CITO-TV

CITO-TV, VHF analogue channel 3, is a CTV owned-and-operated television station licensed to Timmins, Ontario, Canada. The station is owned by the Bell Media subsidiary of BCE Inc. CITO-TV's studios are located on Pine Street North (near Hendry Avenue) in Timmins, and its transmitter is located near Highway 101 (just west of Connaught Road). The station operates rebroadcasters in Kapuskasing (channel 10), Kirkland Lake (channel 11, also serving Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec), Hearst (channel 4) and Chapleau (channel 9).

"CITO" redirects here. For other uses, see Cito (disambiguation).
CITO-TV
Timmins, Ontario
Canada
ChannelsAnalog: 3 (VHF)
BrandingCTV Northern Ontario (general)
CTV News Northern Ontario (newscasts)
SloganNews for the North
Programming
AffiliationsCTV (1971–present; O&O since 1990)
Ownership
OwnerBell Media Inc.
History
First air date
April 1, 1971 (1971-04-01)
Former call signs
CKSO-TV-2 (1971–1980)
Call sign meaning
CI Timmins, Ontario
Technical information
Licensing authority
CRTC
ERP100 kW
HAAT147.6 m (484 ft)
Transmitter coordinates48°32′49″N 80°57′9″W
Translator(s)See below
Links
WebsiteCTV Northern Ontario

CITO-TV is part of the CTV Northern Ontario sub-system. It essentially operates as a de facto semi-satellite of CICI-TV in Sudbury, running the same programming as that station at all times (except for certain commercials and regional news inserts during its newscasts). On cable and satellite, CITO-TV is available on EastLink TV channel 4 and Bell Satellite TV channel 589.

History

CITO was established in 1971 as CKSO-TV-2, originally rebroadcasting CKSO in Sudbury. Unlike CKSO and CKNY in North Bay, which were established in the 1950s as CBC affiliates and then reaffiliated with CTV in 1971 when J. Conrad Lavigne established new CBC stations in those markets; in Timmins, Lavigne's existing station CFCL retained its CBC affiliation and CTV service was provided by a rebroadcast transmitter of CKSO.

Until 1980, CKSO-2 and CFCL aggressively competed with each other for advertising dollars, leaving both in a precarious financial position due to the Timmins market's relatively small size. In 1980, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved the merger of Cambrian Broadcasting and Lavigne's Mid-Canada Communications into the MCTV twinstick. The station's callsign changed to CITO-TV at that time and it began operating as a standalone station.

In 1990, the stations were acquired by Baton Broadcasting. Baton subsequently became the sole corporate owner of CTV, and sold CFCL to the CBC in 2002.

Transmitters
Station City of licence Channel ERP HAAT Transmitter Coordinates
CITO-TV-1 Kapuskasing 10 (VHF) 17.5 kW 102.5 m 49°23′28″N 82°21′27″W
CITO-TV-2 Kearns 11 (VHF) 325 kW 211.2 m 48°8′8″N 79°33′19″W
CITO-TV-3 Hearst 4 (VHF) 7.11 kW 165 m 49°38′50″N 83°30′50″W
CITO-TV-4 Chapleau 9 (VHF) 1.55 kW 131.4 m 47°51′15″N 83°25′8″W

These and many other CTV rebroadcasters nationwide were to shut down on or before August 31, 2009, as part of a political dispute with Canadian authorities on paid fee-for-carriage requirements for cable television operators.[1] A subsequent change in ownership assigned full control of CTVglobemedia to Bell Media; as of 2011, these transmitters remain in normal licensed broadcast operation.[2]

On February 11, 2016, Bell Media applied for its regular license renewals, which included applications to delete a long list of transmitters, including CITO-TV-3 and CITO-TV-4. Bell Media's rationale for deleting these analogue repeaters is below:

"We are electing to delete these analogue transmitters from the main licence with which they are associated. These analogue transmitters generate no incremental revenue, attract little to no viewership given the growth of BDU or DTH subscriptions and are costly to maintain, repair or replace. In addition, none of the highlighted transmitters offer any programming that differs from the main channels. The Commission has determined that broadcasters may elect to shut down transmitters but will lose certain regulatory privileges (distribution on the basic service, the ability to request simultaneous substitution) as noted in Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2015–24, Over-the-air transmission of television signals and local programming. We are fully aware of the loss of these regulatory privileges as a result of any transmitter shutdown."

At the same time, Bell Media applied to convert the licenses of CTV2 Atlantic (formerly ASN) and CTV2 Alberta (formerly ACCESS) from satellite-to-cable undertakings into television stations without transmitters (similar to cable-only network affiliates in the United States), and to reduce the level of educational content on CTV2 Alberta.[3][4]

On July 30, 2019, Bell Media was granted permission to close down an additional transmitter as part of Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2019-268. The transmitter for CITO-TV-2 will be shut down by December 3, 2021.[5]

References
  1. CTV list of transmitters to be shut down Archived 2011-12-24 at the Wayback Machine
  2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-10-05. Retrieved 2012-06-07.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. https://services.crtc.gc.ca/pub/DocWebBroker/OpenDocument.aspx?AppNo=201600122&_ga=1.139397107.1388147273.1466830064
  4. (CRTC), Government of Canada, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. "Notice of hearing – 22 to 24 November 2016 – Laval, Quebec – 28 November to 2 December 2016 – Gatineau, Quebec – Renewal of television licences held by large English- and French-language ownership groups". crtc.gc.ca. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
  5. "CRTC Decision 2019-268". July 30, 2019.
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