Dougall Media
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| Private company | |
| Industry | Media |
| Headquarters | Thunder Bay, Ontario |
| Products | Broadcasting, Television Production |
| Website | www.dougallmedia.com |
Dougall Media is a Canadian media company, which has several television, radio and publishing holdings in Northwestern Ontario.
Dougall Media owns CKPR, a CTV affiliate (formerly a CBC affiliate until August 31, 2014), and CHFD, a Global affiliate, both in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The two stations are what is known as a twinstick operation, and are in fact the sole remaining locally owned twinstick anywhere in English Canada (Newcap Broadcasting's twinstick in Lloydminster is not locally owned since Newcap is based in Halifax). The two stations air programs from their respective networks, as well as local news and current affairs programs and specials.
Prior to February 2010, CHFD was a CTV affiliate which also carried some Global programming. The station was unable to come to agreement with CTV to continue operating as an affiliate and filed an application to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to remove the CTV affiliation requirement from their license and to operate as a Global affiliate.
In March 2010, CKPR announced it was unable to come to an agreement with CBC to continue to operate as an affiliate, and filed an application with the CRTC to remove the CBC affiliation requirement from their license. CKPR stated in their application that it "would operate as an independent local station and intends to source its non-local programming". However, after continued negotiations, the station announced in March 2011 that they had come to an agreement that would see them air CBC programming for another five years; in June 2014, Dougall Media announced that CKPR's affiliation would switch from CBC to CTV in September.
The stations' status as a locally owned twinstick accounts for some of the unique circumstances of the Thunder Bay television market. For example, Thunder Bay was the only major market in the province in which CIII-DT and CHCH-DT did not add rebroadcasters during those stations' provincewide expansions in the 1990s; although both stations did apply for transmitters in Thunder Bay, both were declined by the CRTC due to the potential impact of out-of-market competition on Dougall's advertising revenue. It is also, for the same reason, the only major market in the province where CITY-DT is still unavailable either terrestrially or on basic cable.
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