Baton Broadcast System

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The Baton Broadcast System [1] (BBS) was a Canadian system of television stations located in Ontario and Saskatchewan. It was owned by Baton Broadcasting, and was essentially a sub-system within CTV during the 1990s. Following Baton's 1997 purchase of CTV, the remnants of BBS were integrated into CTV itself.

BBS was the successor to two provincial systems also owned by Baton, the Saskatchewan Television Network (STN) and Ontario Network Television (ONT).

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Ontario Network Television: 1991-1994

ONT logo, 1991-1994
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ONT logo, 1991-1994

ONT was initiated in 1991, consisting of eight CTV affiliates - seven owned by Baton (CFTO, CJOH, CHRO, and the MCTV stations) and Electrohome's CKCO. Initially providing 10.5 hours of common programming each week, this was soon expanded to 35 hours. At this point CTV was only providing 40 hours of programming a week, of which only 12 were in primetime.

While it was a secondary affiliation, and not a separate network from CTV, some claimed ONT was a first step towards Baton becoming a separate network. Indeed Baton sometimes bid against CTV for the rights to new U.S. series. However, Baton's president at the time, Douglas Bassett, contended it was merely a "marketing vehicle" to compete with Global's CIII-TV, a single station which served almost all of Ontario. [2]

In 1993, Baton acquired two independent stations, CFPL and CKNX, and launched a third (CHWI). These stations replaced CKCO within ONT.

In addition to the CTV affiliates and independent stations, some ONT, and later BBS, programming may have aired on Baton's CBC affiliates, part of twinstick operations in northern Ontario. In the rest of Canada, Baton sublicensed its programming to individual stations, usually CTV affiliates. Even the ONT brand was seen from time to time in the rest of Canada, mainly through Baton-produced Toronto Blue Jays games.

[edit] The BBS years: 1994 - 1997

CFTO BBS logo.
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CFTO BBS logo.

In 1994, Baton received a report from a consulting company that suggested, among other things, that a new national brand be created as a "backup" if the company's acquisition spree failed to gain control of CTV. Thus the Baton Broadcast System was born. A "BBS" logo was created for the system, adapted from the CFTO "multicoloured iris" logo with the station call letters positioned beneath. In contrast, ONT was simply a secondary brand and did not replace individual station logos.

BBS replaced ONT in fall 1994, with the addition of four Baton-owned CTV affiliates (and possibly two associated CBC affiliates) in Saskatchewan that had been jointly branded as the "Saskatchewan Television Network" since the late 1980s.

Programming included U.S. series such as Law & Order, Home Improvement and Ellen, the soap opera Family Passions, a Saturday morning block of mainly Disney cartoons branded as BBS Master Control, news and talk programming such as Sunday Edition and The Dini Petty Show, and sports programming such as Blue Jays games, which were again syndicated to other Canadian stations.

[edit] BBS yields to CTV

The BBS brand was abruptly discontinued in late 1997. Baton Broadcasting had become the sole corporate owner of CTV, acquiring several other CTV affiliates in the process, including the aforementioned CKCO. The same consultants that had suggested the introduction of BBS also acknowledged that the CTV brand would be far more valuable. [2]

Baton, which soon changed its name to CTV Inc., immediately introduced new station logos that incorporated the CTV brand, and replaced the BBS logo with CTV throughout its programming and promotions, even though this programming did not air network-wide.

BBS continued to operate until 2001 only in the sense that CTV maintained a separate stream of programming not part of the CTV network service; the "old" CTV's affiliation agreements, which limited network service to 40 hours a week, remained in force. For instance, CHAN (then known as BCTV) was Vancouver's CTV affiliate but carried only 40 hours of CTV programming, while CTV-owned independent station CIVT (VTV) carried the remainder (although at no point did CIVT use "BBS" branding). Series would sometimes switch back and forth between network and non-network status, and in limited cases alternate programming was supplied to affiliates in case a non-network program (i.e. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire) moved to a network timeslot. CIVT became the Vancouver CTV affiliate in September 2001, at which point the largely artificial distinction between network and non-network programming was eliminated entirely.

Baton's independents, as well as newly-disaffiliated CHRO, were sold to CHUM Limited, becoming NewNet stations. Its CBC affiliates were later sold to the CBC itself, becoming repeaters of other stations. CTV no longer owns any stations that are affiliated with other Canadian networks, although its Atlantic Satellite Network carries programming shared with CHUM's Citytv and A-Channel systems.

For a fuller history of Baton Broadcasting Inc., refer to the article on Baton's successor company, Bell Globemedia.

[edit] List of BBS stations

Affiliations listed are those in effect during their participation in BBS.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Also unofficially called the Baton Broadcasting System. The parent company was indeed Baton Broadcasting Inc., but the name shown is as indicated in Canadian trademark reg. no. TMA446418 and others – see the Canadian Trade-mark Database.
  2. ^ a b CTV: The Television Wars, Susan Gittins, Toronto: Stoddart Publishing, 1999
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