Channel Zero CEO Cal Millar looks to have made a prescient $12 bet on CHCH.

Two months after his company took control of the Hamilton, ON-based TV station from Canwest Global Communications, Channel Zero stands to make an advertising windfall now that Toronto and the outlying Golden Horseshoe region has won the right to host the 2015 Pan Am Games.

Though CHCH does itself does not have the broadcast rights to the Games, their arrival ‘reinforces what we felt,’ Millar said. ‘There’s a tremendous opportunity not only in the TV station itself, but in the area.’

Channel Zero had industry heads scratching when it first unveiled its gamble on CHCH earlier this year just as conventional TV was turning down in a challenging economy, and rival broadcasters were pursuing specialty channels and online assets.

Shaw Communications also recently entered the region, paying an estimated $300 million for Hamilton cable provider Mountain Cablevision.

Channel Zero’s high-risk strategy included replacing expensive U.S. shows with local news and popular movies to entice advertisers in the Toronto/Hamilton market.

Millar knows the Pan Am Games aren’t on the same scale as the Winter Olympics, which will shortly to bring the world to Vancouver and Whistler. But, so far, his flier on CHCH looks set to pay off handsomely.

‘We’re thrilled. It’s right in our backyard, and up our alley, covering live news and sports,’ he says.