173-542: Omni Television (stylized as OMNI Television ) is a Canadian television system and group of specialty channels owned by Rogers Sports & Media , a subsidiary of Rogers Communications . It currently consists of all six of Canada's conventional multicultural television stations, which are located in Ontario (two stations), British Columbia , Alberta (two stations), and an affiliate in Quebec . The system's flagship station
346-521: A break-even basis, with all additional profit re-invested into its operations. Rogers is only allowed to solicit advertising in the regions of the existing Omni broadcast stations. The decision to maintain Rogers' service was controversial; Montreal Gazette media analyst Steve Faguy noted that the CRTC's decision contained no discussion of any of the other applicants, which he considered "shocking". In June 2019,
519-843: A Sunday night game of the week hosted by Ron MacLean . Hometown Hockey moved from Citytv to Sportsnet for the 2015-16 season. Individual stations are normally branded on-air as simply "Citytv" (from 2012 to 2018, the stations were referred to as "City"); the location may be added, for example "Citytv Toronto", if disambiguation is necessary. The list also mentions which stations had been owned by either CHUM Ltd. or Rogers, depending on affiliation. Like most Canadian networks, Citytv stations are generally available as distant signals on most cable and satellite providers nationwide. The Citytv brand has been licensed to local television stations in Bogotá , Colombia and formerly in Barcelona , Spain. Toronto's CITY-DT
692-518: A change towards industrialization, and during that time both the materials and products manufactured as well as the investors and consumers were American. The Canadian dependency on American capital and markets persisted through the Great Depression and its aftermath. This situation remained during the emergence of television and affected its development in Canada. Even with the emergence of radio, Canada
865-480: A coincidental development, that same day, BCE Inc. , owner of Bell Globemedia and the parent company of CTV , announced it would buy CHUM Limited. Bell Globemedia had intended to retain CHUM's Citytv system while divesting CHUM's A-Channel stations and Alberta cable channel Access to get the CRTC to approve the acquisition. In October 2006, Citytv launched a daily national newscast, CityNews International , which
1038-516: A different programming niche than the general interest Citytv stations. On July 7, Rogers announced an agreement to purchase the aforementioned CHNM, finally securing a true multicultural television licence in Vancouver. The fact that Rogers had acquired the Calgary and Edmonton multicultural licences, beating out Multivan's competing applications, was cited as a major reason for the sale. On September 28,
1211-642: A distinct popular culture. With the fear of the United States stunting the growth of Canada as well as the country becoming increasingly divided by language, the government showed huge concern with how television affected Canadians. Graham Spry, founder and spokesperson of the Canadian Radio League, stated about the radio system: "The question is the State or the United States." According to the Canadian government,
1384-457: A diversity policy in hiring its on-air staff, actively seeking out people of colour , people with disabilities, and other minority groups to work as on-air journalists. Znaimer described the policy as wanting the station to "look like Toronto". Beginning in 1983, Citytv began to produce a New Year's Eve special live from Nathan Phillips Square in Downtown Toronto . Most recently known as
1557-652: A halt to television experiments. Television in Canada on major networks pre-date any telecasts that originated in the country as thousands of television sets that were capable of receiving U.S.-based signals were installed in homes near the Canada–US border between 1946 and 1953. Homes in southern and southwestern Ontario and portions of British Columbia , including the Toronto, Hamilton , London , Windsor , Victoria and Vancouver areas, were able to receive television stations from Buffalo , Cleveland , Detroit or Seattle with
1730-487: A joint venture between Rogers Communications and the now-defunct Shaw Media prior to the latter's merger with Corus Entertainment ; and has been compared to the latter company's StackTV service. Live linear feeds of most Citytv stations, as well as CityNews 24/7 , also became available to Amazon Prime subscribers at no additional cost through Prime Video. CityNews 24/7 is a headline news channel, similar to those offered online by Global News , and an indirect successor to
1903-423: A large following since its debut in 1977. Other stations around the world have imitated its format to varying degrees of success. However, Citytv itself was unsuccessful in expanding its audience to other Canadian markets, as evidenced by the eventual cancellation of the other stations' traditional newscasts. Flagship station CITY-DT, along with Jim Pattison Group-owned affiliates CFJC-TV , CKPG-TV and CHAT-TV are
