CJNT-TV
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| CJNT-TV | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Montreal, Quebec | |
| Branding | CJNT Montreal |
| Slogan | Une Ville, Plusieurs Cultures One City, Many Cultures |
| Channels | Analog: 62 / Cable 14 |
| Affiliations | E! |
| Owner | Canwest (Canwest Media Inc.) |
| Founded | 1980s (as cable only TEQ) 1997 (as over the air CJNT) |
| Call letters’ meaning | C J Montreal Television |
| Transmitter Power | 11 kW |
| Website | www.cjntmontreal.ca |
CJNT-TV is a multicultural television station in Montreal, Quebec owned by Canwest. The station generally uses its callsign for branding; however, when not airing ethnic programming, CJNT acts as the Montreal member of Canwest's E! system. It also airs E! programming in Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese under the E! name.[citation needed]
[edit] History
The station signed on in 1997, but had its roots in the 1980s as La Télévision Ethnique du Québec (TEQ), a public access ethnic cable channel. It had plans on moving over-the-air as early as the early 1990s, but was dogged by financial problems. Even after it signed on, its finances were in such a state that it never signed on earlier than noon.
Many of the people whose shows had aired on TEQ for many years didn't make the cut for CJNT because they didn't meet the standards for commercial broadcasting. However, many of the shows that did make it were below broadcast standards. Its commitment to ethnic groups was questioned, especially late at night when it would frequently show an infomercial for a psychic hotline — in English.
Western International Communications bought CJNT in 1999. WIC owned Montreal's CTV affiliate, CFCF-TV, but was facing serious competition from Global, which had expanded into Quebec the same year CJNT signed on. WIC figured CJNT would give it much-needed leverage in Montreal. It planned to relaunch CJNT on the model of Canada's first multicultural station, CFMT-TV in Toronto, with 60% ethnic content and 40% American content. Those plans never materialized, and became moot when Canwest bought WIC's television assets in 2000.
Canwest had CJNT file bankruptcy, and changed its conditions of licence to reduce the ethnic content to 60%. On September 8, 2001, Global relaunched the station with a mixture of ethnic, English- and French-language programming. The bulk of the English-language shows came from CH, so CJNT became, for all intents and purposes, the third CH station. Since there was no "H" in "CJNT" (unlike CHCH-TV and CHEK-TV), the CH in Montreal stood for "Canal Horizon." It changed its on-air name to "CH" in 2002, and then to simply "CJNT" in 2007 while CH programming rebranded as E!.
CJNT airs the most local and Canadian shows in Canada (apart from CBC/Radio-Canada). However, all such shows on CJNT are ethnic or French-language programming — all English-language shows are American imports. For much of 2003 and 2004, CJNT fought a "commercial war" with Burlington, Vermont's Fox affiliate, WFFF. Due to Canada's "simultaneous substitution" rules, WFFF frequently shifted its schedule to keep its commercials from being blocked in Montreal — however, whenever possible, CJNT repeated the move in order to maintain its simsub rights. WFFF depends on advertising in Montreal for its survival since Montreal is several times larger than its entire American viewing area.
CJNT broadcasts at 11 kilowatts, one of Montreal's weakest television signals, on the same level as most low-powered UHF stations in the United States. As a consequence, the station's over-the-air signal is very poor, even in Montreal.
[edit] Station presentation
CJNT-TV's logos and station presentation have changed over the years, showing changes in styles, themes, network affiliations, and changes in ownership. Below are some of the more recent logos used by the station.
 CJNT's former logo, as La Télévision Ethnique du Québec (TEQ) (1980s-1997) |
 CJNT's former logo, as CJNT-TV (1997-2001) |
 CJNT's former logo as "CH Montreal" (2001-2005) |
[edit] External links
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