User:Stickguy/Vancouver TV realignment, 2001

In fall 2001, the Vancouver television market was realigned due to a series of sales, agreements, and newly-issued licences, mainly stemming from the 2000 acquisition of Western International Communications by rival CanWest Global. The realignment affected four existing stations, in addition to two new stations that launched later that fall, constituting the largest single affiliation realignment in North American television history.

On September 1, WIC's market-leading station BCTV, a CTV affiliate since its inception, switched to CanWest's Global network. CHEK, a WIC-owned CTV affiliate in nearby Victoria, joined CanWest's new secondary service, CH. CTV-owned independent station VTV acquired the CTV affiliation, while CKVU, the market's longtime Global O&O, began carrying programming from CHUM Limited in anticipation of a sale to that company, which would be completed in 2002.

Soon after, two new stations, The New VI (now part of A-Channel) and NOWTV (now an OMNI station) began operations. A third new station, Channel M, would launch in 2003.

Background
The Vancouver/Victoria television market was, and remains, the third-largest market in Canada. Prior to the realignment, the area was served by six local television stations:
 * the CBC's CBUT and CBUFT, airing programming from the public broadcaster's English- and French-language networks respectively;
 * CHAN-TV, also known as BCTV, Vancouver's CTV affiliate and owned by WIC;
 * CHEK-TV, also a WIC-owned CTV affiliate based in Victoria;
 * CKVU-TV, acquired as an independent Vancouver station by CanWest Global in 1987 and part of the Global network starting in 1997; and
 * CIVT-TV, a.k.a. "Vancouver Television" or VTV, launched in fall 1997. VTV was an independent station initially owned by the Baton-Electrohome Alliance, and unofficially modeled after CHUM's CITY-TV (CHUM had also applied for the same licence).

Provincial educational broadcaster Knowledge Network and Bellingham, Washington border station KVOS-TV also served the market.

Following Baton Broadcasting's 1997 buyout of the CTV network and most of its affiliates, Vancouver became something of an anomaly with respect to CTV programming. BCTV and CHEK continued to operate as the market's official CTV affiliates, which covered 40 hours of programming per week, until 2001 under agreements that were signed in the early 1990s. However, the remainder of the newly-expanded CTV schedule - that is, programs that aired all CTV O&Os but not on the network itself - aired on VTV.