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Lack of Channel Number and Call Letter Branding

H

HoustonListener

on my recent visit to Calgary and Banff, I was struck by how none of the TV stations uses the channel number or call letters as part of branding/promotion like the American stations do. Why is that? is is because everyone has cable just about so that the actual over the air channel isn't very important? Or that ID with the network is more important than the local station?
 
HoustonListener said:
on my recent visit to Calgary and Banff, I was struck by how none of the TV stations uses the channel number or call letters as part of branding/promotion like the American stations do. Why is that? is is because everyone has cable just about so that the actual over the air channel isn't very important? Or that ID with the network is more important than the local station?
Click to expand...

Call letters, for some reason, are some sort of bogeyman in Canadian broadcasting. I have never figured out why.

As for channel numbers, Canadian regulations have long prohibited cable companies from carrying TV stations on the same position as their over-the-air channel. For example Channel 2 in Calgary (Global/CICT) cannot be shown on Cable 2 in Calgary (although further away it would be allowed). With cable penetration being what it is, there was no point in calling that station Channel 2; for awhile it was 2&7 (with 7 being the cable position) and then later Calgary 7.
 
Yes it is an oddity.

CTV for instance (such as CFTO Toronto) is only CTV now. It seems dumb to me that when the CTV National News is over, they'll invite you to stay tuned for your CTV local news. But where many of them have taken-on branding slogans over the past few years... such as Toronto's OMNI (ch's 47 & 69)... as pointed out, the CFMT calls are a thing of the past. CITY-TV (Toronto) although would NEVER mention their ch. 57 dial position, has always been "CITY-TV" announced as the "word" and not spelled out as C-I-T-Y.

Many stateside stations aren't actually much different these days, when you consider the "MY-TV" & CW afilliates that for the most part ID themselves as their network, with their local cable allocation, as the channel number... which most often is NOT their OTA position. :-\
 
HoustonListener said:
on my recent visit to Calgary and Banff, I was struck by how none of the TV stations uses the channel number or call letters as part of branding/promotion like the American stations do. Why is that? is is because everyone has cable just about so that the actual over the air channel isn't very important? Or that ID with the network is more important than the local station?
Click to expand...

One significant difference is that the vast majority of Canadian stations are network owned-and-operated. For the most part, you don't have the independently-owned-local-affiliate system we have at most U.S. stations.
 
...and that's why there's CHCH (Hamilton Ontario)
It was E! when it was owned by Global, but Global sold it to a smaller company.
Now it's CHCH again. (GOOD for THEM!!!!)

CTV later picked up the rights to E! in Canada and re branded STAR! to be the E! station we know today.
 
Yeziknoradio said:
...and that's why there's CHCH (Hamilton Ontario)
It was E! when it was owned by Global, but Global sold it to a smaller company.
Now it's CHCH again. (GOOD for THEM!!!!)
Click to expand...

And their current logo is a modified version of the one they used in the late 60s, 70s and much of the 80s:

http://www.chch.com/
 
This is the wave of the future. The San Francisco Bay Area's NBC O&O re-branded as "NBC Bay Area" about 2 years ago. It's broadcast channel 11 (if you're one of the few people left who gets TV over the air), cable channel 3, and God knows what on satellite. That's the problem. So a non-channel number brand standardizes it for everyone, and keeps it simple.
 
Lkeller said:
This is the wave of the future. The San Francisco Bay Area's NBC O&O re-branded as "NBC Bay Area" about 2 years ago. It's broadcast channel 11 (if you're one of the few people left who gets TV over the air), cable channel 3, and God knows what on satellite. That's the problem. So a non-channel number brand standardizes it for everyone, and keeps it simple.
Click to expand...

As far as I know, on DirectTV local stations are mapped to their OTA channel numbers.
 
As for NBC Bay Area.....lots of people refere it to either 3 or 11. As for Directv and Dish it's on Channel 11. AT&T Uverse, Astound, and Comcast it's on Channel 3. OTA on Channel 11.1. I think in the fridge part of the Bay area (north Bay) Ukiah, Mendocino, I think it's on Channel 11 on their cable system.

If CTRC were able to break away with the prohibition of OTA and Cable on the same frequency. You can see for example in Vancouver and in Toronto.

CBUT 2 CBC
CHEK 6
Global 8
Citytv 10

A-Channel 3 (CKVR)
CBLT 5 CBC
CFTO 9 CTV
CHCH 11

Hey in Mexico, if you are watching tv away from Mexico City. Then the whole Channel and station is confusing. For example XEW-TV Canal de las Estrellas is on Channel 2 in Mexico City, but it's on Channel 57 in Tijuana and their call letters are XHUAA, not XEW-TV. Same thing for Channel 5 in DF which is on Channel 45 in Tijuana.
 
e-dawg said:
Hey in Mexico, if you are watching tv away from Mexico City. Then the whole Channel and station is confusing. For example XEW-TV Canal de las Estrellas is on Channel 2 in Mexico City, but it's on Channel 57 in Tijuana and their call letters are XHUAA, not XEW-TV. Same thing for Channel 5 in DF which is on Channel 45 in Tijuana.
Click to expand...

XEW doesn't even brand itself as Canal 2 or XEW anymore, although locals still call it Canal 2. Canal 5 (XHGC), as well as Azteca 7 and 13 are confusing though, as they are rarely on those same channels in other cities.

Guadalajara and Mexico City have the same VHF allocations (2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13), but Guadalajara gets Estrellas (Canal 2) on Channel 9, Canal 5 on Channel 21, Azteca 7 on Channel 11, Galavision (Canal 9) on Channel 5, 11 TV on Channel 27, and Azteca 13 on Channel 13. Channels 2 and 4 are local independent stations, and Channel 7 is a statewide public broadcaster.

Historically, from what I've gathered, XEW broadcast on Channel 2 in a number of cities including Guadalajara (and thus the Canal 2 moniker being more relevant nationally), but some stations have switched network feeds over the years or have become independent stations.

The only difference from Canada, at least with Azteca 7 and 13, is that their satellite stations ID their callsign, city of license, and channel number twice an hour. Televisa's stations used to ID callsign and channel, but that practice appears to have been discontinued.
 
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