Specialty television company Channel Zero is about to dive into the conventional television industry with a programming model that meets somewhere between local television and cable news.
The relatively small Toronto-based company plans to buy local TV stations CHCH-TV in Hamilton and CJNT-TV in Montreal from struggling media giant Canwest Global Communications Corp., and turn one of them into an over-the-air news station.
The deal is subject to certain conditions and will be done through an affiliate of Channel Zero Inc., owner of short-film channel Movieola and Silver Screen Classics.
Both Canwest stations currently operate under the E! Channel brand and show popular U.S. television shows like Deal or No Deal and How I Met Your Mother.
However, the new plan will scrap those shows in favour of mostly news programming from a regional perspective on CHCH-TV, followed by movies in prime time and overnight. The film selections will mostly be modern classics and blockbusters that appeal to a wide audience.
On CJNT-TV, the platform will focus on foreign films, multicultural music videos and other similarly themed shows.
Channel Zero’s unexpected move comes as major Canadian broadcasters like CTVglobemedia’s CTV and Canwest bemoan their over-the-air television stations saying that the model is broken and that many of their stations are unprofitable.
Cable company Shaw Communications Inc. initially called their bluff in May by offering to buy three of CTV’s local TV stations for $1 each, saying that it could squeeze a profit out of them. However, the company reneged on its offer Tuesday without publicly providing any reasons.
The CRTC is expected to outline the details next week of a Local Programming Improvement Fund, which is aimed at funding stations with markets catering to fewer than one million people. That could give local TV a notable financial hand that could save some of the struggling operations.
Channel Zero has declined to reveal how much it offered for the two TV stations, but Cal Millar, the vice-president and general manager of the company, insisted that it was more than a dollar each station.
He also defended the company’s decision to buy conventional TV operations that have been seen by others in the industry as financial deadweights.
“I’d agree with you if you said conventional broadcasting is a tough go of it, but [with] over-the-air, it depends what you’re broadcasting—it depends to whom you’re relevant,” he said.
“If you can strike a relevant positioning with an audience, they don’t care how they receive you, just that they can get access to you.”
Channel Zero also plans to move ahead with an “aggressive” expansion of high-definition programming at the stations.
One of Channel Zero’s conditions is that unionized employees at CHCH agree to a renewed collective agreement, which would maintain all current provisions of the labour contract except for changes to pensions and benefits.
Canwest hasn’t announced any deals to sell its remaining E! channels in Red Deer, Alta., Kelowna, B.C. and Victoria, which are expected to close by Sept. 1 if they haven’t found a suitor.
