CTV 2Alberta is a Canadian English language entertainment and former educational television channel in the province of Alberta. Owned by the Bell Media subsidiary of BCE Inc., it operates as a de factoowned-and-operated station of its secondary CTV 2 television system. The channel was licensed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission as an educational programming service for Alberta, and was formerly a public broadcaster owned by the Alberta provincial government. Following its privatization in 1995, its license continued to require at least 60 hours of non-commercial educational programming per week along with entertainment programming more favourable to advertisers and adult viewers. In 2017, the channel officially relinquished its status as an educational broadcaster and dropped all its previous educational programming except the newsmagazine Alberta Primetime. CTV 2 Alberta is also designated as a "satellite-to-cable undertaking" serving the entirety of Alberta, and is therefore carried throughout the province on cable and licensed IPTV services on each service's basic tier. It is also available on both national satellite services.
History
The channel was launched on June 30, 1973 as Access by the Alberta government, through the Alberta Educational Communications Corporation, alongside CKUA Radio. Prior to this point, English-language educational programs aired on Radio-Canada's television station CBXFT in Edmonton. At its launch, Access was only available through cable, and did not broadcast over-the-air. On January 9, 1984, AECC was granted a license from the CRTC for a television station in Calgary, CIAN; on December 1, 1986, AECC was granted another license for a television station in Edmonton, CJAL, to rebroadcast the programs from CIAN. Both stations rebroadcast the Access feed. After re-evaluating all provincial funding recipients, the Government of Alberta announced in 1993 that it would cease to directly fund Access past 1994. As a result, in 1995, Access was privatized and sold to Learning and Skills Television of Alberta Limited, which is 60% owned by CHUM Limited. In February 2005, CHUM Limited acquired the remaining 40% interest in LSTA, giving the company 100% of its shares, including its ownership in Access. On July 12, 2006, CTVglobemedia announced that it would make a friendly takeover bid to buy CHUM Limited. Due to CTVglobemedia's plans to keep CTV and Citytv, Rogers Communications was expected to purchase Access as announced on April 9, 2007, pending CRTC approval. With the CRTC electing to force CTV to sell the Citytv stations instead, the Rogers deal was rendered void. As such, CTVglobemedia retained Access along with the A-Channel stations, CKX-TV and all of CHUM's specialty channels, and sold the Citytv stations to Rogers. The takeover transaction was finalized on June 22, 2007. The A-Channel stations were rebranded as "A" on August 11, 2008; on the same date, Access debuted a new A-styled logo and began airing programming from "A" during certain primetime hours. On June 8, 2011, it was revealed that Access would be relaunched as CTV Two Alberta on August 29, 2011, as part of a rebranding of the "A" system. On January 11, 2016, during CTV Two Alberta's license renewal, Bell Media requested that the channel no longer be classified as an educational broadcaster. The company stated that the province would be better served with both a dedicated educational broadcaster alongside a private service. Despite receiving criticism from a number of groups, most notably from Ontario educational broadcaster TVO, the CRTC approved the request on May 15, 2017, citing the lack of intervention from the provincial government, as well as talks between the government and British Columbia's Knowledge Network to potentially launch a new publicly owned and operated educational broadcast service in Alberta. As a result, CTV Two Alberta dropped all educational programming but continues to air the newsmagazine Alberta Primetime.
Digital television
As part of Canada's transition to digital terrestrial television, broadcast television stations in Calgary and Edmonton were required to convert to digital broadcasting or sign off completely by August 31, 2011. Prior to this deadline, the station had in place an analog over-the-air television transmitter in each of those two markets. The station did not have any other over-the-air transmitters. As the channel is licensed as a satellite-to-cable undertaking, it is not required to offer over-the-air transmitters. Due to this, the costs of converting the two Access transmitters in Calgary and Edmonton to digital, and because the network already must be carried by cable and IPTV providers in the area as the province's designated educational broadcaster, CTV 2 shut down its over-the-air television transmitters on August 31, 2011.
Programming
As Access, the network carried a variety of educational and informative programs along with entertainment programs all of which include children's programs, documentaries, feature films, talk shows, dramas, comedies and other programs. Starting March 9, 2009, Access began cabling a province-wide news and current affairs magazine program called Alberta Primetime, from the CTV/Access studios in Edmonton. Resources from CTV's owned-and-operated stations in Edmonton and Calgary will be used to produce the program. CTV 2 Alberta dropped all children's and educational programming from its schedule when it ceased being licensed as an educational broadcaster in 2017. It now airs the full CTV 2 schedule with the exception of the provincial newsmagazine Alberta Primetime.