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#17328516404102076-539: A large proportion of the Canadian content on most stations, with each of the commercial networks rarely having more than one or two Canadian-produced drama or comedy series on their schedules at any given time. Among the English language broadcasters, only the public CBC Television airs a schedule that consists almost entirely of Canadian-produced programming, although even it will sometimes air selected programming from Britain, Australia or PBS ( American Public Television ) in
2249-477: A later revision. The government-created corporation held the responsibility of establishing a national service and to monitor the entire broadcast system. Because of Canada's large land area, it would be difficult for one corporation to control the broadcasting system throughout the country, all while establishing a network to compete in that system as well as in the American system. Before 1958, Canadian law prohibited
2422-523: A long battle with cancer. The Citytv system began to phase in a modified branding in October 2012, with a new logo consisting only of the name "City", and some promotions using the verbal branding "City Television" (later also switched to simply "City") instead of "Citytv". The change marked the first major alteration to the "Citytv" brand since its introduction in 1972. The network adopted the name "City" on December 31, 2012, during its New Year's Eve special. For
2595-543: A majority of Canadian content, both throughout its schedule and in its primetime schedule. Industry Canada regulates the technical aspects of broadcast stations and certain aspects of other licensed undertakings. Unlike specialty services, conventional (or over-the-air ) broadcast stations are permitted to air a wide variety of news, information, entertainment, sports and other programming without any restriction as to theme or content, and none restrict themselves in that regard. Religious television stations are an exception to
2768-452: A mixture of stations, albeit one dominated by CTV. Also, it is not uncommon to find multiple affiliates of one network, and no affiliates of another network, available in the same market on basic cable , particularly in smaller markets. For instance, in Kingston, Ontario , two CBC affiliates are available, a local privately owned station and a CBC-owned station from Ottawa , while CTV Two
2941-588: A national identity. The Broadcasting Act of 1932 created a national network for each electronic medium in Canada's two official languages, French and English. When it was created, the Act referred mostly to radio broadcasting but it also included television once TV came to the country in 1952. The Act resulted in the creation of the CRBC, which would be replaced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in
3114-722: A new control room, becoming one of the first fully HD broadcasters in Canada. On March 2, 2010, CKVU-TV in Vancouver launched its HD simulcast. CKEM-TV in Edmonton began testing its digital signal on May 26, 2010, and began regular HD broadcasts on June 29, 2010. CITY-DT-3 in Ottawa began testing its digital feed on June 12, 2010, and regular digital broadcasts on June 18, 2010. CKAL-TV began testing its high definition signal on August 31, 2010. By August 31, 2011 , all Citytv owned-and-operated stations had their primary transmitters and most retransmitters broadcasting exclusively in digital. Citytv HD
3287-406: A new, national specialty channel known as Omni Regional . The service would consist of four feeds; "Pacific", "Prairies", "East", and "ICI Quebec", which mirror the programming of the corresponding Omni Television O&O and affiliate stations in their respective regions ( Vancouver , Calgary , Toronto , and Montreal ). The East feed specifically mirrors CJMT (Omni.2), which primarily focuses on
3460-701: A notably large population of Italians, Following an unsatisfactory response by the company, Fantino called upon Rogers representatives to appear before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage . As part of the Omni Regional service, Rogers reinstated half-hour national newscasts in the Cantonese, Italian, Mandarin and Punjabi languages. In September 2020, Arabic and Filipino newscasts were added. Meanwhile, Rogers subcontracted production of Omni's new Chinese-language newscasts to Fairchild Media Group , owner of
3633-428: A provisional three-year term. This requires the service to be offered on the lowest tier of service by all Canadian digital television providers. In regions where Omni already operates terrestrially, providers may be relieved from carrying the Omni Regional version of the service on their lineups, or vice versa. Omni Regional launched on September 1, 2017. In its approval, the CRTC felt that Omni Regional's business model
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#17328516404103806-552: A review by the Diefenbaker government in the late 1950s, a number of new, "second" stations were licensed in many major markets, many of which began operating before the end of 1960. CTV , the first private network, which grew out of the inevitable association of these new stations, began operating in October 1961. About the same time, CHCH-TV in Hamilton disaffiliated from the CBC and became
