As the fall season becomes increasingly competitive, private conventional broadcasters have relaunched their websites to put greater emphasis on expanded video offerings.

Canwest has been ready for the fall since April, when it relaunched GlobalTV.com, and CTVglobemedia followed suit with an updated version of CTV.ca going live in late September. What is immediately apparent is that both sites’ designs are noticeably cleaner and less cluttered.

‘Less is more,’ says Paul Burns, VP digital at Canwest Broadcasting. ‘We had a tendency in the past to over-complicate a lot of things. The focus with this site was really simplistic: lots of white space, lots of easy-to-use navigation. We have a long way to go to get to where we actually need to be, but it’s a good first step in making a simple, elegant, easy-to-use experience.’

When you take away elements, you get the user to focus more on what remains, and in the case of both Global and CTV that would be their primetime programming. Each site has a rotator box at the top of the screen highlighting series available for online streaming. Global’s library is more robust than in the past, when obtaining digital rights proved more challenging. Burns estimates that 95% of the network’s primetime offering is now available on the Internet.

‘There’s a broad-level understanding and recognition now across our U.S. studio partners and the local Canadian production houses that we work with that digital is just a part of the offering,’ he says. ‘Several years ago it was new and somewhat of a novelty, and now it’s expected. In the deal terms that we strike it’s sort of a boiler plate that digital rights are included.’

While it might not be the network’s top draw on air, teen drama 90210 is Global’s most popular show online, which speaks to healthy numbers in the 17-35 demo. Also skewing young is the new high-school comedy-drama Glee, while daytime soaps Days of Our Lives and The Young and the Restless are pulling in older eyeballs – likely the lunchtime work crowd. According to comScore, GlobalTV.com sees nearly 800,000 unique visitors and 6.4 million video streams per month.

Meanwhile, there’s no question CTV’s newly designed site looks to give advertisers what they want. News content has been de-emphasized in favor of promoting network shows such as So You Think You Can Dance Canada, Grey’s Anatomy and The Mentalist.

‘It was an opportunity to put in some stronger branding,’ explains Stephan Argent, CTV’s VP of digital media, adding that the site’s rotator box is not limited to program promos.

‘It can actually be switched out to carry breaking news video in the event that we want to do that,’ he says. ‘It’s really giving us the opportunity to reflect the broadcast priorities.’

In June, the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers revealed that in the first quarter, online advertising in the U.S. declined by 5%, the first drop in seven years. But CTV, Global and Citytv all maintain they are seeing more online ad dollars.

‘Our business is still growing and it’s growing at a healthy clip,’ says Argent. ‘From an online video perspective in particular, initial indications are we’re still seeing growth in the numbers.’

CTV has the most impressive array of advertisers on board, ranging from Dove and Dodge (which co-sponsor the streaming of Grey’s Anatomy) to Subaru, Ford, Sirius and Home Depot. And there are some innovative approaches. Camera manufacturer Canon sponsors the So You Think You Can Dance Canada photo gallery, while Nintendo is sponsoring a contest in which families build online profiles and share their experiences playing the Wii.

A potentially troubling precedent was set when AMC’s Emmy Awards champ Mad Men bypassed CTVgm for season three, instead making new episodes available for download on iTunes. Although the series never attracted monster numbers, it certainly is one of TV’s most buzzed-about programs. It represents the worst-case scenario for broadcasters in the digital age: hot U.S. shows finding alternative routes to get to Canadian audiences.

‘It’s one of those things that we have to deal with as we negotiate rights for online, and it’s one of the things we have to work through,’ says Argent.

A major development in the fall landscape is City’s bid to go after the big boys after having spent mightily to acquire would-be buzz shows including Trauma, Mercy and Community, which join a lineup that already includes 30 Rock and The Biggest Loser. All of these are available on the broadcaster’s website this fall, while the contract for the digital rights for much-touted pickups Cougar Town and Accidentally on Purpose had not closed as Playback went to press. City has also yet to secure online rights for perhaps its best-reviewed new fall show, ABC’s Modern Family.

But playing like a network is a delicate balancing act for the station group based in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg. The channel built its audience in large part on local programming, so clips from local news shows get even more prominence on the Citytv.com video page than the library of acquired primetime shows available for streaming.

‘We have to remain true to our core in terms of remaining locally relevant and nationally fixed on big programming, too,’ says Claude Galipeau, SVP digital media at parent Rogers Media.

Meanwhile, the parent company’s cable division is moving forward on the Rogers Cable Broadband Video Service, which would offer Rogers’ TV subscribers Internet access to – ideally – all the shows across all the channels it carries. The service is modeled on trials being conducted south of the border by Comcast and Time Warner Cable.

Galipeau says the Rogers portal is ‘far along,’ and will answer user and advertiser demand for a one-stop shop for long-form video. He insists its arrival will by no means mark the end of Citytv.com.

‘It doesn’t preclude and it doesn’t supplant broadcasters’ websites, but it complements them,’ he says of the service, which was announced at the CRTC hearing on broadcasting in new media earlier this year. ‘The whole thing is to have multiple channels online to be as convenient as possible for consumers.’

Likely the main competitor for Rogers’ proposed service would be Hulu, if and when it comes to Canada. The popular content aggregator, available in the U.S., streams movies and TV shows from Fox, NBC, ABC and others free of charge in an ad-supported model. Last spring there were rumblings of Hulu announcing its Canadian entrée, but it has yet to happen.

For its service, Rogers still has to bring other broadcasters on board.

‘We’ve had some preliminary discussions with Rogers, but it’s just one of many options and strategies that we’re looking at,’ says CTV’s Argent. ‘I don’t want to ever lose sight of the fact that our audience’s needs and wants have to come first. And we need to be confident about what benefits they are going to derive before we make any decisions.’

Meanwhile, Burns says Canwest has no formal agreement in place with the cabler.

‘We are in discussions with them to explore the opportunity,’ he says. ‘I think it’s an interesting one. Looking five years out, do I see that model being the one that’s going to win over users? I don’t know. The Internet has an interesting way of democratizing how consumers consume content. I think the users are going to make the decisions for what works for them.’