Terra Nova Season 1 Finale Jason O'Mara - H 2011
Brook Rushton/FOXTORONTO – Rogers Media has enlarged its Canadian footprint by signing an affiliate deal with SCN that gets its American primetime series into Saskatchewan.
The agreement sees American shows like Terra Nova, New Girl, Modern Family, 30 Rock and Alcatraz air on SCN, a publicly-funded educational broadcaster that was acquired a year ago by Ontario-based Bluepoint Investment Corp.
The affiliate deal does double-duty by allowing SCN to commercialize its programming slate from 3 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily with commercial shows from Rogers Media, and enables Citytv to broaden its distribution countrywide.
SCN will still air kids and educational programming from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily, commercial-free.
Saskatchewan TV viewers currently view American series like Modern Family and 30 Rock on cross-border U.S. TV stations.
Scott Moore, president of broadcasting at Rogers Media, said the SCN affiliate deal enables the Canadian broadcaster for the first time to sell local advertising round those popular U.S. shows.
“It also offers the people of Saskatchewan great Canadian programming, which cannot be found on U.S. networks,” Moore added.
Rogers Media will be the sales agent for the Canadian and U.S. programming on the “Citytv on SCN” branded primetime block of programming, to include the upcoming Canada’s Got Talent reality competition series.
That broadened distribution will also enable Rogers Media to leverage the cost of rookie and returning U.S. shows it buys each May at the Los Angeles Screenings.
That new purchasing power follows the Citytv network being acquired by cable giant Rogers Communications, which has stepped up its investment in Canadian and American programming for the local TV stations to compete against established national players like Bell Media and Shaw Media.