3979-520: A rut of American popular culture during a time when Canadian national identity was very vague. Canada was not only made up of Francophones and Anglophones, there were also immigrants from around the world, at that time mostly from Europe . That fear of American influence convinced the Canadian government that its involvement was necessary in order for Canadian broadcasting to express and encourage Canadian identity and national unity. Though French-speaking Canadians feared expansion of American influence and
4152-538: A scenario would be virtually unheard of in a major American market. Despite a general CRTC policy that limits station ownership to one station per market per language per company, several exceptions have led to twinstick operations in several markets. In some cases, this allows multiple stations to serve a small market that could otherwise support only one station. In larger markets, however, Canwest and CHUM had justified several instances of twinsticks, generally two stations based in separate but neighbouring regions. This
4325-475: A single locally owned company operated both CTV and CBC affiliates in a community, is also now rare – within English Canada, only the cities of Thunder Bay and Lloydminster still receive television service from a twinstick operation, and of those two, only Thunder Bay's Thunder Bay Television is still locally owned. In 2012, Bell Media attempted to acquire Astral Media in a takeover . This initial attempt
4498-513: A single, if influential, newspaper, The Globe and Mail . Canwest continues to pursue its strategy; in late 2005, BCE announced it would sell most of its interests in Globemedia to a consortium of investors including the Thomson family and Torstar , although it still retains a minority stake in the company. In many respects, particularly since the consolidation phase of the late 1990s and early 2000s
4671-596: A sister station to CFMT in fall 2002. It was at this point that the "OMNI Television" brand was introduced, with CFMT and CJMT branded as "OMNI.1" and "OMNI.2" respectively. The Omni brand was expanded in 2005, when Rogers acquired two religious TV stations, CHNU in the Vancouver market and CIIT in Winnipeg , from Trinity Television. CHNU was rebranded from "NOWTV" to "OMNI.10" in September 2005, while CIIT went on air as "OMNI.11" on February 6, 2006. Several proposed changes to
4844-518: A time, the service also featured exclusive programs not airing on the broadcast network. On April 12, 2022, Rogers announced the launch of Citytv+ (pronounced Citytv Plus ), an add-on channel for Amazon's Prime Video . The service includes most of the programming available on Citytv and its siblings, including Omni Television , as well as recent and selected past programming aired by the Canadian FX and FXX networks. The service succeeds Shomi ,
5017-617: A variety of languages, while Telelatino airs programming in Italian and Spanish on basic cable. Numerous third-language channels have been licensed as Category 2 services on digital cable . The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) airs programming targeted to the Indigenous peoples of Canada ; 28 per cent of the network's content is broadcast in aboriginal languages. The Canadian broadcasting industry, including all programming services (over-the-air or otherwise) and all distributors,
5190-406: A very large percentage of the airtime in peak viewing hours (in most areas, 7:00 to 11:00 p.m.) can be devoted to programs of foreign origin, in large part due to the significant amount of programming available from the U.S., not to mention the availability of the major U.S. broadcast networks themselves via cable or satellite, or even as terrestrial signals in border markets. A Canadian network
5363-692: A week for CJNT (including a local edition of Breakfast Television ), and agreed to contribute funding and programming to a new independent multicultural station in Montreal. Citytv is well known for its unconventional approach to news and local programming. There is no news desk (anchors read the news standing up, or on stools), and cameras are sometimes hand-held. Citytv also pioneered the concept of videojournalism, where reporters often carry their own camera report and videotape their own stories. Citytv calls its videojournalists "videographers", but unlike many stations in American television markets that try to conceal
Omni Television - Misplaced Pages Continue
5536-403: Is CFMT in Toronto, which was the first independent multicultural television station in Canada. The Omni brand was first introduced in 2002 after Rogers launched a second station in Toronto, CJMT ; the two stations were collectively branded as Omni Television, with CJMT branding as "Omni.2" and focusing on programs targeting Asian and African communities, and CFMT "Omni.1" focusing on targeting
5709-597: Is allowed to override the cable or satellite feed of an American broadcast signal when they air the same program simultaneously, ensuring that the Canadian broadcaster, not the American broadcaster, is able to benefit from the advertising revenue associated with broadcasting to the Canadian audience. Arguably this right has led to an even greater glut of American programming on Canadian stations, including programs of little relevance to Canadian audiences, or poorly received series that may never be seen outside North America. In addition, higher rated American shows cannot be seen if
