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Global Television Network

The Global Television Network (more commonly called Global, or occasionally Global TV) is a Canadian English-language terrestrial television network. It is currently Canada's second most-watched private terrestrial television network after CTV, and has fifteen owned-and-operated stations throughout the country. Global is owned by Corus Entertainment — the media holdings of JR Shaw and other members of his family.

"Global TV" redirects here. For other uses, see Global (disambiguation) § Television.

Type

Terrestrial television network

Nationwide (available in parts of the northern United States depending on location)

Doug Murphy
(President and CEO of Corus Entertainment)
Troy Reeb
(Vice President of Broadcast Networks)

January 6, 1974 (1974-01-06)

CanWest Global System (used in the 1990s on non-Global branded Canwest stations)

Global has its origins in a regional television station of the same name, serving Southern Ontario, which launched in 1974. The Ontario station was soon purchased by the now-defunct CanWest Global Communications, and that company gradually expanded its national reach in the subsequent decades through both acquisitions and new station launches, building up a quasi-network of independent stations, known as the CanWest Global System, until the stations were unified under the Ontario station's branding in 1997.

History[edit]

NTV[edit]

The network has its origins in NTV, a new network first proposed in 1966 by Hamilton media proprietor Ken Soble, the co-founder and owner of independent station CHCH-TV through his Niagara Television company.[1] Financially backed by Power Corporation of Canada, Soble submitted a brief to the Board of Broadcast Governors in 1966 proposing a national satellite-fed network.[2] Under the plan, Soble's company would launch Canada's first broadcast satellite, and would use it to relay the programming of CHCH to 96 new transmitters across Canada.[3] Soble died in December of that year; his widow Frances took over as president of Niagara Television,[4] while former CTV executive Michael Hind-Smith and Niagara Television vice-president Al Bruner handled the network application.[5] Soble had originally formulated the plan after failing in a bid to acquire CTV.[1]


The original proposal was widely criticized on various grounds, including claims that it exceeded the board's concentration of media ownership limits and that it was overly ambitious and financially unsustainable.[6] As well, it failed to include any plan for local news content on any of its individual stations beyond possibly the metropolitan Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver markets.[6]


By 1968, NTV put forward its first official licence application, under which the original 96 transmitters would be supplemented by 43 more transmitters to distribute a separate French language service,[7] along with provisions for the free distribution of CBC Television, Radio-Canada and a new noncommercial educational television service on the network's satellite.[7] Transponder space would also be leased to CTV and Télé-Métropole, but as competing commercial services they would not have been granted the free distribution rights the plan offered to the public television services.[7] However, after federal communications minister Paul Hellyer announced plans to move forward with the publicly owned Anik series of broadcast satellites through Telesat Canada instead of leaving the rollout of satellite technology in the hands of private corporations, Power Corporation backed out of the application and left NTV in limbo.[8]

Television listings[edit]

In television listings such as TV Guide, where space limitations usually require television networks to be referred to by a three-letter abbreviation, the abbreviations "GLO", "GLB" or "GTV" are commonly used, depending on the publication. None of these abbreviations has any standing as an official name for the network, however – the network's own shortform name for itself is always "Global".

Some Global stations have superimposed the phrase "on Global" on a program's main titles, often in a font that poorly replicates that of the title itself. This sometimes meant that a single superimposed version was used with each episode, potentially interfering with running gags within the opening credits. For instance, the opening of during the early seasons featured a news headline that changed with each episode, but for a time, the same headline might be shown on multiple episodes on Global, an issue that was later rectified. This practice was discontinued altogether with the start of the fall 2006 season.

American Dad!

Split-screen credits are also used to allow for network promos (as of the 2009–10 season, the show's own stylized production credits are displayed rather than a network-generated uniform credit sequence). On some shows, including and Family Guy, there are special closing credits that may use additional scenes or special music that is altered or lost when Global uses a split screen. While the use of split-screen credits is common among networks in Canada and the U.S., how Global treats one program and how the U.S. network treats the same episode may be different.

The Simpsons

In some cases, next-episode previews, such as those on , are not shown. This may be because these promos are made in-house by the network (in this case, NBC), and cannot be edited ahead of broadcast.

The Apprentice

Since the late 2000s, several American networks have begun to start certain shows shortly before or after :00 or :30 past the hour to avert audience loss. Global does not necessarily follow this practice, meaning the last few minutes of the preceding show may be lost to those watching the U.S. network. For instance, if NBC schedules The Apprentice to start at 9:02, but Global schedules its start for exactly 9:00, the last two minutes of NBC's 8:00 program may be blocked by the Global signal. This is not unique to Global and may vary by service provider, since cable and satellite providers, not the networks, are responsible for scheduling and initiating simsubs.

If an American program on a U.S. network is delayed due to breaking news or a sporting event on the American network, and is scheduled for broadcast at that time on Global, Global will also delay that episode until it starts on the American network to intentionally simsub. One example is an episode of that aired after Super Bowl XLII in 2008 (see below).

House

Global was the Canadian broadcast-television rightsholder for the and, hence, the Super Bowl, through the end of the 2006 season (these rights were bought by CTV starting with the 2007 season). As with any other U.S. network program, Global could and did simsub the American feed. However, the Super Bowl is particularly controversial, as the U.S. network Super Bowl commercials, likely the most anticipated set of commercials of any given year, could not be seen on either Global or the applicable U.S. station. Instead, while some international advertisers (such as Budweiser) did buy time on Global for the U.S. ads, many Canadian companies simply ran ads introduced long before the game. Nonetheless, in recent years, nearly all American commercials have been available via various websites after the game, which may have placated some complainants.

National Football League

List of Global Television Network personalities

2007 Canada broadcast TV realignment

CBS

CITV

Official website

Global Television history at Canadian Communications Foundation