2007 Canadian broadcast television realignment

In 2007, significant ownership changes occurred in Canada's broadcast television industry, involving nearly every private English-language network and television system. In addition to the shuffling of network affiliations and mergers involving various networks, several new television stations and rebroadcast transmitters also signed on the air.

In 2006, following the death of longtime chairman Allan Waters, CHUM Limited decided to cease operations and sell its broadcasting assets to a willing bidder. Bell Globemedia (later CTVglobemedia, now Bell Media) announced a $1.7 billion takeover offer for CHUM on July 12 of that year.

Bell Globemedia initially intended to retain CHUM's Citytv television system and its five large-market stations, as well as the company's numerous specialty channels; Bell would also sell off the smaller-market A-Channel stations along with several specialty channels. Rogers Communications originally placed a bid to purchase the A-Channel stations; CKX-TV (channel 5) in Brandon, Manitoba; Alberta educational station Access; and specialty channels SexTV and Canadian Learning Television.

However, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) denied CTV's acquisition of the Citytv stations, as all five stations – CITY-TV (channel 57) in Toronto, CKVU-TV (channel 10) in Vancouver, CKEM-TV (channel 51) in Edmonton, CKAL-TV (channel 5) in Calgary and CHMI-TV (channel 13) in Portage la Prairie-Winnipeg – were based in markets where CTV already maintained owned-and-operated stations (O&O), and therefore CTV's retention of Citytv would have violated a provision in the Commission's media ownership limits, which bar broadcasters from owning two English-language television stations in major metropolitan areas. CTV was, however, allowed to retain control of the A-Channel stations (a few of the A-Channel stations were based in cities adjacent to the major five metropolitan areas such as Victoria, British Columbia; London and Barrie, Ontario; CRTC rules permit English-language commercial twinsticks in major markets provided that the stations have differing cities of license) and all of CHUM's specialty channels.

Soon afterwards, Rogers Communications placed a new bid to purchase the Citytv system as a complement to its own Omni Television, a system of multicultural stations that incorporate programming in various languages.

After Bell Globemedia's bid to purchase Citytv stations, and sell off the A-Channel stations, CKX-TV, and several other digital specialty channels denied by the CRTC, the outcome resulted in CTV putting the Citytv stations in a trust held by corporate lawyer John McKellar in the interim while it searched for a buyer. Rogers Communications, which had originally bid on the A-Channel stations prior to the CRTC decision, placed a new bid for the Citytv stations a few days later, which was approved by the CRTC on September 28, 2007.

CHUM Limited officially ceased operations on June 22, 2007. With the exception of the Citytv stations and its French language music specialty channels MusiquePlus and Musimax, all of the CHUM Limited properties – including the A-Channel stations, CKX-TV, (an independent television station in Brandon, Manitoba), its cable specialty services (such as MuchMusic, Star!, Space, Bravo! and CP24) and radio stations – became part of the restructured CTVglobemedia on that date.

A-Channel's original 2007–08 schedule was announced in early June, before the takeover received CRTC approval. By September, CTV had radically altered the system's schedule to give A-Channel broadcast rights to several series that CTV had not been able to find time slots for on its own fall schedule, including Two and a Half Men, Scrubs, 30 Rock and the Canadian-produced series Jeff Ltd. The A-Channel system along with the Atlantic Satellite Network were later rebranded as A on August 11, 2008.