Citytv Saskatchewan (formerly the Saskatchewan Communications Network, or SCN) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to t ...

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

channel in the

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North ...

. Headquartered in the provincial capital of Regina, the channel is owned by the

Rogers Sports & Media Rogers Media Inc., operating as Rogers Sports & Media, is a Canadian subsidiary of Rogers Communications that owns the company's mass media and sports properties, such as the Citytv and Omni Television terrestrial television stations, Sportsnet, ...

subsidiary of

Rogers Communications Rogers Communications Inc. is a Telecommunications in Canada, Canadian communications and media company operating primarily in the fields of mobile phone operator, wireless communications, cable television, telephony and Internet access, Intern ...

and operates as a ''de facto''

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 ...

of its

Citytv Citytv is a Canadian television network owned by the Rogers Sports & Media subsidiary of Rogers Communications. The licence of the original Citytv station, granted the callsign of CITY-TV by the CRTC on November 25, 1971 to Cable Television A ...

television network A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay television providers. Until the mid- ...

. Its studios are shared with CBC's Regina studios on 2440 Broad Street in Downtown Regina. Citytv Saskatchewan is licensed by the

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; french: Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes, links=) is a public organization in Canada with mandate as a regulatory agency for broadcasti ...

(CRTC) as an

educational Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Vari ...

programming service for the province of Saskatchewan. It was formerly operated by the

government of Saskatchewan The Government of Saskatchewan (french: Gouvernement de la Saskatchewan) refers to the provincial government of the province of Saskatchewan. Its powers and structure are set out in the Constitution Act, 1867. In modern Canadian use, the term "g ...

as a

public broadcaster Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

. In March 2010, the government announced that it would shut down the network due to low viewership. In June 2010, the government announced that it would instead privatize and sell the network to Bluestone Investment Group. Under Bluestone, SCN was converted to a format similar to Alberta's

Access network An access network is a type of telecommunications network which connects subscribers to their immediate service provider. It is contrasted with the core network, which connects local providers to one another. The access network may be furth ...

, airing commercial-supported entertainment programming during the late-afternoon and prime time hours, and commercial-free educational and cultural programming from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. In late-December 2011, SCN announced that it would affiliate with Rogers' Citytv network for its entertainment programming beginning on January 2, 2012. In June 2012, Rogers would acquire SCN entirely, maintaining the same programming model implemented by Bluepoint. Because it is licensed as an educational broadcaster, Citytv Saskatchewan is required to be distributed as part of the basic cable service in Saskatchewan, and is also available on

Bell Satellite TV Bell Satellite TV (french: Bell Télé; formerly known as Bell ExpressVu, Dish Network Canada and ExpressVu Dish Network and not to be confused with Bell's IPTV Fibe TV service) is the division of BCE Inc. that provides satellite television se ...

and

Shaw Direct Shaw Direct is a direct broadcast satellite television distributor in Canada and a subsidiary of the telecommunications company Shaw Communications. As of 2010, Shaw Direct had over 900,000 subscribers. It broadcasts on Ku band from two communic ...

. The channel is defined as a satellite-to-cable television programming undertaking, meaning that it has full

simultaneous substitution Simultaneous substitution (also known as simsubbing or signal substitution) is a practice mandated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) requiring pay television, broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs) in ...

rights for its programming in Saskatchewan, but does not operate any over-the-air transmitters.

History

Public television

In February 1991, the

Government of Saskatchewan The Government of Saskatchewan (french: Gouvernement de la Saskatchewan) refers to the provincial government of the province of Saskatchewan. Its powers and structure are set out in the Constitution Act, 1867. In modern Canadian use, the term "g ...

(led at the time by

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of govern ...

Grant Devine Donald Grant Devine, SOM (born July 5, 1944) was the 11th premier of Saskatchewan from May 8, 1982 to November 1, 1991. Early life Born in Regina, Saskatchewan, he received a BSc in Agriculture degree specializing in Agricultural Economics ...

) was granted a broadcast licence for a non-commercial educational service by the CRTC. The channel, Saskatchewan Communications Network (SCN), was launched on May 6 of that year. (Ontario's

TVOntario TVO Media Education Group (often abbreviated as TVO and stylized on-air as tvo) is a publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It is operated by the Ontario E ...

was launched on September 27, 1970; British Columbia's

Knowledge Network Knowledge Network, also branded as British Columbia's Knowledge Network, is a Canadian publicly funded educational cable television network serving the province of British Columbia. It is owned by the Knowledge Network Corporation, a Crown corp ...

was launched on January 12, 1981; and Alberta's Access, which is now the privately owned

CTV 2 Alberta CTV 2 Alberta is a Canadian English language entertainment and former educational television channel in the province of Alberta. Owned by the Bell Media subsidiary of BCE Inc., it operates as a ''de facto'' owned-and-operated station of its se ...

, was launched on June 30, 1973.) As a publicly owned entity, SCN received funding from the Government of Saskatchewan and from the general public in the form of donations. At the time, SCN frequently stopped between shows to ask for pledges like other public broadcasters such as

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of ed ...

in the United States.

Privatization

On March 24, 2010, the Government of Saskatchewan (now led by Premier

Brad Wall Bradley John Wall (born November 24, 1965), is a Canadian former politician who served as the 14th premier of Saskatchewan from November 21, 2007 until February 2, 2018. He is the fourth longest-tenured premier in the province's history. His s ...

