While CTV continues to have the upper hand over Global in the battle of the private networks, this fall’s data reveals the fight for eyeballs on their secondary over-the-air channels – CTVglobemedia’s A and Canwest’s E! – is much closer to call.

Buoyed by established shows including Private Practice and Two and a Half Men as well as new buzz-maker Fringe, the freshly rebranded A (formerly known as A Channel) trails CBC as Canada’s fourth-placed conventional, according to primetime 18-49 ratings-share numbers from BBM Nielsen. CTVgm, in its first fall as owner of A – after having picked up the channel in its acquisition of CHUM – has aggressively pumped up its new property’s lineup.

E!, in its second fall since being known as CH, is hot on its heels, despite the fact that the Canwest channel has a smaller national reach – at 68%, versus 78% for A. A is available in southern Ontario, B.C. and Atlantic Canada, and its lineup also appears in Alberta on ACCESS in certain primetime hours. E!, meanwhile, is picked up mostly in urban areas of Ontario, B.C., Quebec and Alberta.

E! is bolstered by a reliable slate of reality programs including The Biggest Loser and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and new action-drama remake Knight Rider – currently its highest-rated show.

‘We’re absolutely neck-and-neck with A,’ insists Canwest content boss Barbara Williams, adding that within what she refers to as the ‘tier two’ grouping of conventionals – including E!, A and Citytv – there’s an ‘interesting horserace going on.’

Williams further maintains that the ratings spread among these near-networks is so small that ranking them is pretty much pointless. She uses the Toronto market – where E! is currently leading – as an example of how close the numbers are, pointing out that E!’s average primetime (8-11 p.m.) audience from Sept. 8 to Oct. 19 is 35,000, followed by A with 31,000 and City – which has stations in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg – with 30,000 viewers. (All numbers 18-49 unless otherwise indicated.)

‘I wouldn’t say A has a big lead,’ concurs media buyer Michael Walker of The Walker Media Group. His numbers reveal that A has a 0.9 ratings share compared with E!’s 0.8 among total Canuck viewers (Sept. 22 to Oct. 19).

Walker explains that when considering a national buy, media buyers are not generally looking at A and E!, which he refers to as ‘selective buys.’

‘You’re buying market-by-market and you’re looking at them on a program-to-program basis,’ he adds.

A’s strong mix of new and established shows has paid off for the channel, which grew its overall audience in primetime by 45% among 18-49s and 55% in its primary selling demographic of 25-54 since last year (Sept. 22 to Oct. 19) – bolstered by its top show, the comedy Two and a Half Men (formerly a Canwest property), with approximately 585,000 viewers, followed by sci-fi drama Fringe and America’s Next Top Model, with 438,000 and 370,000, respectively. New pickup The Mentalist still has some growing to do, averaging roughly 160,000 viewers (nearly 200,000 in the 25-54 demo), according to BBM Nielsen.

‘It confirms what I feel strongly about… that it’s about shows,’ says CTV programming head Susanne Boyce. ‘We wanted [A] to be a conventional – to program it as a conventional and not as a specialty. That strategy for us has worked,’ she adds, noting that she does not view A as in a ‘second tier’.

The channel has inherited established CTV shows from last year, including Private Practice and Gossip Girl, though the numbers have predictably dropped since the shift from the main network. Practice – CTV’s top new show last year with a fall average of 669,000 viewers – is now averaging 305,000 viewers on Wednesdays, down to just 85,000 for Gossip Girl, airing Sundays. Gossip Girl had an average 337,000 viewers last year.

‘[A] feels like CTV2,’ says Lynda Cooke, managing director at media agency PHD Canada. ‘E!, more than A, is putting out the programs its younger demo wants to see. A still has a bit of work to do as far as making it a unique channel with unique programs.’

Knight Rider leads the pack of top-ranked E! shows, with approximately 439,000 (18-49) viewers in simulcast with NBC on Wednesdays, followed by comedy How I Met Your Mother (340,000), The Biggest Loser (291,000) and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (200,000).

While E!’s audience has declined slightly over last year, Williams is ‘content’ with the way the schedule is performing, and says the channel ‘is getting there’ in terms of creating an identity that complements Global.

Boyce, meanwhile, believes the key to A’s continued success is to have a balanced schedule that does not specifically target one demographic.

‘I don’t just think in terms of demos. That’s not how I schedule,’ she says. ‘It’s about telling stories and about the audience experience…it’s creatively driven.’