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Rogers to move Citytv from Queen and John
Rogers will pay $375 million in cash to buy Citytv in Toronto and in four other Canadian cities
Jun 12, 2007 03:45 PM
Canadian Press
The trademark image of Citytv at the corner of Queen and John streets in downtown Toronto will become but a memory in a few years, if Rogers Media gets approval to acquire five Citytv television stations from CTVglobemedia Inc.
The pending deal will eventually move the Citytv label out of the CHUM-City building, where it has grown its brand name since CHUM acquired the property in the mid-1980s.
The shift comes as Rogers makes plans to scoop up the CTVglobemedia assets in five Canadian cities for an estimated $375 million. The deal is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close late this year.
Under the agreement, the Citytv brand will get a major shakeup at its headquarters, with the future of its sister cable news station CP24 also in limbo.
CP24 is fully owned by CHUM after it bought out Sun Media's 29.9 per cent stake in 2004.
CTVglobemedia, Canada's largest private sector broadcaster, has made holding onto the CHUM building a stipulation of the agreement with Rogers. The space will continue to house CTV operations under the new plan, according to Rogers spokeswoman Jan Innes.
"We will have a transition period where we will keep City there until we have a new facility to move City into," she told The Canadian Press.
Rogers will remain at the CHUM-City building for up to three years through what is being called a "transition period."
At this point, the destination of the studios afterwards is anyone's guess.
"We have some options. We own some properties in the city and we have television operations in the city," said Rogers Broadcasting president Rael Merson. He named the company's OMNI multicultural channel's headquarters near the Lake Ontario waterfront as a possible home.
CTVglobemedia will continue to operate the newly acquired cable channel operations out of the CHUM building, including those of CP24, the news station that has a tight working relationship with Citytv. Both channels share news anchors, content and channel cross-promotion.
According to sources at CHUM, employees of Citytv and CP24 have become increasingly jittery about their future following the late Monday announcement of the sale to Rogers, especially since the lines between the two stations are particularly blurry.
While Citytv and CP24 anchors appear on both networks, staff paycheques clearly define whether the employees are being paid by Citytv or CP24, which only seems to confuse matters further.
For the time being, Rogers said the plan is to share content between the two channels.
Staff "who are predominantly related to one operation would remain with that one operation," Merson said.
"To the extent that they need to multi-purpose, we're going to have to find a way to make sure they multi-purpose appropriately. Then we would make a determination based on effectively where people spent the bulk of their time."
But Merson said that the timing for content sharing is unclear at this point, though it'll likely last for the three-year period of the CHUM-City building transition.
The downtown Toronto studio will continue to operate the cable channel operations acquired from CHUM. That includes national music video channel MuchMusic, which has become a staple of Queen Street with its sidewalk concerts and parking lot video awards shows.
"On balance, it's probably going to be easier for us to move City than it was for them to move everything else," Merson said.
Other Citytv stations included in the acquisition are in Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver.
Rogers plans to buy the buildings that City owns and acquire the leases on the rest.
Rogers will pay $375 million in cash to buy Citytv in Toronto and in four other Canadian cities
Jun 12, 2007 03:45 PM
Canadian Press
The trademark image of Citytv at the corner of Queen and John streets in downtown Toronto will become but a memory in a few years, if Rogers Media gets approval to acquire five Citytv television stations from CTVglobemedia Inc.
The pending deal will eventually move the Citytv label out of the CHUM-City building, where it has grown its brand name since CHUM acquired the property in the mid-1980s.
The shift comes as Rogers makes plans to scoop up the CTVglobemedia assets in five Canadian cities for an estimated $375 million. The deal is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close late this year.
Under the agreement, the Citytv brand will get a major shakeup at its headquarters, with the future of its sister cable news station CP24 also in limbo.
CP24 is fully owned by CHUM after it bought out Sun Media's 29.9 per cent stake in 2004.
CTVglobemedia, Canada's largest private sector broadcaster, has made holding onto the CHUM building a stipulation of the agreement with Rogers. The space will continue to house CTV operations under the new plan, according to Rogers spokeswoman Jan Innes.
"We will have a transition period where we will keep City there until we have a new facility to move City into," she told The Canadian Press.
Rogers will remain at the CHUM-City building for up to three years through what is being called a "transition period."
At this point, the destination of the studios afterwards is anyone's guess.
"We have some options. We own some properties in the city and we have television operations in the city," said Rogers Broadcasting president Rael Merson. He named the company's OMNI multicultural channel's headquarters near the Lake Ontario waterfront as a possible home.
CTVglobemedia will continue to operate the newly acquired cable channel operations out of the CHUM building, including those of CP24, the news station that has a tight working relationship with Citytv. Both channels share news anchors, content and channel cross-promotion.
According to sources at CHUM, employees of Citytv and CP24 have become increasingly jittery about their future following the late Monday announcement of the sale to Rogers, especially since the lines between the two stations are particularly blurry.
While Citytv and CP24 anchors appear on both networks, staff paycheques clearly define whether the employees are being paid by Citytv or CP24, which only seems to confuse matters further.
For the time being, Rogers said the plan is to share content between the two channels.
Staff "who are predominantly related to one operation would remain with that one operation," Merson said.
"To the extent that they need to multi-purpose, we're going to have to find a way to make sure they multi-purpose appropriately. Then we would make a determination based on effectively where people spent the bulk of their time."
But Merson said that the timing for content sharing is unclear at this point, though it'll likely last for the three-year period of the CHUM-City building transition.
The downtown Toronto studio will continue to operate the cable channel operations acquired from CHUM. That includes national music video channel MuchMusic, which has become a staple of Queen Street with its sidewalk concerts and parking lot video awards shows.
"On balance, it's probably going to be easier for us to move City than it was for them to move everything else," Merson said.
Other Citytv stations included in the acquisition are in Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver.
Rogers plans to buy the buildings that City owns and acquire the leases on the rest.
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