The Global Television Network (also Global TV, or more commonly just Global) is an English-language Canadian commercial television network owned by media company Corus Entertainment. It airs a mix of American TV shows and movies, along with some Canadian shows. It is the second-largest commercial network in Canada after CTV, in terms of size and audience reach.
Global TV has its roots in a planned, but never launched, network called NTV, which was proposed to the Board of Broadcast Governors (the forerunner of today's Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission) in 1966 by Ken Soble, the owner of Hamilton, Ontario TV station CHCH-TV.[1] NTV was planned as a network which would carry the programming of CHCH to a network of satellite-fed retransmitters across Canada. Soble died in December 1966, leading to his widow Frances and Al Bruner, the vice-president of CHCH's then-parent Niagara Television, to take over the leadership of CHCH and continue the network proposal.[2] The NTV proposal was criticized for being financially unsustainable, exceeding media ownership limits of the time and for not planning on local news content outside of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. NTV never got off the ground after financial backer Power Corporation backed out of the network application to the BBG in 1968.
Following his release from CHCH in 1969, Bruner went ahead with an application to the CRTC for a scaled-down version of NTV, now going by the name Global TV under Bruner's Global Communications. Global planned to launch only in southern Ontario, with transmitters fed from a station based in Toronto. The network launched on January 6, 1974 with its Toronto station, CKGN-TV (now CIII-DT) and six retransmitters located between Windsor and Ottawa (a seventh transmitter at Maxville, Ontario was denied due to that town's proximity to Montreal, which was under a CRTC-imposed moratorium on new TV stations in the city at that time).
Global became financially insolvent within three months of its launch and was purchased by a group headed by Izzy Asper, who later became the owner of Winnipeg TV station CKND-TV. Global began syndicating the shows it carried to other independent stations in Canada soon after its bailout. Asper's company, CanWest Capital, later merged with Global Communications to create Canwest Global Communications and acquired controlling interest in the network in 1985.
Canwest subsequently began acquiring some of the stations that carried Global programming, including CKVU-TV Vancouver and CIHF-TV Halifax, as well as launching stations in Saskatchewan under the branding of STV, to form the Canwest Global System, a system of independent stations with individual branding for each station, in 1990. Following the acquisition of majority ownership in Quebec City's then-CBC affiliate CKMI-TV and relaunching it as a Global station, the system relaunched as a network on August 18, 1997, using the generic Global TV brand (with no regional branding variations) on all of its owned stations from Vancouver to Halifax. When Canwest purchased the broadcast TV assets of Western International Communications in 2000, it added former WIC-owned independent stations in Alberta (CITV-TV Edmonton, CICT-TV Calgary and CISA-TV Lethbridge) to Global TV that year, then added former CTV affiliate CHAN-TV Vancouver on September 1, 2001 as a replacement for CKVU, which was up for sale and went independent the same day. Canwest went into creditor protection in October 2009 and its assets, including Global TV, were acquired by Shaw Communications in October 2010, then were turned over in turn to Shaw sister company Corus in April 2016.
From its 1974 launch, Global has grown to its current level of 15 stations owned by Corus, along with one independently-owned affiliate. St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador independent station CJON-DT is also supplied with some Global programming, though it is not branded as such on the station (except for national newscast Global National) but is instead marketed as syndicated programming.
Once a bastion for fair reporting in its newscasts, Global, like the rest of the mainstream media, has recently taken a turn toward the Left akin to the CBC and most of the American networks in its news reporting and has shown blatant liberal bias and dishonesty in certain reports it has filed.
