Editing CHCH-DT (section)

=== Possible flagship of a third network (1966–1981) ===
In the mid-1960s, CHCH was the lead station in United Program Purchase, a consortium of Canadian television stations which began purchasing some programming rights separately from the CTV and CBC networks.<ref name="backbone">"Backbone of third TV network takes shape in CHCH schedule". ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', March 31, 1966.</ref>

By 1966, UPP was attracting media coverage as the potential framework for a third Canadian television network.<ref name="backbone" /> In the fall of the same year, Soble's Niagara Television which was the licensee of CHCH, put forward a proposal for a network to be branded as NTV.<ref name=pitch>"Soble's pitch". ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', October 27, 1996.</ref> In the original plan, CHCH would have been the network's flagship station for the [[Greater Toronto Area]]. However the application faced numerous regulatory hurdles and delays, and its main financial backer which was [[Power Corporation of Canada]], backed out in 1969. By 1970 however, the network application was revived by former CHCH executive [[Al Bruner]]'s new Global Communications corporation, with Niagara Television and CHCH no longer involved in the bid. The [[Global Television Network]] network launched in 1974 on the new [[CIII-DT|CKGN-TV]].

Despite the station's lack of success in developing a full-fledged network, it became one of Canada's most prominent [[television syndication|syndicators]] of non-network programming in the 1970s and 1980s, with many of its locally produced entertainment programs airing on television stations across Canada and occasionally internationally.