CHUM Limited

CHUM Limited

Fate	Merged with CTVglobemedia
Founded	1945
Defunct	2007
Headquarters	Toronto, Ontario
Key people	Jay Switzer, President and CEO
Industry	Media
Products	Media, Broadcasting
Revenue	US$140 million
Employees	1500 (Q2 2006)

CHUM Limited was a media company based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada from 1945-2007. Immediately prior to its acquisition, it held full or joint control of two Canadian television systems — Citytv and A-Channel (incorporating NewNet) — comprising 11 local stations, and one CBC Television (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) affiliate, one provincial educational channel, and 20 branded specialty television channels, most notably MuchMusic and its various spinoffs. In addition, CHUM controlled 33 radio stations across Canada. At various points in its history, CHUM owned other radio stations and ATV/Atlantic Satellite Network in Atlantic Canada.

In July 2006, CHUM announced it was to be taken over by Bell Globemedia (now renamed CTVglobemedia), owner of the CTV Television Network. Regulatory approval was made conditional on the sale of CHUM's five Citytv stations to Rogers Communications. CTVglobemedia took control of CHUM's other assets effective June 22, 2007.

CHUM, now renamed CTV Limited, continues as a subsidiary of CTVgm. Its Toronto radio stations 1050 CHUM and CHUM-FM still carry the CHUM name, and the company's radio subsidiary retains the name CHUM Radio. However, it is no longer a broadcasting company separate from its new parent.

History

CHUM-City Building

Although CHUM's radio holdings tend to retain traditional formats, their television stations reflected the avant garde philosophy of former senior executive Moses Znaimer, who turned his hip, local style of television broadcasting into an image as perhaps Canada's most flamboyantly visible media titan in the 1980s and 1990s. (Znaimer retired from active management at CHUM in 2003, and briefly continued to work on projects with the company, before moving on to other ventures such as CFMZ-FM.)

CHUM Limited's headquarters were located at 299 Queen Street West in Toronto, the famous CHUM-City Building, Today it is used by CTVglobemedia.

On December 1, 2004, CHUM purchased Craig Media Inc., which owned five local TV stations, mainly in the Prairies, and three digital specialty services, for $265 million. While Craig's three largest stations were integrated into Citytv, Craig's Toronto station CKXT-TV (then branded "Toronto 1", now "Sun TV") was sold to Quebecor.

In addition to its own stations, CHUM was one of several sources (alongside CanWest's CH and Global TV) providing syndicated programming to independently-owned CBC and CTV affiliates.

Acquisition by CTVglobemedia

Wikinews has related news:

Canadian media company Bell Globemedia to acquire rival CHUM

On July 12, 2006, CHUM announced that it had agreed to a takeover by Bell Globemedia, now renamed CTVglobemedia (herein abbreviated "CTV" or "CTVgm" for brevity), in a transaction valuing CHUM at $1.7 billion CAD. The takeover required approval from two regulatory bodies, the Competition Bureau, which approved the transaction on March 2^[1], and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which held a public hearing beginning April 30, 2007 in Gatineau.^[2]

CTVgm's takeover bid was completed on October 30, although CHUM was immediately in a blind trust under lawyer John McKellar. ^[3]

Few details are known about CTV's specific plans for the company following approval. What is known is as follows:

• In its initial announcement, CTV said it would attempt to maintain all five Citytv stations, and operate them as a separate, youth-oriented system with its current lineup of stations. This is potentially with the addition of the CTV-owned Atlantic Satellite Network, which airs Citytv programming in Atlantic Canada, although there has been no specific statement to that effect.
  • The acquisition of Citytv would have required an exemption from the CRTC's ownership policy (one station per market per language per owner - Public Notice CRTC 1999-97 at 17), which has never been officially revoked, even though both CHUM (with Citytv and A-Channel/Access) and CanWest (with Global and CH) have secured exemptions in many large markets. Even so, such large-market exemptions have almost never applied to stations licensed to the same city.
• The company insisted that the Citytv stations' news operations would remain separate from those of the CTV network, although, as noted below, most Citytv newscasts outside Toronto have already been cancelled ahead of the merger.
• CTV acknowledged following the merger announcement that it would have to sell some assets to satisfy CRTC concerns. In early April 2007, the company announced that it would sell the A-Channel stations, the Access educational channel in Alberta, CKX-TV Brandon, CLT, and SexTV: The Channel to Rogers Communications; as well as sell CHUM's 50% interest in MusiquePlus and MusiMax to Astral Media. Both sales were contingent on approval of CTV's purchase, but would have be considered separately by the CRTC at a later date. Rogers planned to develop A-Channel as a "third-tier" network separate from its multicultural Omni stations. CFMT, CJMT, and the A-Channel stations would have constituted a triplestick in southern Ontario, however this might have been permitted as the two OMNI stations carry predominately non-English programming, and the ownership policy noted above restricts against holding multiple stations in the same language. [2]
• Per the CRTC application for the CTV/CHUM merger, negotiations are also underway to sell CTV's 33.34% interest in OLN; the most likely purchaser is the other Canadian partner in OLN, Rogers Communications.
• In a filing on May 7, 2007, following the public hearing, CTV said it "would agree to sell CHMI-TV Winnipeg if the Commission determined this was in the public interest". It also said it would be prepared to sell CKEM Edmonton and CKAL Calgary should CanWest Global's pending re-application to add additional transmitters to CHCA-TV Red Deer be denied, in which case CTV would instead apply to purchase ACCESS.^[4]
• Except as noted above, CTV plans to keep all the specialty channel and radio assets, which it views as "complementary" to its existing properties. This would give CTV ownership (in whole or part) of nearly 40 specialty channels. The only hurdles in terms of direct competition may be the merged company's ownership of two all-news channels, CTV Newsnet and Toronto's CP24, as well as both the MuchMusic channels and MTV Canada. CTV is arguing that MTV is not a direct competitor to MuchMusic, much as the previous MTV Canada (now Razer) was found not to be competing with MuchMusic following the CHUM/Craig merger. The branding of one or both services might be changed, depending on the nature of CTV's current relationship with MTV Networks.