Global has also come under criticism as one of numerous Canadian media outlets, large and small, that took bribe money from Justin Trudeau (totaling nearly C$660 million) to cover for him in news reports (including asking him "softball" questions while whitewashing and ignoring the numerous scandals he has faced while in power) and spout the same fake news, lies and twisting of narratives already being spewed by the CBC.[10] The Canadian Taxpayers Federation launched a petition in February 2022 that called for an end to Trudeau's unethical use of taxpayer funds to bribe other media outlets (including Global) to report favorably about the Trudeau regime and to lie about and smear the regime's opponents like the CBC does, as well as calling for the CBC to be defunded.[11]
Station | City | First sign-on date | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
CHAN-DT | Vancouver, British Columbia | October 31, 1960 | Replaced CKVU-DT as Vancouver's Global affiliate when CKVU became independent on September 1, 2001; originally an independent station at its launch, then was a CTV affiliate from that network's launch on October 1, 1961 until August 31, 2001 |
CHBC-DT | Kelowna, British Columbia | September 21, 1957 | Was a CBC affiliate until February 27, 2006, then became independent until joining Canwest's E! system on September 7, 2007; joined Global on August 31, 2009 after E! ceased operations |
CICT-DT | Calgary, Alberta | October 8, 1954 | Was Calgary's original CBC affiliate until September 1, 1975, when it became independent after CBC-owned CBRT signed on; joined Global on September 4, 2000; was known as CHCT-TV until 1968, then CFAC-TV until 1990 and then CKKX-TV until 1993 |
CITV-DT | Edmonton, Alberta | September 1, 1974 | Was independent until joining Global on September 4, 2000 |
CISA-DT | Lethbridge, Alberta | November 20, 1955 | Was a CBC affiliate until September 1, 1975, when it became independent after CBC-owned CBRT signed on in Calgary; joined Global on September 4, 2000; was known as CJLH-TV until 1972, then CJOC-TV until 1976 and then CFAC-TV-7 until 1990 |
CFSK-DT | Saskatoon, Saskatchewan | September 6, 1987 | Independent until it joined Global on August 18, 1997 |
CFRE-DT | Regina, Saskatchewan | September 6, 1987 | Independent until it joined Global on August 18, 1997 |
CKND-DT | Winnipeg, Manitoba | August 31, 1975 | Originated in Pembina, North Dakota as ABC/NBC affiliate KCND-TV in 1960; acquired by Canwest on March 31, 1975 and relaunched in Winnipeg with its current call sign on August 31 that year; independent until it joined Global on August 18, 1997 |
CIII-DT | Toronto, Ontario | January 6, 1974 | Flagship station of Global TV; was known as CKGN-TV until 1984 |
CKWS-DT | Kingston, Ontario | December 18, 1954 | Was a CBC affiliate until August 31, 2015, when it affiliated with CTV; disaffiliated from CTV to join Global on August 27, 2018 |
CHEX-DT | Peterborough, Ontario | March 25, 1955 | Was a CBC affiliate until August 31, 2015, when it affiliated with CTV; disaffiliated from CTV to join Global on August 27, 2018 |
CHEX-TV-2 | Oshawa, Ontario | 1992 | Began as a rebroadcaster of CHEX-TV in Peterborough, then became a semi-satellite with some separate programming in 1993; was a CBC affiliate until August 31, 2015, when it affiliated with CTV; disaffiliated from CTV to join Global on August 27, 2018 |
CKMI-DT | Montreal, Quebec | March 17, 1957 | Originated in Quebec City, where it was officially licenced and based until moving to Montreal in 2009; was a CBC affiliate until it joined Global on August 18, 1997 |
CHNB-DT | Saint John, New Brunswick | September 5, 1988 | Formerly a semi-satellite of CIHF Halifax until April 15, 2013 under the call sign CIHF-TV-2; independent until it joined Global on August 18, 1997 |
CIHF-DT | Halifax, Nova Scotia | September 5, 1988 | Independent until it joined Global on August 18, 1997 |
Station | City | First sign-on date | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
CHFD-DT | Thunder Bay, Ontario | October 14, 1972 | Owned by Dougall Media; was Thunder Bay's original CTV affiliate until February 12, 2010 |
CJON-DT | St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador | September 6, 1955 | Owned by Stirling Communications International; was a CBC affiliate until October 1, 1964, then a primary CTV affiliate until 2002; technically an independent station, but carries some news and entertainment programming from Global TV in addition to news and sports programming from CTV and entertainment programming from other sources |