CFTK-TV (
analogue channel 3) is a
television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's s ...
in
Terrace, British Columbia, Canada, airing
CTV 2
CTV 2 is a Television in Canada, Canadian English language, English-language television system owned by the Bell Media subsidiary of BCE Inc. The system consists of four terrestrial owned-and-operated station, owned-and-operated television stat ...
programming.
Owned and operated
In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an affiliate ...
by
Bell Media
Bell Media Inc. (Canadian French, French: ) is a Canadian media conglomerate that is the mass media subsidiary of BCE Inc. (also known as Bell Canada Enterprises, the owner of telecommunications company Bell Canada). Its operations include nati ...
, it is part of the
Great West Television system
A system is a group of interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its open system (systems theory), environment, is described by its boundaries, str ...
. CFTK-TV's studios are located on Lazelle Avenue in Terrace, and its transmitter is located on Thornhill Mountain. The station operates rebroadcast transmitters in
Prince Rupert (CFTK-TV-1, channel 6) and
Smithers (CFTK-TV-2, channel 5).
History
CFTK went on the air for the first time on November 1, 1962.
Standard Broadcasting acquired CFTK from
Telemedia
Telemedia was a Canadian media company, which had holdings in radio, television and magazine publishing.
The company was launched in 1968 by Philippe de Gaspé Beaubien, when he purchased CKAC in Montreal from Power Corporation of Canada. CKAC r ...
in 2002. Telemedia had owned CFTK since 1999.
The station was originally part of a two-station "sub-network" called
Northern Television (NTV) since the early 1990s, until 2002, when it was disbanded and re-launched as
Great West Television (joined by
CKPG-TV
CKPG-TV ( analogue channel 2) is a television station in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada, affiliated with Citytv. The station is owned by Pattison Media, and maintains studios on 3rd Avenue (near Winnipeg Street) in Prince George; its tr ...
). NTV and GWTV's programming consisted of mainly American shows imported and aired on
CHUM Limited
CHUM Limited was a Canadian media company based in Toronto, Ontario in operation from 1945 to 2007. The company was founded in 1945 as York Broadcasters Limited when it launched CHUM (AM), CHUM-AM 1050 but was acquired by salesman Allan Waters in ...
's
NewNet/A-Channel stations, mixed with CBC's own programming.
Great West Television largely ceased to exist in October 2006. With CBC Television going to a 24-hour schedule beginning in October 2006, CFTK-TV dropped all of its syndicated programming and increased the amount of CBC programming in its schedule outside of local news. This, in effect, made CFTK-TV a semi-satellite of
Vancouver
Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
's
CBUT for the remainder of its CBC affiliation.
Astral Media acquired CFTK in the fall of 2007 as part of its acquisition of most of Standard Broadcasting's assets.
On March 16, 2012, it was announced that
Bell Canada
Bell Canada (commonly referred to as Bell) is a Canadian telecommunications company headquartered at 1 Carrefour Alexander-Graham-Bell in the borough of Verdun, Quebec, in Canada. It is an ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier) in the province ...
would acquire Astral Media for $3.38 billion. However, the deal was rejected by the
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; ) is a public organization in Canada tasked with the mandate as a regulatory agency tribunal for various electronic communications, covering broadcasting and telecommunic ...
(CRTC) that fall.
Bell submitted a revised takeover proposal in 2013, in which it would sell off a number of assets but keep CFTK. Bell has committed to maintaining the station's current conditions of license, including its CBC affiliation, until the end of its license term in 2017. Bell owns two networks of its own,
CTV and CTV 2, which compete with CBC. The deal was approved by the
Competition Bureau
The Competition Bureau () is the independent law enforcement agency in charge of regulating competition in Canada, responsible for ensuring that markets operate in a competitive manner.
Headed by the Commissioner of Competition, the agency is ...
in March 2013, and by the CRTC in June 2013.
On October 28, 2015, the CRTC made public an application by Bell to disaffiliate CFTK from CBC Television effective February 22, 2016, at which point the station is scheduled to begin airing programming from Bell's CTV Two system. Bell and the CBC agreed to an early termination of CFTK's affiliation agreement on October 5. Any TV service providers serving the region and not already carrying a CBC Television
owned-and-operated station
In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an network af ...
on their basic services (in this case, CBUT) would have to add one by the disaffiliation date in order to comply with CRTC regulations. It is now available on cable and satellite effective the same day.
On October 4, 2017, Bell Media applied for a new transmitter in
Smithers to repeat CFTK-TV. The application was approved on December 12, 2017. The transmitter, which broadcasts on channel 5, is a reactivation of a former CBC-owned transmitter, CBCY-TV-2, which rebroadcast CBUT Vancouver until July 31, 2012, when budget cuts forced the closure of the CBC and Radio-Canada's remaining analogue transmitters.
CBC/Radio-Canada Speech Transcript: "Speaking notes for Hubert T. Lacroix, President and CEO, CBC/Radio-Canada, regarding measures announced in the context of the Deficit Reduction Action Plan (DRAP)", April 4, 2012.
This repeater was renamed CFTK-TV-2 upon its reactivation.
Newscasts
CFTK newscasts are one hour and air at 6 and 11 p.m. weekdays. A 30-minute news recap called ''Week in Review'' airs on weekends.
Transmitters
References
External links
CFTK-TV
CFTK-TV
at The History of Canadian Broadcasting by the Canadian Communications Foundation
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cftk-Tv
1962 establishments in British Columbia
FTK-DT
Mass media in Terrace, British Columbia
Television channels and stations established in 1962
FTK-DT