It’s the newest wake-up call in an increasingly combative war for eyeballs in the morning. Global News Morning launched July 14 in Ontario, setting the stage for a toe-to-toe battle with industry stalwarts such as CTV’s Canada AM.

Peter Kent, deputy news editor of Global News, says Ontario represents the last major market push in CanWest Global’s bid for national dominance in morning news programming.

‘We have always believed that this was an underserved market and that the time was never better and we should go for it,’ Kent says. ‘This is a soft launch and we hope to be firing on all cylinders by fall.’

There are no coiffed, multi-million-dollar-a-year hosts on Global News Morning. In fact, by comparison, Canada AM looks decidedly glitzy. Kent says Global News Morning will distinguish itself from the magazine-style programming on traditional morning shows by providing a steady stream of quick news hits, as well as weather, traffic and business reports. The program will offer a three-hour cycle of news information that is essential to the viewer’s day, Kent adds.

Pitched at an 18- to 49-year-old demographic, the new show is expected to skew to female viewers and Global is hoping to take a bite out of the existing radio and television news junkie market. However, Kent admits that Global News Morning has cast its sights on Canada AM’s viewers.

‘We feel that we’ll attract a healthy portion of Canada AM’s audience,’ he says.

It’s difficult to tell much from early viewing, buyers say. However, according to BBM figures, Global News Morning captured 0.2% of all TV viewers during the first two days of its launch. That’s about 12,000 viewers in the 18 and older demographic – figures that closely rival Global’s share of the lunchtime news audience. However, Canada AM’s market share remained steady over the same period – with 58,000 viewers in the same demographic, about the same share it had the previous week.

Executives at Canada AM say they’re not worried. In fact, the veteran morning show’s new VP, Paul Rogers, was one of the key architects of Global News Morning. Rogers was lured to Canada AM in February from Global where he was instrumental in etching out the template for Global’s morning show.

‘It’s accepted that morning is the growth area for news, and broadcasters in Canada are increasingly accepting that,’ Rogers says, adding that figures show that morning television audiences are growing as people head to bed earlier at night and rise earlier in the morning.

Rogers says Global doesn’t have the budget to compete on big breaking news stories – the kind that viewers expect to see Canada AM develop during the morning news run.

However, Rogers concedes that Global’s format – shorter news hits – is also one that Canada AM is increasingly incorporating into its own programming style. He also says that as the fall unfolds, viewers can expect to see more local elements, such as traffic and weather, incorporated into Canada AM’s format.

Sunni Boot, president of Toronto’s Zenith Optimedia Canada, says Global is pursuing a prudent strategy. She believes the new entry will eventually attract a strong audience through aggressive cross-promotion with other Global properties, and continue to build on the strengths Global has shown in building numbers on its six o’clock news.

Florence George, VP group media director at PHD Canada (formerly HYPN), says it’s too early to predict the success or failure of the new morning show yet.

‘I don’t think the numbers are too bad. But the story is going to be what happens in the next few weeks,’ George says.

Global News Morning is anchored by Alan Carter and Christine Crosbie and runs between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m.