CKVU-DT (channel 10, cable channel 13) is a television station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, serving as the West Coast flagship of the Citytv network, a division of Rogers Sports & Media. It is sister to Omni Television outlet CHNM-DT (channel 42). The two stations share studios at the corner of West 2nd Avenue and Columbia Street (near False Creek) in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood of Vancouver; CKVU-DT's transmitter is located atop Mount Seymour in the district municipality of North Vancouver, with its studio to transmitter link facilities on the roof of the Century Plaza Hotel in Downtown Vancouver.
The station went on the air on September 1, 1976 as CKVU-TV by Western Approaches Ltd., with Canwest first entered the station in 1979 by providing emergency financing to founding owner Western Approaches to fend off a takeover attempt by Allarcom. Under Canwest's ownership, the station shifted from UHF channel 21 to VHF channel 10 in 1986, which they acquired full 100% ownership of CKVU in 1988 after years of legal and regulatory disputes before the station was rebranded as U.TV in 1990, and officially took on the Global Television Network brand in 1997 as its owned-and-operated West Coast outlet. Its local identity was overwhelmingly defined by its pioneering sports news division, led by its flagship late-night highlights program, Sports Page.https://strategyonline.ca/1992/11/16/6698-19921116/
After Canwest acquired the broadcasting assets of Western International Communications in 2000 along with the purchase of CHAN-TV, it sold off CKVU to CHUM Limited in 2001 and relaunched under the Citytv brand on July 22, 2002.https://www.vancouverbroadcasters.com/history.html CHUM Limited was acquired by CTVglobemedia in 2007, but was required to sell off the stations due to conflicts with CTV stations it already owned in Citytv's markets while cancelling its evening newscasts. CTV chose to retain the stations of CHUM's secondary A-Channel system, but divested CKVU and its sister stations to Rogers Media. Shortly after being acquired by Rogers, CKVU's programming became more conventional in nature, while eliminating newscasts outside of Breakfast Television in 2010, but the evening newscasts were restored in 2017 and the local version of BT was cancelled in 2020.https://broadcasting-history.ca/television/television-stations/british-columbia/ckvu-dt/
Early years and Canwest Origins CKVU's history dates back to 1975 when Western Approaches Ltd. was awarded the third television station licence in the Vancouver market by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).Canadian Communications Foundation: Television Station History: CKVU-TV Western Approaches—which had, unlike the other applicants, filed for both channel 10 and 26—had emerged from a chaotic proceeding in which the CRTC did not award the main channel 10 allocation in deference to the CBC's plan to use it for a television station in Victoria; that station would never launch because of budget cuts in 1978. The station was originally assigned to broadcast on UHF channel 26, but it was instead given channel 21 prior to its launch. (The CBC was already planning on using channel 26 to launch Radio-Canada station CBUFT.) The station first signed on the air on September 1, 1976; it was the first station in Vancouver to transmit on the UHF band. In addition, CKVU was carried on cable channel 13, an assignment it retains to this day. In its first year of operation, CKVU lost more than $3 million. By 1978, the station was profiting off simultaneous substitution of US shows, attracting a cable audience four to five times larger than the over-the-air footprint.
In 1979, the station was approaching the break-even point. It was also under the scrutiny of the CRTC at that time due to its lack of local programming. According to the CRTC, CKVU did not produce its own newscasts but instead relayed the Ontario-focused newscasts from the Global Television Network. That same year, Charles Allard, owner of CITV in Edmonton, purchased a 5% common stock and 7% preferred stock interest in CKVU through his company, Allarcom. Canwest Pacific, a subsidiary of CanWest Broadcasting, loaned $4 million to Western Approaches so it could thwart a takeover attempt from Allarcom. Three years later, CanWest loaned another $8 million to Western Approaches to reduce the station's debt with the condition that CanWest would have the option to purchase Western Approaches' shares in CKVU.
Canwest Global In 1984, Western Approaches applied to move CKVU-TV from channel 21 to channel 10, which remained vacant after the CBC Victoria plans fell through. Concerns arose over the potential of a stronger channel 10 signal—which would extend service to 183,000 additional people—to overwhelm cable and antenna receiving equipment aimed at Seattle and KCTS-TV on channel 9, particularly because the cable receiving site was colocated with the CKVU transmitter on Salt Spring Island. The CRTC approved the channel change in February 1985 on the condition that CKVU give cable systems time to modify their receiving setups; CKVU moved to channel 10 on September 6, 1986, bringing the channel to use in southwestern British Columbia more than a decade after the original applications for it were made. Until it was shut down on August 31, 2011, as part of Canada's digital television transition, CKVU's analog signal, which transmitted from a very high location on Salt Spring Island, could be received throughout much of southwest British Columbia and northwest Washington, as well as in some areas of northern Seattle. This analog transmitter was replaced with two UHF transmitters serving Vancouver and Victoria, both with reduced coverage areas overall, but with improved coverage to those particular metropolitan areas. CKVU also maintained a rebroadcast transmitter located west of Courtenay, CKVU-TV-1, which is received over-the-air on North Vancouver Island.
