CTV Newsnet became CTV News Channel this week. In addition to a new name, the relaunch includes a new logo, new graphics and new opens. Power Play, hosted by Tom Clark, also gets a new look in the revamp.
The station will also feature ads in its news ticker for the first time, and technology developed by Cambridge-based Bannister Lake allows national advertisers to see when and for how long their ticker ads ran.
The relaunch will also provide more sponsorship opportunities. Companies can sponsor various segments of news programming, such as business, health news and weather. For the past four weeks, HSBC has been sponsoring business segments on the network. The bank has an opening billboard, a closing billboard and commercial adjacency for the segments, which feature BNN personalities. Excelerator Media handled the media buy for the sponsorship.
The strategy behind the rebranding was to use the strength of the CTV News brand name, according to Jana Juginovic, director of news and programming at CTV News Channel. ‘Some of the feedback that we were getting from our viewers was that they didn’t know if Newsnet was associated with CTV. So we wanted to emphasize that the anchors, the reporters and CTV News programming is on CTV News Channel.’ It was also important for the network to update its look, which it hasn’t done in ten years. The rebranding was a joint effort by the network and Toronto-based Big Studios.
Promotional spots were also created in-house to alert viewers to the rebranding, and are airing across all CTV platforms. ‘It’s a good way of getting our message across, because we have so many platforms,’ explains Juginovic.
