The industry anticipated Baton Broadcasting Systems was in for a bit of a ride when Ivan Fecan came on as executive vp, coo in March. But nine months later, there are few not surprised by the new presence of the CTV Television Network’s largest affiliate, which has been in the game in virtually every major broadcasting rumble for the past half year.

On the slate for next year is the seemingly inevitable takeover of the mother network and a more strongly focused programming mix that has its beginnings in this season’s sked.

According to the ratings powers that be, Baton is holding its own against CanWest Global’s killer schedule. A.C. Nielsen average viewing audience statistics for the week of Nov. 13-20 report cfto-tv, Baton’s flagship Toronto station, taking a 6.7 audience share on Monday, Nov. 13, compared with Global’s 6.2, and a 10 for primetime Friday the 17th, compared to Global’s 9.7.

On the flip side, CanWest, as it has for a half decade, is eclipsing Thursday nights with the Seinfeld package. Tuesday nights, too, regularly belong to CanWest, with Frasier taking a 28 share for the same week compared to Baton’s Home Improvement at 18. With Friends newly, if temporarily, logged in behind Frasier and leading NYPD Blue, CanWest will only gain ground, although The John Larroquette Show, potentially moving in behind Home Improvement now that Pursuit of Happiness has hit the skids, may give Baton a leg up.

‘It’s not a radically different schedule from last year’s and we’re winning some and losing some. But overall, we’ve got some strong programming and we’re satisfied with our averages for the nights,’ says Beverly Oda, senior vp of programming, who joined Baton’s new management team in April.

Realistically, radical changes to the schedule take a couple of seasons, but what the new management team did identify off the top was a need to refocus on the younger, 25-34 set while at the same time hanging on to the family viewers who have traditionally been Baton’s core audience.

Thus the mix of Melrose Place and Ellen with the likes of popular family programs like Home Improvement, Family Matters and Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. The programs on the slate aimed at the 25-34 demographic ‘aren’t as much on the edge as some of the others that are on the market. But as a conservative family station, we need to maintain parameters not conservative to our detriment but staying aware of what’s acceptable to our audience,’ says Oda.

Programming for all of Baton’s 20 affiliate stations comes out of the Toronto office. The scheduling strategy is sometimes alternative, sometimes combative, and has become significantly less complicated now that ctv and Baton have a co-operative scheduling agreement. (ctv programs 40 hours of Baton’s airtime.)

Case in point: Baton owns Home Improvement, which runs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. in a ctv-owned time; ctv has Roseanne, which abc simulcasts Tuesdays at 8 p.m. in a Baton-owned slot. The simple agreement to flip slots may not have been workable before, ‘but now we’re always trying to accommodate each other as much as possible,’ says Oda.

The scheduling alliance has made a difference to the look of both networks, but there’s room for improvement, says Sunni Boot, a senior media buyer at Optimedia.

‘The schedules for Baton and ctv have improved this year. But when you look at the top 15 programs, which can make or break any schedule, most belong to CanWest. Baton and ctv have er, Home Improvement and Murphy Brown, but they need more of the top 15 to be stronger.’

For the remainder of the season, a bit of schedule juggling will maximize inventory.

Oda is in search of a primetime spot for abc’s Nowhere Man, this season’s sleeper, which has been running Fridays at midnight on Baton to get the mystery/paranormal junkies post X-Files, and bringing the highest numbers in that slot over four weeks, with adults 18+ coming in at a 12% audience share.

A decision will be made on where to put it once the u.s. skeds settle in, rather than move it two or three times before it finds a home. In the meantime, Baton will up the pr on the program.

Other new appearances this season include an inventory of film blockbusters including Cliffhanger; Entertainment Now, an in-house entertainment show a la Entertainment Tonight with a mandate to cover Canadian stories, already running in the 7:30 p.m. Saturday slot; and The Camilla Scott Show, a talk venue targeting the female audience, with a home weekdays at 3 p.m. starting Jan. 8.

In production are about 12 movies and a 13-part one-hour series, Cirque du Soleil, produced with Cinar Films, that’s likely to infiltrate the schedule mid-season ’96.

Oda says more Canadian series will be added to the mix, which it will test-run with a couple of specials before signing 13- or 26-episode deals.

‘From the producers’ standpoint, the door is open, but we want to start slowly and move that way.’

Ideally, Baton is looking for primetime series that have the flexibility to move through the schedule, that can run in both family space before 9 p.m. and adult space 9-11 p.m. Fecan is reportedly on the lookout for a comedy venue.

What Oda’s learned from Fecan’s programming expertise is that ‘you have to know the creators behind the product, to know there’s a consistency of quality and approach that can be maintained over time.’

Licence fees run as low as $5,000 to as high as $200,000 for a premium Canadian program, but Oda stipulates that what Baton offers now ‘is not in any way indicative of anything we’re doing or would be prepared to do in the future.’