Zuniga Media

Zuniga Media Inc. is a Canadian-based media company founded in 1894 as The Sault Ste. Marie Times Inc., before adopting its current name in 1994.
It owned 57 newspapers, the Zuniga Television Network, 23 radio stations, 8 specialty channels, and the Great North Pictures movie studio
==History==
===Founding and early years (1894-1921)===
William J. Zuniga and Mark S. Kusiner left Michigan to moved to Canada in 1886, after starting a paper business, they worked on various odd jobs before opening The Sault Ste. Marie Times on August 3, 1894, the first newspaper outside of Toronto, it was slow as first, but they were successful and between 1896 and 1913, they opened the Sudbury Post (1896), the North Bay Times (1903), the Thunder Bay Tribune (1907) and the Wawa Times (1913).
===Entering broadcasting (1921-1969)===
In 1921, they applied for an experimental broadcasting license to Sault Ste. Marie called 7SM, which became a commercial license in 1922, under the call letters CKST, then fellow by CKSP in Sudbury (1924) and CKNB in North Bay (1925).
In 1946, Mark S. Kusiner sold his share in the company to Zuniga, who died the following year and was replaced by his son Anthony I as CEO.
In 1949, they launched CKST-TV, a CBC affiliate until 1952, in which it became Canada's first independent TV station.
In 1957, the company bought Great North Pictures for $5 million and turn it around and for a while, it became Canada's biggest movie studio by market control.
In 1961 they launch CKTB in Thunder Bay, CKSP-TV in Sudbury, and CKNB-TV in North Bay, which they and CKST-TV formed the Northern Ontario Television Network.
===Entering outside of Ontario (1969-1990)===
In 1969, the company was renamed to Zuniga Media of Ontario, just after launching CZQM in Montreal and it's two rebroadcasters in Quebec City and Sherbrooke, then followed by CZME in Edmonton in 1972, CZSN in Saskatoon in 1973, the Zuniga Atlantic sub-network (CZAE & CZAW) in 1975 and CZMC in Calgary in 1976.
In 1984, they outbid Canwest for a license on channel 13 in Vancouver, which launched in 1985 as CZMV, the same year Anthony I died and was replaced by Anthony II as CEO.
===Forming the third network (1990-2000)===
In 1990, they outbid Western International to buy CHCH in Hamilton for a record $30 million and have plans to make it into a regional network for Southern Ontario, which they did in 1996, the same year as Anthony II was killed in a helicopter crash and was replaced by Anthony III as CEO.
In 1994, the company's name was shorted to Zuniga Media, the same year they launch CZSS in Regina, CZMK in Kelowna, CZMW in Winnipeg, CZMN in St. John's and expanded NOTN to Timmis via CKTT after its purchase of the Timmis Times in 1993.
With the launch of CHCH's rebroadcasters on September 1, 1996, all the channel identities and programming were merged into the Zuniga Television Network.
In 1997, they enter the specialty channel market with the launch of Z, a general entertainment network.
===Going national (2000-2010)===
In 2000, they, Canwest Global and Shaw agreed to split the assets of Western International, here's the breakdown:
*Zuniga Media: CKRD Red Dear, Superchannel, MovieMax, Reports on Business Television (50%), Family Channel (50%), Teletoon (English and French: 40%), 12 radio stations, Viewers Choice in Western Canada, production assets (folded into Great North Television)
*Canwest Global: 8 TV stations (CFCF was sold to CTV)
*Shaw: Western International's stake in CANCOM
The agreement was finished by mid-2001, with CKRD moved affiliation from CBC to Zuniga in mid-2002 and changing their call letters to CZMR.
In 2009, they bought CKNX-TV in Wingham, CHWI in Windsor, CKX-TV in Brandon, and the remaining 50% of Reports on Business (which have been renamed to the Business News Network) from CTVglobemedia for $95 million. CKX and CHWI became stand-alone Zuniga stations and CKNX became a rebroadcast of CHCH
===2010 purchase of Canwest's newspapers assets===
On February 25, 2010, the company announced that it had agreed to buy the newspaper assets of Canwest for $790 million. This added them some of Canada's biggest newspapers like the National Post, the Edmonton Journal, the Montreal Gazette, the Ottawa Citizen, the Calgary Herald, and the Vancouver Sun. The deal closed on October 27.
===Expansive Grown (2010-2014)===
In 2011, the company went public for the first time on the Toronto Stock Exchange. In 2012, It traded 50% of Movie Central and MovieMax to Astral Media's The Movie Channel for the later's stakes in the Family Channels and Teletoon.
In 2013, Zuniga Media and Bell Media agree on a deal to purchase Astral Media, it traded Astral's shares of Historia and Séries+ to Corus for its 50% share of Teletoon, it also got radio stations in Toronto, Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Vancouver and TV stations in Dawson Creek and Terrace, which in 2016 became Zuniga stations under the call letters CZJC and CZTK, the deal was complete on January 1, 2014
===2014 purchase of Sun Media===
On October 6, 2014, it agree to purchase most of the assets of Sun Media from Quebecor Media for $350 million, this included the Sun newspapers, The Sault Ste. Marie Times' biggest rival, the Sault Star (which it and three other newspapers in existing markets were folded in 2016) and the Sun News Network. It was approved by the federal Competition Bureau on March 25, 2015, and closed on April 13. On July 1st, the Sun News Network became Zuniga Newscenter.
===The Anthony IV era (2016-)===
On January 10, 2016, Anthony III died from cancer and replaced by Anthony IV. On March 1, 2016, the company launch Newscenter ON, an online pay news service. On April 1, 2017, It and Bell launched CanNet, an OTT streaming service featuring channels from Bell and Zuniga Media. On November 1, 2018, Bell and Zuniga's premium channels were merged into both Crave and Starz Canada.
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