Online Encyclopedia
Global Television Network
The Global Television Network (more commonly called Global) is a major English-language television network in Canada. It first signed on in 1974 as an Ontario-only independent channel, but was soon purchased by Izzy Asper, a Manitoba politician-turned-broadcaster who already owned a station in Winnipeg through his company CanWest.
Asper then went on to acquire additional regional broadcast networks in Saskatchewan, British Columbia, and the Maritimes. Although Asper's regional networks always purchased programming rights as a collective, they did not have common branding until 1997, when the Global name was extended across the country. In the same year, Global broadcast in Quebec for the first time, when it acquired the assets of a former CBC affiliate in Quebec City, CKMI-TV, after the CBC took over CKMI's original VHF channel for its own English-language station.
In 2000, Global acquired the conventional television assets of Western International Communications (WIC), which owned a regional network in Alberta, and those stations were branded as Global in 2001. As well, WIC owned the CTV affiliates in Vancouver and Victoria, which contravened the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission guidelines on market penetration since Global already had a station there. However, WIC's CTV station, CHAN-TV, was much more powerful and highly rated than Global's station, CKVU-TV, so Global sold CKVU to Citytv, kept CHAN as the new Global affiliate, and rebranded the Victoria station into a new second system, CH, patterned after WIC's Hamilton, Ontario station CHCH. (The CTV affiliation moved to CIVT-TV, which was already owned by CTV but had previously operated as an independent station.)
Although Global network service is not officially available in Newfoundland and Labrador, a private station there, NTV, airs much of the Global network schedule.
Since the Aspers' purchase of Southam Newspapers and the National Post from Conrad Black in 2001, the media interests have been merged into Canwest Global with a deliberate policy of cross-promotion being implemented. This has resulted in journalists from the National Post and other Canwest papers making frequent appearances on Global's news programs, the passengers of Train 48 acquiring a habit of reading the National Post, and Global programs being promoted in Canwest Global newspapers. Global's news programs have also become more conservative and are particularly conservative and pro-Israeli and pro-American in its coverage of the Middle East. Global's Middle East correspondent Martin Himmell's documentary Confrontation at Concordia — on conflicts between pro- and anti-Zionist students at Concordia University — has been strongly criticised for bias and selective reporting but was aired serveral times in prime time by the network in 2003.
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Programming
Global airs almost exclusively United States-produced programming, and has been criticized for not producing enough Canadian content. More recently, the network attracted controversy when its Manitoba station aired its usual programming schedule on the night of the 2003 provincial election rather than producing any special news programming, and when its Ontario station bumped its own election night newscast to CHCH, in order to avoid pre-empting Survivor. Incidents such as this reinforce the perception among some viewers that Global is not concerned with serving the public interest.
Global has taken steps to rectify the situation, including launching the nightly unscripted series Train 48 and the mystery/drama series Zoe Busiek: Wild Card. Global had convinced Mike Bullard to move his late-night talk show from CTV, but cancelled the program after 60 episodes due to poor ratings. Global has also purchased the rights to do a Canadian version of The Apprentice, an American program which drew nearly 3 million viewers each week.
In 2001 Global started a national newscast, Global National , which is anchored by Kevin Newman .
Hit American shows currently airing on Global include Friends, Survivor, Will and Grace, The Simpsons and Everybody Loves Raymond. The station often adds "on Global" during programs' opening credits.
Global stations
- CHAN (Vancouver, British Columbia)
- CITV (Edmonton, Alberta)
- CICT (Calgary, Alberta)
- CISA (Lethbridge, Alberta)
- CFRE (Regina, Saskatchewan)
- CFSK (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan)
- CKND (Winnipeg, Manitoba)
- CIII (Toronto, Ontario)
- CKMI (Quebec City, Quebec)
- CIHF (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, and CIHF serves all three Maritime provinces.
CH system
Global also maintains a second system of independent stations, branded as CH. These stations are:
Slogans
- c. 1983-present: "Global's got it!"