Canada AM‘s beefed-up presence in Vancouver is part of a strategy to grow the show’s ratings in that market as well as prepare broadcaster CTV for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

As of last week, the morning newsmagazine no longer tape-delays its Toronto-shot show for audiences in the West. Instead, the program is now available live to viewers in every Canadian market on CTV from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. local time, with a new Vancouver anchor team covering off two of the three hours in that market. A full six-hour version of Canada AM is broadcast on CTV Newsnet beginning at 6 a.m. ET.

‘Going live across all time zones — that is the exciting part,’ says Lis Travers, VP and executive producer for Canada AM. ‘Previously, the show was rolled across the time zones, so one of the frustrations [was] that we couldn’t provide western viewers with the freshest-breaking national, international and local news.’

In B.C., the first hour of the show originates from Toronto, but then moves to a new Canada AM studio at CTV’s downtown Vancouver location with host Mi-Jung Lee.

The new live format is aimed at boosting ratings for Canada AM in Vancouver, where the show lags in third place behind its competitors.

Based on the latest rating information, Global News dominates the Vancouver morning market with an average of 66,000 viewers (2+ average per minute), followed by Citytv Vancouver’s BreakfastTelevision with 11,000. Canada AM‘s share averages just 9,000 viewers, compared to 42,000 in the Toronto area.

Travers attributes the lower ratings in Vancouver to the show’s previous tape delay, and anticipates growth in the numbers with the new live format. She also points out that Canada AM‘s western competitors are all local morning shows, whereas Canada AM offers a mix of international and national news, as well as a strong local component.

Canada AM‘s increased presence in Vancouver is also part of its overall strategy for the Winter Olympics, for which CTV is the official broadcaster.

‘We are already planning Canada AM‘s Olympics coverage,’ says Travers. ‘So we thought why not start now and work together with the Vancouver team to create something special.’

The relaunch also includes increased local news, traffic and weather cut-ins in each market. Previously, local CTV morning anchors would do four 2:45 local hits per show, but that has been bumped up to roughly eight minutes of local news per half-hour.

‘We do a great national show and other main network stations in the Vancouver market offer strictly local morning shows, so we figured let’s combine the best of both,’ says Travers.