The Sopranos finale was supposed to be the big TV story of the summer. Rivaling it (to some, anyway), and happening just a few days earlier, was the CRTC’s decision to nix CTV’s buyout plans for ownership of the sweet spot of the CHUM empire – the five Citytv properties across the country. Rogers quickly jumped into the picture, wasting no time with an offer to purchase the stations.
The stage is set for some serious upheaval to Canada’s media landscape. Come next fall, CHUM, as we know it, will cease to exist. Rogers will, presumably, no longer be confined to Sportsnet, community TV and Omni, and CTV, if still content with the CHUM brand’s stellar but potentially overlapping odds and ends like CP24 and MuchMusic (it already owns Newsnet and MTV Canada), will become an even bigger player (if that were possible). Then there’s CanWest’s rebranding of CH to E!
As we wait for the flurry to settle, let’s focus on what we know for sure – Fall TV ’07. There’s more reality. More dramas (most, curiously, with male leads). Sitcoms are all but extinct. And nets – specialty and conventional alike – are committed to redefining the commercial pod, all of which we’ve covered in our annual Fall TV Preview over the following 52 pages.
It’s a post-Sopranos TV world. Many of us are still scratching our heads about the show’s puzzling non-ending, and have almost as many questions about the future of Canadian TV.
Click on the links below to read the other stories in the report