On December 6, 1985, CanWest announced that it had purchased controlling interest in CKVU, subject to CRTC approval. Western Approaches went to court in an attempt to block the sale, which resulted in a dispute between Western Approaches, Allarcom, and Canwest that lasted several years. On June 19, 1987, the Supreme Court of British Columbia ordered Western Approaches to sell its interest in CKVU to Canwest, subject to CRTC approval. Once the sale was approved and all other legal issues were settled, CanWest gained 100% ownership and control of CKVU. It then began sharing programs with CanWest's other independent stations, as well as the Global network in Ontario. In 1990, CKVU and Canwest's other independent stations became known as the "Canwest Global System."
Under CanWest's ownership, the station was rebranded as "U.TV", and its audience and profits increased. The station had previously been branded as both "CKVU-13" and "VU13" (both referring to the station's cable channel) and more simply, the "CKVU" call letters. On Monday August 18, 1997, Canwest dropped the more localized brandings from all of its stations and rebranded them as the Global Television Network, as part of a full expansion of the network outside of Ontario to the Canwest Global System stations. Accordingly, after seven years under the "U.TV" brand, CKVU rebranded as "Global Vancouver".
Sale to CHUM Limited
In 2000, Canwest acquired the television interests of Western International Communications, including CHAN-TV (channel 8) in Vancouver and CHEK-TV (channel 6) in Victoria. The CRTC approved the purchase on July 6, 2000, on the condition that Canwest divest CKVU.Decision CRTC 2000-221 The CRTC further approved the transfer of CKVU to a Canwest subsidiary, CKVU Sub Inc., on December 21, placing the station in a blind trust while the company looked for a buyer.Decision CRTC 2000-774 Indeed, Canwest had bought WIC's television interests specifically to increase its reach in British Columbia. CHAN (long known in the province under its "BCTV" brand) had been the dominant station in British Columbia for the better part of the last 30 years and boasted over 100 transmitters across the province. In contrast, CKVU operated only three transmitters covering only the southwest quadrant of British Columbia.
CHUM Limited applied to the CRTC to acquire CKVU Sub Inc. on July 26, 2001Public Notice CRTC 2001–86 for $175 million, with the intention of making it a Citytv station, using a similar format as the company's flagship station, CITY-TV in Toronto. CHUM planned on spending $8.03 million on British Columbia-based independent productions, $5.95 million on local news and information programming, and $1.37 million on local culture, social policy, and talent development over a period of seven years.
A large network shuffle occurred on September 1, when CHAN's contract with CTV expired. CHAN, now under Canwest ownership, switched affiliations from CTV to Global. As a result, CIVT (channel 32), an independent station owned by Baton Broadcasting, became a CTV owned-and-operated station, while CKVU was rebranded as "ckvu13". While CKVU began airing CHUM-supplied programming immediately following the switch, the station remained in trust pending regulatory approval of the sale. CHUM gained CRTC approval for its acquisition of CKVU Sub Inc. on October 15, 2001.Decision CRTC 2001-647, October 15, 2001. Accessed online September 1, 2009. Archived September 4, 2009. Because CHUM owned CIVI (channel 53) in Victoria, which was part of the "NewNet" system, the CRTC imposed its usual licence conditions for large-market twinsticks: CKVU was prohibited from airing more than 10% of the programming aired on CIVI, and newscasts were required to be separately managed.
Citytv Relaunch and news cuts At 6 a.m. Pacific Time on July 22, 2002, CKVU dropped the "ckvu13" branding and became the second television station in Canada to use the Citytv brand (as "Citytv Vancouver"), effectively turning Citytv into a television system. A new morning program (Breakfast Television, based on the format originated on CITY-TV) was launched immediately after the rebrand, and the station's 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts were rebranded as CityPulse on the same day.
Despite high expectations that the intensely local, unconventional urban format would replicate the success of flagship station in Toronto, the station suffered from a severe news ratings failure. In the Vancouver market, CKVU's news ratings plummeted to a distant third place, trailing far behind market leaders BCTV (Global BC) and BC-CTV (CTV Vancouver). In August 2005, CHUM expanded the Citytv brand across Central Canada and renamed all local CityPulse broadcasts to CityNews in an attempt to harmonize the brand and boost struggling viewership. However, the ratings in Vancouver remained stagnant and failed to capture the broader local audience. On July 12, 2006, CHUM announced that it would dramatically reduce its newsgathering operations in Vancouver, as well as in several other cities. It laid off 195 part- and full-time employees, including 47 in Vancouver, who were abruptly escorted from the premises by security guards. While CKVU's evening news presence was dissolved entirely, the station's morning show, Breakfast Television, survived the cuts and was temporarily expanded from three hours to four to offset the loss of local daytime programming. In a coincidental development, that same day, BCE Inc., the parent company of Bell Globemedia (later known as CTVglobemedia and now Bell Media), which owns the CTV, announced it would buy CHUM Limited and its assets, including CKVU and the four other Citytv stations.https://playbackonline.ca/2006/07/24/layoffs-20060724/
Rogers ownership