Atlantic Satellite Network (PatrZDZ's vision)

**CTV 2 Atlantic** is a Canadian cable television channel serving Atlantic Canada owned by CTVglobemedia, with its studios located in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It operates as a de facto owned-and-operated station of its secondary CTV 2 television system.

The channel launched as the **Atlantic Satellite Network** (or **ASN**) in 1983. It is designated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) as a "satellite-to-cable television programming undertaking," defined as a local television channel available in the region on basic cable television, and now throughout Canada on many digital cable systems and satellite television, but without any terrestrial transmitters (a small number of other channels, mainly educational broadcasters, are similarly designated). The channel does not appear to have mandatory cable carriage rights, although nearly all cable systems in the region offer it. Nonetheless, it has full simultaneous substitution rights in the Atlantic provinces, whereas most non-broadcast channels do not.

The channel receives much of its programming from Citytv (owned by Rogers Media) and CTV 2 systems, which do not operate in the region.

On cable in the Halifax area, ASN can be found on EastLink TV channel 7, and Bell Aliant Fibe TV channel 5. There is also an HD feed on EastLink TV channel 606 and on Bell Aliant Fibe channel 406. Outside Halifax, the station can usually be found on either channel 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, or 13.

## History

The channel launched on May 29, 1983, as a supplementary service to its ATV system of CTV affiliates. ASN initially aired Atlantic Pulse newscasts at alternate times to ATV's newscasts. Atlantic Pulse used ATV reporters, but different anchors and graphics, with a comparatively spartan set located across the newsroom from ATV's. ASN also carried alternative entertainment programming, much of it produced by or otherwise sourced from CHUM's Toronto station CITY-TV (including a nightly feature film, branded under the title Great Movies, as CITY-TV does).

In 1997, as part of a multi-station trade between CHUM and Baton Broadcasting, ATV and ASN became Baton properties; ATV was integrated into the expanded CTV network, while ASN took over the few remaining CHUM programs from ATV. CTV 2 Atlantic remains, for all intents and purposes, the Citytv affiliate in Atlantic Canada, and carries a similar mix of movies and series in primetime.

Following the merger between CHUM and CTVglobemedia, it appeared likely that ASN would become the Citytv owned-and-operated station for Atlantic Canada. However, the merger was made conditional on the sale of Citytv to a third party, with Rogers Communications being the buyer of the television system; as such, ASN was relaunched as part of the CTV's also recently acquired A system on August 11, 2008, and became known as A Atlantic. On May 30, 2011, CTVglobemedia announced that A Atlantic, along with the rest of the A system would be rebranded as CTV Two, thus becoming known as CTV Two Atlantic. The official relaunch to CTV Two took place on August 29, 2011. CTV Two Atlantic launched a high definition feed called CTV Two Atlantic HD on September 12, 2011 (June 4, 2019 to replace the SD feed on Shaw Direct).

## Programming

CTV 2 Atlantic devotes a significant amount of its daytime schedule to educational programming provided by provincial education departments and by local universities. This university-supplied programming comes from the Distance University Education via Television (DUET) service offered by ASN, in partnership with participating universities in Atlantic Canada to university students. Some of the university programs offered through DUET include business administration and gerontology. ASN provides 16 hours of educational programming each weekend from 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. (in the early years, some TVOntario programs were carried on ASN, such as Polka Dot Door, Today's Special and Fast Forward). In September 1992, ASN launched a local version of Citytv's Breakfast Television, moving educational programs to the weekend and to overnight hours. By 1996, as specialty television began to grow in popularity, Atlantic Pulse gave way to a scaled-back version called ATV Headline News. ATV Headline News only lasted until early 1998, when ASN's news programming was fully integrated into the ATV (now CTV Atlantic) news operation.

While CTV Atlantic airs some syndicated programming from the United States that is shown on Citytv in Toronto, CTV 2 Atlantic airs programs associated with CTV in the rest of the country, such as Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!. CTV 2 Atlantic was also the original home of The Oprah Winfrey Show until it moved to ATV in 1991 (and in Newfoundland and Labrador, to CJON-TV, commonly known as "NTV").

CTV 2 Atlantic has occasionally aired selected CTV network programming. In some cases, this would be live programming that had been scheduled for times that were inconvenient for either or both of ATV and NTV, such as weekend afternoon sports programming that might interfere with local news. This appeared to be to maximize the network's simultaneous substitution coverage; since 1997, ATV had aired series from the final hour of U.S. primetime earlier in the evening in order to accommodate newscasts at 11:00 AT.

### News operation

CTV Atlantic presently broadcasts 29½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 5½ hours each weekday and 1 hour each on Saturdays and Sundays). The joint ownership of CTV Atlantic and CTV 2 Atlantic was approved in 1983 without any restrictions on duplicated programming or news coverage between the two channels. This has been grandfathered into the CRTC's current policy, which has required most newer large-market "twinsticks" to maintain separate programming and news content on both component stations.

The format of the channel's signature morning show Breakfast Television and its logo somewhat resembled the format and branding used by the Citytv stations. The show subsequently dropped the name, when the station was rebranded as CTV Two and the morning show became known as CTV Morning Live.

### Newscast schedule

Weekdays

* 6am - 9:30am: CTV Morning Live with Amanda Debison and Ana Almeida
* 12pm - 12:30pm: CTV News at Noon on CTV 2 with Paul Hollingsworth
* 4:30pm - 5pm: CTV News at 4:30 on CTV 2 with Paul Hollingsworth
* 7pm - 7:30pm: CTV News at 7 on CTV 2 with Stephanie Tsicos
* 10pm - 10:35pm: CTV News at 10 on CTV 2 with Stephanie Tsicos

Weekends

* 7pm - 7:30pm: CTV News at 7 on CTV 2 with Jesse Thomas
* 10pm - 10:35pm: CTV News at 10 on CTV 2 with Jesse Thomas