Immediately following the announcement, CHUM separately announced 281 layoffs, primarily at its local stations in western Canada; local newscasts (other than Breakfast Television and the Noon News in Calgary and Edmonton) at all Citytv stations in the region were immediately pulled. CHUM claims the layoffs were part of an ongoing process to streamline its operations and not directly related to the takeover.

On June 8, 2007, the CRTC approved the CTV takeover of CHUM. However, the CRTC made the deal conditional on CTV divesting itself of Citytv rather than A-Channel. This consequently voided the Rogers deal; on June 11, 2007, Rogers announced that it has agreed to buy the Citytv stations. CTV said it would keep all other assets, except CHUM's interest in MusiquePlus/MusiMax, and potentially CKX-TV and CLT. And the company officially ceased operations on June 22, 2007.

Corporate governance

The last board of directors of CHUM Limited were: Gordon Craig, Lawrence Lamb, John Mattenley, Fred Sherratt, Robert Sutherland, Jay Switzer, Catherine Tait, James Waters (chairman), Marjorie Waters, and Ron Waters. Allan Waters retired from the board on October 29, 2005.^[5]

Radio stations

In November, 2004, CHUM and Astral Media filed an application with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission for a subscription radio service in Canada. That application, along with two satellite radio services, were approved by the CRTC on June 16, 2005. While the two satellite services launched soon after the decision, CHUM did not implement its service, the authority for which expired on June 16, 2007 (two years after licensing).

Television stations

Local stations

• Citytv
  • CITY - Toronto, Ontario
  • CHMI - Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • CKAL - Calgary, Alberta
  • CKEM - Edmonton, Alberta
  • CKVU - Vancouver, British Columbia

• A-Channel
  • CKVR - Barrie, Ontario
  • CHRO - Pembroke/Ottawa, Ontario
  • CFPL - London, Ontario
  • CKNX - Wingham, Ontario (semi-satellite of CFPL)
  • CHWI - Wheatley/Windsor, Ontario
  • CIVI - Victoria, British Columbia (and rebroadcaster in Vancouver, British Columbia)
• CBC Television affiliate
  • CKX - Brandon, Manitoba
• Provincially-authorized educational broadcaster
  • CJAL (Access) - Edmonton, Alberta (and rebroadcaster in Calgary, Alberta)

Analogue specialty cable channels

• MuchMusic
• MuchMoreMusic
• Bravo!
• Canadian Learning Television
• CablePulse 24
• Space
• Star!

Digital specialty cable channels

• CourtTV Canada
• FashionTelevisionChannel
• BookTelevision
• Drive-In Classics
• MuchLOUD
• MuchMoreRetro
• MuchVibe
• PunchMuch
• Razer
• SexTV: The Channel

Co-owned

• MusiquePlus 50% (with Astral Media)
• MusiMax 50% (with Astral Media)
• TV Land Canada 80% (with Viacom)

Television channels using CHUM trademarks or formats

Active

• Citytv Bogotá
• MuchMusic Argentina
• MuchMusic Malaysia
• MuchMusic Mexico (programming block on Once TV)
• Star! Scandinavia (programming is a mix of several CHUM channels, such as Star!, FashionTelevisionChannel and MuchMoreMusic)

Inactive

• Citytv Puerto Rico (WRUA, now a repeater of WECN)
• Citytv Barcelona (now TD8)
• Jyrki (former programming block on MTV3 in Finland)
• MuchUSA (now Fuse)

See also

• List of Canadian television channels

References

Coordinates: 43°38′59″N 79°23′25″W / 43.649701, -79.390233

External links

• The History of CHUM Limited