Baton Broadcasting System
.svg) |
|
| Type | Defunct broadcast television system |
|---|---|
| Country | Canada |
| Availability | Semi-national; urban areas of Ontario and Saskatchewan |
| Owner | Baton Broadcasting |
|
Launch date
|
1994 (merger of STN and ONT) |
| Dissolved | January 1998 (merged into CTV) |
| Affiliation | CTV Television Network |
 |
|
| Type | Defunct broadcast television system |
|---|---|
| Country | Canada |
| Availability | Semi-national; urban areas of Ontario |
| Owner | Baton Broadcasting Inc. |
|
Launch date
|
Fall 1991 |
| Dissolved | Fall 1994 (merged into BBS) |
| Affiliation | CTV Television Network |
The Baton Broadcast System (BBS; Baton is pronounced (/ˌbætən/) was a Canadian system of television stations located in Ontario and Saskatchewan, owned by Baton Broadcasting. BBS was the successor to two provincial systems also owned by Baton, the Saskatchewan Television Network (STN) and Ontario Network Television (ONT).
During the 1990s, BBS and its predecessors served as a complementary programming service to the CTV Television Network, to which most (but not all) of the system's stations were already affiliated. Shortly after Baton's acquisition of CTV in 1997 and the contemporaneous sale of Baton's independent stations (later re-acquired by Bell and currently part of the parallel CTV Two system), the BBS brand was eliminated, and the system's operations were merged into the CTV network.
During its years as a cooperative, CTV did not broadcast a complete primetime schedule. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, it broadcast 60 hours of common programming each week, with a few gaps in primetime for affiliates to schedule locally; in some cases stations could even pick when to air network programs.
During this same period, CTV's profits began to decline, and by the early 1990s the network was posting losses, largely due to increased competition from the CanWest Global System and other independent stations. Many affiliate groups, such as Baton and WIC – the latter already owning several independent stations – decided they would prefer to buy and air more of their own programming. Accordingly, as part of CTV's 1993 restructuring, network programming was reduced to 42.5 hours (and soon after to 40), including 12 hours in primetime. From this point on (until 1998), CTV network programming only took up about half of affiliates' primetime schedules.
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