) announced that it would wind down SCN's operations, citing low ratings, with some operations such as

distance education Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually in ...

broadcasts to be transferred to

SaskTel Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corporation, operating as SaskTel, is a Canadian crown-owned telecommunications firm based in the province of Saskatchewan. Owned by the provincial government, it provides wireline and wireless communicat ...

. The channel was to have shut down at the end of April, but it was later decided to keep the channel in operation while offers to buy SCN were evaluated. On June 21, 2010, the Government of Saskatchewan announced the channel would be sold to Bluepoint Investment Corporation. During the CRTC approval process, Bluepoint requested several amendments to SCN's licence, which would allow the channel to air limited amounts of non-educational programming with commercials. The CRTC approved the sale of SCN to Bluepoint and the licence amendments on December 23, 2010.Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2010-965
/ref> The transaction was completed shortly thereafter, and at that point, SCN lost its original funding streams of government funding and public donations. Under Bluepoint's approved amendments to its licence, SCN was still required to air commercial-free educational programming from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m.; after 3 p.m., the channel would be allowed to air entertainment-based programming with up to 14 minutes of advertising per hour – Bluepoint planned to use this new ability to air programming that could attract new advertising revenue to the channel, in a hybrid format similar to Alberta's

Access Access may refer to: Companies and organizations * ACCESS (Australia), an Australian youth network * Access (credit card), a former credit card in the United Kingdom * Access Co., a Japanese software company * Access Healthcare, an Indian BPO ...

. When Bluepoint took over control of the station, few changes were made to SCN's programming, other than introducing films seven nights a week starting at 9 p.m. during the summer of 2011. The first major changes to the channel occurred on September 12, 2011, premiering a new prime time lineup of current American network series such as ''

Supernatural Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...

'' and '' The Insider'', and classic series such as ''

Danger Bay ''Danger Bay'' is a Canadian television series, produced in Vancouver, with first-run episodes broadcast on CBC Television in Canada and The Disney Channel in the United States premiering October 8, 1984. Reruns of the show continued on The Disne ...

'', ''

Family Ties ''Family Ties'' is an American sitcom television series that aired on NBC for seven seasons, premiering on September 22, 1982, and concluding on May 14, 1989. The series, created by Gary David Goldberg, reflected the move in the United States f ...

'', and ''

Frasier ''Frasier'' () is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for 11 seasons. It premiered on September 16, 1993, and ended on May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee (as Grub ...

''.

Affiliation with Citytv, acquisition by Rogers

On December 20, 2011, SCN announced that it had entered into an affiliation agreement with

to air

programs from 3 p.m. to 6 a.m. starting on January 2, 2012, with educational, children's and locally produced programming continuing to air on SCN outside those hours (to fulfill the channel's licence as an educational station). The post-3 p.m. programming, branded as "Citytv on SCN", consisted of entertainment programming sourced from Rogers' Citytv stations, including the network's prime time lineup. With the Citytv affiliation, SCN became the second Canadian educational television service to carry entertainment programming from one of the major commercial networks or television systems. The other was Alberta's Access, which adopted the

CTV Two 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 statio ...

name and lineup upon its relaunch in August 2011. It also gave the Citytv system affiliations in all provinces west of

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...

and south of the federal territories of Northern Canada. (Rogers later expanded Citytv into Quebec when it affiliated with

CJNT CJNT-DT (channel 62) is a television station in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, part of the Citytv network. Owned and operated by network parent Rogers Sports & Media, the station maintains studios inside the Rogers Building at the corner of McGill Co ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

in June 2012, which the company also purchased.) The next year, Rogers Media announced its intent to acquire SCN from Bluepoint Investment Corporation. The sale was approved by the CRTC on June 21, 2012 and closed later that month, making the channel an

of the Citytv system. Rogers relaunched the channel as Citytv Saskatchewan on July 1. Rogers planned to invest into improving the channel's infrastructure, and to launch a

high definition High definition or HD may refer to: Visual technologies *HD DVD, discontinued optical disc format *HD Photo, former name for the JPEG XR image file format *HDV, format for recording high-definition video onto magnetic tape * HiDef, 24 frames-pe ...

feed for the channel in the coming year. No regional news programming is planned for the channel under Rogers ownership; as such, Citytv Saskatchewan is the first Citytv owned-and-operated station to carry no localized news programming (All other Citytv stations air nightly ''

CityNews ''CityNews'' (corporately styled City''News'') is the title of news and current affairs programming on Rogers Sports & Media's Citytv network in Canada. The newscast division was founded on September 28, 1975 as ''CityPulse'' as a standalone l ...

'' broadcasts at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m., as well as a national broadcast of ''

Breakfast Television Breakfast television (Europe, Canada, and Australia) or morning show (United States) is a type of news or infotainment television programme that broadcasts live in the morning (typically scheduled between 5:00 and 10:00a.m., or if it is a l ...

''. Citytv stations in Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver also air their own local versions of ''BT''.)

Programming

In addition to airing Citytv's schedule of entertainment programming, Rogers committed when the channel was purchased to maintaining the channel's requirement to air commercial-free educational programming from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. Children's programming airs from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. in a block branded as ''CityKids'', with educational programming for adults and older youth aired from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. daily.

References

External links

* {{Navboxes, , list1= {{Saskatchewan TV {{Citytv Stations {{Public broadcasting in Canada {{Rogers Communications {{Saskcrowncorps Educational television networks in Canada Public television in Canada Citytv stations Companies based in Regina, Saskatchewan Television stations in Saskatchewan Television channels and stations established in 1991 Analog cable television networks in Canada Former Crown corporations of Canada Crown corporations of Saskatchewan 1991 establishments in Saskatchewan