[3] Although Hyland Broadcasting was one of the original applicants for a new Sudbury station, CJIC remained unaffected by the final outcome at the time.

[5] Northern Cable formed Mid-Canada Communications as a holding company for the six stations, operating them under a twinstick model.

Due to CTV's status at the time as a cooperative of its affiliated stations, MCTV itself held a 2.1 per cent share in the network.

In November 2001, CTV merged the news production facilities of the MCTV stations into a single regional newscast, with only short inserts for each city's local coverage.

This created extensive controversy, with many public interest groups across Canada raising concerns about the disappearance of local news coverage in small markets.

Marie, North Bay and Timmins began to call for a boycott of MCTV news, and local companies began offering web-based sources of local news, weather, and sports information, most notably the Village Media network of internet properties.

[17] In late 2003 and early 2004, following some resident complaints that MCTV's coverage of the city's municipal election had been inadequate, Sault Ste.

Marie City Council debated a motion requesting that the CRTC direct MCTV to sell a station in the city to a local buyer who would relaunch a fully local newscast,[10] although the motion was criticized in part because it rested on the mistaken belief that MCTV still had ownership and control of the CBC stations.