Canwest Global Communications announced that while CHBC-TV Kelowna will live on (rebranded from E! to part of the Global TV network), CHEK-TV Victoria and CHCA-TV Red Deer will be shut down on August 31, 2009. The other two stations in the E! chain, CHCH-TV in Hamilton and CJNT-TV in Montreal, have been conditionally sold to independent broadcaster Channel Zero.
The CRTC's recent policy release on local conventional television will allow CHBC to take advantage of the $100 million Local Programming Improvement Fund - and the Commission's new, harmonized local content requirements mean that stations in markets the size of Kelowna's can cut their weekly local content to a minimum of seven hours per week. Source: Cartt, 07/22/2009