Red Deer TV adopts Global colours
Red Deer TV channel adopts Global colours
Published June 9, 2005 in The Calgary Herald
It will be a different television landscape in Calgary come September as Red Deer's RDTV dumps its CBC programming and becomes the latest Global affiliate for the national broadcaster.
The station, available in Calgary on channel 50, will be rebranded CH Red Deer beginning the first week of September.
Presently, RDTV delivers about half of its content from CanWest Global, and the other half from CBC. RDTV station manager Stan Schmidt says the process to switch over to exclusive Global content began when the station's relationship with CBC began changing.
"This began about two years ago when CBC decided that all their affiliates in the future would have to carry the full CBC program schedule," Schmidt said. "Up until that point, CBC affiliates were able to substitute some programming with a mix of American programming. With that option not being available to us anymore, we began the process of disaffiliating ourselves with CBC and providing a whole new programming schedule to our viewers."
CH Red Deer will be the fourth CH station in Canada, following the move in Hamilton, Victoria and Montreal. CH channels are independently run and offer different shows and schedules than main Global stations. Schmidt says CH Red Deer will have a different programming schedule than Global Calgary, so it will complement, rather than compete, with the station Calgarians already receive.
"The way we're putting it is, it's a brand new station," Schmidt says. "There won't be much duplication at all between Calgary Global and Ch Red Deer. We will also be carrying NFL football along with Global Edmonton and Global Calgary, but there will be different games. So there will be options for the viewer to pick the game they like."
It's a move that was welcomed by Global Calgary at the station's fall launch Wednesday.
"This is a huge opportunity for our central Alberta station to bring in some programming for Calgarians on channel 50," station manager Chris McGinley said. "It'll be totally complementary to Global Calgary, and they will offer a healthy mix of drama, comedy and unscripted programming."
CanWest Global also owns the Herald.
The switch won't be the only major change to Calgary television in the coming months. Calgary's A-Channel will be rebranded City-TV likely later this year, cast in the image of sister stations in Toronto and Vancouver, after A-Channel's parent company Craig Media was acquired by City-TV's parent, Toronto-based CHUM, in November.
