Central Television Network

The Central Television Network (commonly known as Central since 2016 and known as CETN in 1997 during the Quebecor v. Sabana SCC case) is a Canadian English-language terrestrial television network launched in 1957. CTN is the second largest privately-owned Canadian TV network and also the first English TV network not having its headquarters in Toronto or Ottawa. It is owned by The Pierre Péladeau Company.

Beginnings
Central traces back to 1955, when a man named James Franklin, opened his own radio station in Montreal. The station was CJAS 699. Within years since its first broadcasts, the huge triumph of the station and its growing number of listeners made clear the move to modern facilities in University Street.

On October 5, 1957, the company launched its first television station, CFCF-TV 3, being the first private TV network in Canada. The first program of the network is a live coverage of a hockey match between the Montreal Canadiens and the Buffalo Sabres. The original name of the network was known as St. Lawrence Television, which the headquarters of the network was at Montreal, and the then-largest city of Canada was in the Saint Lawrence River.

In 1961, the network had its first provincial station from Ottawa, Ontario. The station was CKOW-TV 9. Also in the same year, the network launched another station, CJFF-TV 12, in Quebec City.

The following year (1962), SLTV eventually expanded its TV signal from coast to coast.

In August 1964, SLTV began its color test broadcasts. The first show to be shot fully-colored was their own English adaptation of the known Quebec téléroman (telenovel) show La famille Plouffe (The Plouffe Family), which was based from Roger Lemelin's novel 'Les Plouffes. 'The network became fully-colored during the Canadian centennial celebrations in 1967. The network also broadcasted the opening of Expo '67. Starting in 1971 until 1992, the network provided limited television service to remote and northern communities. Transmitters were built in a few locations and carried a four-hour selection of black-and-white videotaped programs each day. The tapes were flown into communities to be shown, then transported to other communities, often by the "bicycle" method used in television syndication. Transportation delays ranged from one week for larger centers to almost a month for small communities.