Vancouver: The recalibration of Vancouver’s television landscape has begun with CTV’s rebranding of its local station.

On Sept. 1, four-year-old VTV will become CTV British Columbia and the West Coast’s CTV affiliate. The signal will also feature the full CTV programming lineup.

Key to CTV BC will be its shift to an older demographic. Since going live, VTV has tried to appeal to an 18-49 demographic and used its youthful news team, entertainment-focused local programming and splashy, high-tech newsroom to pull in those viewers.

But the addition of veteran newsreader Bill Good (who moves from former CTV affiliate BCTV, now owned by CanWest Global) to the CTV BC anchor team means the station will now go after a 25-54 demographic – people more attuned to the style of CTV lead anchor Lloyd Robertson, who was in Vancouver to attend CTV’s fall launch party June 14.

The older audience skew does not indicate a failure to attract a younger market, says senior VP Robert Hurst, who oversees the Vancouver station. Rather, he explains, ‘We’re the CTV affiliate and we will conform to CTV’s profile.’

Along with the rest of VTV’s anchor crew, hosts Ravi Baichwal, Bridgitte Anderson, Sonja Nordahl and Mi-Jung Lee will continue with CTV BC, says Hurst.

VTV’s news team has in the past year won 12 awards, including two Canadian Association of Journalists awards for investigative reporting and four B.C. Radio and Television News Directors’ Awards.

Among the other news changes:

* Vancouver Breakfast will become part of a five-hour news and information package. The two-hour local morning program will begin at 5 a.m., leading into Canada AM at 7 a.m. Local news, weather, traffic and sports will be inserted throughout Canada AM until 10 a.m.

* The early evening news will expand from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and the locally focused CTV News Late Night will follow CTV News with Lloyd Robertson at 11:30 p.m.

* The VTV newsroom will move to a sixth-floor studio at its Burrard and Robson Street facility to allow for the renovation of its main news studio on the fourth floor.

The added local news and network programming means there will be seven new hours of news per week on CTV BC. Also, CTV BC will be responsible for ongoing production of Vicki Gabereau, Mason Lee: On The Edge and aboriginal affairs magazine First Story.

A highlight of CTV’s fall schedule, meanwhile, is the second season of The Sopranos, the Emmy-winning mob series. The broadcaster will air the gritty Sopranos uncut and uncensored on Sunday nights.

Other returning series are ER, West Wing, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, The Mole and Ally McBeal.

Canadian series The Associates will also return to primetime, along with the fifth season of made-in-Vancouver drama Cold Squad. Animated children’s series D’Myna Leagues, also made in Vancouver, gets a second season.

Fourteen new series will air on CTV including dramas such as Philly by Steven Bochco, The Amazing Race by Jerry Bruckheimer and Law and Order: Criminal Intent by Dick Wolf.

New situation comedies include Bob Patterson, featuring Seinfeld star Jason Alexander, Maybe I’m Adopted (which may shoot in Vancouver) and Scrubs.

Other Canadian-content shows include Degrassi: The Next Generation and MOWs such as Torso, The Evelyn Dick Story.

CTV’s head office for Western independent productions will remain at the Vancouver station and has given the nod to five primetime documentaries: Death of a Princess, Parkinsons’s Enigma, Ice Girls, Safe! A Story of Drugs and Resistance and When Girls Do It – An Examination of Female Sexual Predators.

-www.ctv.ca