CHUM LTD. To Buy MTV and TV Land Canada Networks

CANADIAN PRESS (http://www.cp.org/)

Monday April 12, 2004

CHUM Ltd. (TSX: T.CHM) has announced an agreement to take over Craig Media Inc. for $265 million in cash.

Craig's assets include the recently launched Toronto1 station in Toronto, where CHUM is headquartered. Calgary-headquartered Craig also owns the A Channel television stations in Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg; CKX, a CBC-affiliate station in Brandon, Man.; and the MTV, MTV2 and TV Land Canada digital specialty channels.

The transaction, subject to Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission approval, "builds on our long history with the Craig family and shared commitment to reach out to local audiences," Jay Switzer, president and chief executive officer of CHUM, stated today.

"CHUM's aspirations to grow in Western Canada are well known and this acquisition provides us with not only an opportunity to reach Alberta and Manitoba audiences on a conventional television platform, but provides additional digital channels to complement CHUM's stable of specialty brands."

CHUM "will commit to the divestiture" of Craig's seven-month-old station in Toronto, where CHUM already owns Citytv Toronto and has an additional presence with CKVR in Barrie.

As for the western assets, "after a thorough review of the strategic alternatives available to the company, we are confident that this transaction is the best option for the future growth of these stations," stated Drew Craig, president and CEO of family-owned Craig Media.

"We expect these stations will benefit significantly from becoming part of CHUM, one of Canada's leading content providers."

Toronto 1 has been subject to intense scorn from television critics, amid doubts about the financial stability of its ownership.

Drew Craig, a soft-spoken, bespectacled westerner, won the last available over-the-air TV licence in the Toronto area over bids from established interests including Torstar Corp., owner of the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest newspaper.

Ever since its launch last Sept. 19, there have been predictions that Toronto 1 could not survive in a fragmented TV market.

The station was rumoured to be losing $1 million a week, and speculation has been circulating since January that Craig was putting assets up for sale, after the company retained investment banker RBC Dominion Securities.

Meanwhile, CHUM’s western aspirations were thwarted in February when the CRTC rejected the Toronto-based broadcaster’s applications for new TV stations in Calgary and Edmonton.

CHUM plans to add several Universal and Warner Bros. syndicated programs this Fall to TV Land, and also plans to add another MTV channel to their line- up in 2005.

Judging by the syntax of the title "CHUM LTD To Buy MTV and TV Land Canada Networks" does that mean that "CHUM LTD" will buy MTV down here in the USA, possibly turning it back into the music video network of the early 1980s? To me they would be a better owner than Viacom, who has run MTV into the ground IMHO. :mad:

Originally posted by James
Judging by the syntax of the title "CHUM LTD To Buy MTV and TV Land Canada Networks" does that mean that "CHUM LTD" will buy MTV down here in the USA, possibly turning it back into the music video network of the early 1980s? To me they would be a better owner than Viacom, who has run MTV into the ground IMHO. :mad:

Send them off an e-mail. :D We have too many music channels up here, IMO. CHUM already owns eight MuchMusic channels. They now have two MTV channels, and want to launch another one next year. We also have two country music channels, and an all jazz channel as well. Not to mention the endless digital audio channels on my satellite dishes.

I'm all tuned out with these music channels. :(

To answer James' question, CHUM is buying the Canadian version of MTV along with another music station called MTV2 and the digital channel TV Land Canada. The original US MTV is not going anywhere. The biggest fear I have about all this is that CHUM might try and turn TV Land Canada into their own image and completely overhaul their identity, which has worked well for them so far, similar to what they did with CKVR a decade ago.

CKVR-TV in Barrie is a small TV channel located about 50 miles or so north of Toronto. CKVR began operating in the early 1950s as an affiliate of the CBC network. For the first 30 years or so, it offered mainly CBC programming and a few local shows which were nothing special. During this time, the only way to get it was through an antenna and its audience outside Barrie was a small one. In the early 80s, as the growth of cable allowed its signal to be reached all over Southern Ontario, the station looked to create its own identity. It wisely did so by starting to air more and more "Classic TV" shows until by the 90s they would promote these great old shows every chance they could get, even launching their station breaks with: "You're watching Classic Television CKVR". For a brief time, they broke away from this successful format and began airing mainly documentaries and travel shows but mercifully it didn't last long and they were soon back to the Classic TV format. The backbone of their lineup was their early morning block which featured "I Love Lucy" at 11:00 am, followed by "The Andy Griffith Show" at 11:30 and "Leave It To Beaver" at noon. It wasn't long before the early afternoon and latenight hours would yield their share of goodies too, including "The Beverly Hillbillies", "Green Acres", "Gilligan's Island", "Mork and Mindy", "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", "All In The Family", "MASH", "The Munsters", and even "Car 54, Where Are You?", which I miss dearly! It was while watching some of these shows that I first grew to appreciate TV's older, vintage classics (the older, the better, I thought) and I wanted to see as many as I possibly could. Before the advent of specialty channels in Canada, CKVR was clearly the place to go to see these shows, and depending on where you lived, the only place. But as they say, all good things must end, and to this day I'm still puzzled and saddened as to why it did. In the mid-90s CKVR severed its ties with CBC and became an independent station, where it was quickly taken over by the rapidly growing CHUM group, which also owns popular stations like CITY-TV, MuchMusic, and Bravo. These stations were known for their in-your-face badass hip attitude and CKVR soon followed in their footsteps. Soon it was apparent that the station would undergo several changes in tune with the new ownership. First was the name change to The New VR and then the programming shift started. Gone were the old standards and in came a fresher, newer set of shows more in tune with today's PlayStation generation: shows like "Buffy", "VIP", "Angel", and "Star Trek Voyager" which now dominate---and in my opinion desecrate---the current lineup. The cruelest cut of all came in 1999 when "Leave It To Beaver" was hastily removed from its noon hour slot, where it had been a fixture for over 30 years, and replaced with "Seinfeld"---and nothing was done about it!!! The last of the "Classic TV" mainstays was gone for good, or so I thought until CTS mercifully rescued it some time later! Since then, I have maintained a silent protest by out and out boycotting not only VR but I have also steadfastly refused to watch any of the CHUM-owned stations no matter how good their programming might be. The one thing that might send me back would be if VR would return to its past ways but since that's not likely to happen the next best thing would be for the CHUM management to apply for their own Classic TV station and see if they can turn it into another TV Land or CTS. Well, that has already happened, and, as I said earlier, I'm fearing the worst.

What I'd like to see is what the Global TV group is doing with their specialty channels, where they would select certain shows that now air on DejaView and place them on PRIME or CH-TV at certain hours, with the main purpose being to lure viewers away from cable and on to digital TV. I can see CHUM doing the same thing with MTV and MTV2 and certainly with TV Land. Maybe a few TV Land shows will eventually return to their rightful home at The New VR, but that's only wishful thinking on my part. Right now, I'll be happy with anything that they can dig up, but I wouldn't hold my breath just yet, but I will be crossing my fingers fairly heavily.