner (included in most new television sets) on the following channels:
The above noted transmitters were converted to digital by August 31, 2011, as part of Canada's over-the-air transition deadline in mandatory markets from analog to digital. As part of its purchase by Shaw Communications in 2011, Shaw committed to converting all of the network's over-the-air analog transmitters to digital by 2016.
The Global network has long been much more decentralized than either CBC or CTV. For most programs, there is no "network" feedper se, and in effect every commercial break is a station break. National advertising is certainly available, but such ads are seamlessly integrated into local ad blocks.
In fact, it is not uncommon to see different lengths of commercial breaks from one station to the next even during identical programming. This occurs even though all Global stations have had their master control operations centralized in Calgary since fall 2006.
From 2010 to 2016, with the exception of CIII-DT in Toronto, stations used sustained on-screenbugs using each station's full local brand as opposed to simply "Global". In September 2016, except for local newscasts, Global has updated its bug back to "Global" without an additional local station city below it.
Notes:
| City of licence | Station | Channel TV (RF) | Year of affiliation | Owned since | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calgary,Alberta | CICT-DT | 2.1 (41) | 1988 (as a secondary affiliate) | 2000 | Master control hub for all owned-and-operated stations until August 29, 2022 |
| Edmonton,Alberta | CITV-DT | 13.1 (13) | 1988 (as a secondary affiliate) | 2000 | |
| Halifax,Nova Scotia | CIHF-DT | 8.1 (8) | 1988 | 1994 | |
| Kelowna,British Columbia | CHBC-DT | 2.1 (27) | 2009 | 2000 | |
| Kingston,Ontario | CKWS-DT | 11.1 (11) | 2016 (for news programming only; became full-time O&O in 2018) | 2016 | |
| Lethbridge,Alberta | CISA-DT | 7.1 (7) | 1988 (as a secondary affiliate) | 2000 | |
| Montreal,Quebec | CKMI-DT++ | 20.1 (20) | 1997 (previously secondary 1982–1992) | 1997 | |
| Oshawa,Ontario | CHEX-DT-2 | 22.1 (29) | 2016 (for news programming only; became full-time O&O in 2018) | 2016 | |
| Peterborough,Ontario | CHEX-DT | 12.1 (12) | 2016 (for news programming only; became full-time O&O in 2018) | 2016 | |
| Regina,Saskatchewan | CFRE-DT++ | 11.1 (11) | 1990 | 1987 | |
| Saint John,New Brunswick | CHNB-DT | 12.1 (12) | 1988 | 1994 | |
| Saskatoon,Saskatchewan | CFSK-DT++ | 4.1 (42) | 1990 | 1987 | |
| Toronto,Ontario | CIII-DT** | 6.1 (6) | 1974 | 1974 | Master control hub for all owned-and-operated stations since August 29, 2022 |
| Vancouver,British Columbia | CHAN-DT** | 8.1 (22) | 2001 | 2000 | Studio facilities based inBurnaby,British Columbia |
| Winnipeg,Manitoba | CKND-DT++ | 9.1 (40) | 1975 | 1985 |
Several O&Os predate the first appearance of the Global banner in 1974. Specifically, CKMI, CICT, CHBC, CHEX, CISA and CKWS launched in the 1950s asCBC Televisionaffiliates, while CHAN-TV launched in 1960 and soon became Vancouver's originalCTV affiliate. All of these were eventually supplanted by network-owned stations or transmitters.
Most of these stations serve their entire province or region through a network of relay stations as a part of the key station's licence, although some of their transmitters may air separate advertising targeted to their local community.
| City of licence | Station | Channel TV (RF) | Year of affiliation | Owner | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. John's,Newfoundland and Labrador | CJON-DT (informal secondary affiliation) | 21.1 (21) | 2002 | Stirling Communications International | Nominally an independent station known as "NTV", CJON is sometimes considered a Global affiliate, as Global has been that station's primary source of programming since dropping its primary CTV affiliation in 2002. However, NTV does not always carry the full Global lineup, and continues to air some CTV specials, as well as national newscasts from both networks. |
| Thunder Bay,Ontario | CHFD-DT | 4.1 (4) | 2010 | Dougall Media | Uses on-air brand "Global Thunder Bay", despite not being an O&O. Previously a CTV affiliate. |
| City of licence | Station | Year of affiliation | Year of disaffiliation | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vancouver,British Columbia | CKVU-DT | 1997 | 2001 | Had to be divested to ownCHAN-TV in Vancouver andCHEK-TV in Victoria, sold toCHUM Limited. Currently owned byRogers Sports & Media as aCitytv O&O. |
| Kenora,Ontario | CJBN-TV | 2011 | 2017 | Shaw Communications elected not to renew the station's licence. The station closed on January 27, 2017. |
| City of licence | Station | Year of affiliation | Year of disaffiliation | Current affiliation | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burlington, Vermont/Plattsburgh (city), New York | WVNY | 1987 | 1990 | ABC | Provided coverage ofMontreal for theCanadian Football Network, as the Global system did not have any affiliates in Quebec at the time. |
| Lloydminster,Alberta/Saskatchewan | CKSA-DT | 2016 | 2021 | Citytv | Previously an affiliate forCBC Television from 1960 until 2016. As of December 2021, it was currently aCitytv affiliate. |
Global previously maintained a secondarytelevision system similar toCTV 2. CH was originally launched on February 12, 2001, byCanwest Global Communications after acquiring theWestern International Communications properties in 2000. The system was launched in September of that year when thelarge network shuffle in Vancouver occurred, only to provide a secondary schedule parallel to Canwest's larger Global Television Network. It initially focused on airing programs from the U.S. broadcast networks that could not fit on Global's own schedule, to avail ofsimultaneous substitution opportunities. The system became "E!" in fall 2007, as a result of a deal withComcast to carry programming from that company's U.S.-basedE!: Entertainment Television, although it continued to air much the same American network series in primetime and the afternoon.
The E! television system ceased operations on September 1, 2009, due to low ratings and corporate financial difficulties that eventually led to Canwest filing forbankruptcy protection and selling its properties toShaw Media; the E!O&O stations experienced varied fates (CHCHHamilton andCJNT Montreal were sold toChannel Zero,CHEKVictoria was sold to an employee-led group;CHBCKelowna remained with Canwest and was converted into a Global O&O, andCHCARed Deer ceased operations outright), while the Pattison Group stations affiliated with theRogers Media-ownedCitytv system.[38] As E!, local news and other regional programming, as well as most local community sponsorships on the O&O stations, used local branding (using the callsign branding scheme common with Canadian stations not owned by a network or television system). This decision was at least partly made to avoid confusion withE! News, but likely intended to ensure that local newscasts were not perceived as celebrity-oriented. E! in the U.S. later reached an agreement to bring the channel's brand and programming to Bell Media'sCategory 2specialty channel Star! (which had a similar format to E! U.S. and had carried some of its programming prior to the 2007 rebranding of CH), rebranding it as aCanadian version of E! on November 29, 2010.[39]
Other Global-branded channels included theGlobal Reality Channel that was devoted to reality shows launched in 2010 and ceased operations in 2012,[40]Prime,DejaView andMystery TV, which the latter three channels formerly wore the previous Global logo.