2007 Canada broadcast TV realignment

CHUM Television's (now CTV Limited's) headquarters at 299 Queen Street West in Toronto (then known as the CHUMCity Building).

In 2006, following the death of longtime chairman Allan Waters, CHUM Limited decided to cease operations and sell its broadcasting assets to a willing bidder. Bell Globemedia (later CTVglobemedia, now Bell Media) announced a $1.7 billion takeover offer for CHUM on July 12 of that year.[1]

Bell Globemedia initially intended to retain CHUM's Citytv television system and its five large-market stations, as well as the company's numerous specialty channels; Bell would also sell off the smaller-market A-Channel stations along with several specialty channels.[1] Rogers Communications originally placed a bid to purchase the A-Channel stations; CKX-TV (channel 5) in Brandon, Manitoba; Alberta educational station Access; and specialty channels SexTV and Canadian Learning Television.

However, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) denied CTV's acquisition of the Citytv stations, as all five stations – CITY-TV (channel 57) in Toronto, CKVU-TV (channel 10) in Vancouver, CKEM-TV (channel 51) in Edmonton, CKAL-TV (channel 5) in Calgary and CHMI-TV (channel 13) in Portage la Prairie-Winnipeg – were based in markets where CTV already maintained owned-and-operated stations (O&O), and therefore CTV's retention of Citytv would have violated a provision in the Commission's media ownership limits, which bar broadcasters from owning two English-language television stations in major metropolitan areas. CTV was, however, allowed to retain control of the A-Channel stations (a few of the A-Channel stations were based in cities adjacent to the major five metropolitan areas such as Victoria, British Columbia; London and Barrie, Ontario; CRTC rules permit English-language commercial twinsticks in major markets provided that the stations have differing cities of license) and all of CHUM's specialty channels.

Soon afterwards, Rogers Communications placed a new bid to purchase the Citytv system as a complement to its own Omni Television, a system of multicultural stations that incorporate programming in various languages.[2]

Canwest, amidst financial woes, announced a strategic review of the E! stations in February 2009, citing questions over the viability of owning a second broadcast television service alongside its existing Global Television Network. The company ultimately decided to disband the E! television system in August 2009 citing that "a second conventional TV network [was] no longer key to the long-term success" of Canwest; E!'s five owned-and-operated stations experienced different outcomes:[12] E! O&Os CJNT-TV (channel 62) in Montreal and CHCH-TV (channel 11) in Hamilton were sold to Channel Zero, while CHEK-TV (channel 6) in Victoria, British Columbia – mere hours before its planned 12:00 a.m. Pacific Time shutdown on September 5 – was sold to a consortium of station employees and local investors for CA$2;[13][14] all three became independent stations upon the closure of the E! system. CHBC-TV (channel 2) in Kelowna, British Columbia, meanwhile, was retained by Canwest and converted into a Global O&O.[15] CHCA-TV, however, shut down after it was unable to find a buyer.[16] Shaw Communications eventually took control of Canwest's television arm in late October 2010 after Canwest sought protection from the company's creditors in late 2009, with its television properties becoming part of the new Shaw Media division.

On November 1, 2010, one year after the disbandment of the E! television system, CTVglobemedia struck a brand and program licensing agreement with Comcast to return the brand to Canada, relaunching its existing entertainment-focused specialty channel Star! as E!.[17] BCE Inc. would eventually regain full control of CTV's broadcasting arm in April 2011, with CTVglobemedia being rebranded as Bell Media. Bell subsequently rebranded the A stations and Access as CTV Two five months later on August 29.[18]

On July 14, 2009, following Canwest's announcement of the E! system's shutdown, the Jim Pattison Group signed an agreement with Rogers Communications to affiliate the company's three E!-affiliated stations – CFJC-TV (channel 4) in Kamloops, British Columbia, CKPG-TV (channel 2) in Prince George, British Columbia, and CHAT-TV (channel 6) in Medicine Hat, Alberta – with Citytv that September, expanding that system's reach into Western Canada[19] (as part of a long-term affiliation renewal agreement signed with Rogers in May 2012, the Pattison stations began carrying 90% of the primetime programming and the majority of morning and daytime programs from the programming grid of Vancouver O&O CKVU-DT in September of that year, which included simulcasts of the Vancouver edition of Citytv's morning show franchise Breakfast Television; although the Pattison stations continued to produce midday and evening local newscasts, unlike CKVU, which dropped all of its other newscasts outside of Breakfast Television in 2006, shortly before the CHUM sale[20]).

Rogers Media decided to broaden Citytv's national coverage, and transform it from a system into a television network, through the purchases of two other broadcasters; on January 17, 2012, Rogers purchased provincial educational cable channel Saskatchewan Communications Network from Bluepoint Investment Group (which following the private equity firm's purchase of the channel the previous year, had already begun incorporating entertainment programming during the late-afternoon and nighttime hours following the CRTC's approval of an amendment to SCN's licence), relaunching it as City Saskatchewan in September of that year.[21] Subsequently, in March, Rogers purchased CJNT-DT in Montreal from Channel Zero; as part of the agreement, CJNT began carrying Citytv's prime time programming in the interim, while a licence amendment it filed to convert the multicultural station into a full-time English-language outlet underwent review with the CRTC.[22] The CJNT sale and conversion was unanimously approved by the CRTC in December 2012, as a result of Rogers agreeing to produce 15½ hours a week of local programming for CJNT (including a morning news program) and offering to contribute funding and programming to a new independent multicultural station in Montreal, which launched in August 2013 as CFHD-DT (channel 47).[23][24] Coinciding with the changes, Citytv rebranded as simply City (originally verbally referred to as "City Television") on December 31, 2012, with an updated visual branding that removed the "tv" from the newly rechristened network's longtime logo.[25]

On April 18, 2011, Quebecor Media launched a new 24-hour news channel, Sun News Network; although Quebecor intended to have Sun News replace CKXT-TV, the company instead replaced the channel's entertainment programming with a simulcast of Sun News Network – which was licensed as a Category C specialty service intended only for distribution by cable and satellite providers – on that date. Quebecor would later voluntarily shut down CKXT on November 1, 2011, amid questioning by the CRTC on the company's usage of the station to simulcast Sun News Network.[26] Sun News eventually ceased operations on February 13, 2015, citing persistently low viewership and the failure to obtain CRTC approval to require mandatory carriage of the channel on domestic pay television providers, and after failed attempts to sell the network to ZoomerMedia (owned by veteran Canadian television executive Moses Znaimer) and Leonard Asper.[27]

CTVglobemedia was then reacquired by Bell Canada in 2011 reorganized as Bell Media. In 2012, however, Bell Media expanded by acquiring Astral Media.

On November 26, 2013, Rogers became the sole television and digital media rightsholder of the National Hockey League Canadian broadcasts that took effect at the start of the 2014–15 season; the deal was valued at $5.2 billion, twice as much as what NBC paid for its own long-term contract with the league in 2011. All Rogers hockey coverage now airs on City, Omni, a group of Sportsnet channels and CBC Television (which signed a four-year deal) through various games including the revamped Hockey Night in Canada.

• 2007 in Canadian television
• 2001 Vancouver TV realignment – an event that occurred in September 2001, involving five television stations in southern British Columbia
• 2006 United States broadcast TV realignment – the last major broadcasting shuffle in North America, occurring one year prior to the Canadian realignment, involving the shutdowns of The WB and UPN and the subsequent launches of The CW and MyNetworkTV