5882-610: Is also one station using the brand name serving Bogotá , Colombia . The Citytv brand name originates from its flagship station, CITY-TV in Toronto, a station that went on the air in September 28, 1972, in the former Electric Circus nightclub in which became known for an intensely local format based on newscasts aimed at younger viewers, nightly movies, and music and cultural programming. The Citytv brand first expanded with then-parent company CHUM Limited 's acquisition of former Global owned-and-operated station CKVU-TV in Vancouver, followed by its purchase of Craig Media 's stations and
6055-757: Is available nationally via satellite and on digital cable. It is also available for free over-the-air using a regular TV antenna and a digital tuner (included in most new television sets) via the following stations and retransmitters: Video on demand access to Citytv programming has been available in various forms, such as through TV provider's set-top boxes, or streaming media through the network's website and mobile apps. In June 2018, Rogers announced it would launch an expanded service called Citytv Now (stylized Citytv NOW ) for authenticated customers of partnered TV service providers, such as corporate sibling Rogers Cable. Citytv Now features fulls-season (and several past season) availability of shows airing on Citytv. For
6228-589: Is broadcast on a number of cable television providers in the Caribbean. In Barbados, Citytv is carried on channel 507 of the terrestrial subscription service known as Multi-Choice TV . Italicized channel numbers indicate a digital channel allocated for future use by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission . In 2003, CHUM Limited launched a high definition simulcast of its Toronto station CITY-TV . In October 2006, Citytv installed
6401-473: Is far more popular than imports. As of 2003 the top ten shows on television in Quebec were written and created by Quebecers. The Standing Committee report found that Canadian French networks made a profit of $ 40,000 per hour of French-language drama, compared to $ 10,000 per hour of American drama. The Quebec television industry produced two and one half times more TV series per capita than American networks. While
6574-457: Is not an acronym, although the name is written all in capital letters. Toronto 's CFMT launched in 1979 as Canada's first multilingual/multicultural television station, owned by Multilingual Television (Toronto) Ltd. The station was originally referred to as "MTV" before using its call letters to identify on-air in 1983 due to confusion with the American music video channel . As its initial format
6747-429: Is not available in that market. In many markets, including some major cities, there is only a handful of local stations, with other network services provided by an affiliate based hundreds of kilometres away. For instance, in Ottawa, only three English networks/systems – CBC, CTV and CTV Two – have stations based in the market; the "local" Global and Citytv stations are in fact rebroadcasters of Toronto-area stations. Such
6920-505: Is now the largest gap in City's local coverage area, and there are few remaining realistic options for Rogers to purchase or affiliate with existing stations in the region. This had led Rogers to attempt, unsuccessfully, to request simultaneous substitution privileges for Citytv Toronto on its cable systems in New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador . Prior to the CRTC's decision to refuse
7093-433: Is often aimed at a broader North American audience, although the similarities may be less pronounced in the predominantly French-language province of Quebec . The first experimental television broadcast began in 1932 in Montreal, Quebec, under the call sign of VE9EC. The broadcasts of VE9EC were broadcast in 60 to 150 lines of resolution on 41 MHz. This service closed around 1935, and the outbreak of World War II put
Omni Television - Misplaced Pages Continue
7266-704: Is regulated in regards to ownership and content by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which in most cases issues licences for each such operation. The CRTC issues licences pursuant to Canadian laws and the Commission's own regulations and conditions of licence, which regulate such matters as Canadian content, domestic ownership and accessibility issues such as closed captioning . Among other regulations, all Canadian broadcasters and distributors must be at least 80% owned and controlled by Canadian citizens; also, all conventional stations, and most established specialty services, are required to air
7439-517: Is the only Citytv O&O, as well as one of only three stations affiliated with the network, to carry nightly locally produced evening newscasts). To maximize simultaneous substitution opportunities, in the Eastern and Pacific Time Zones , prime time programming airs from 8:00 to 11:00 p.m., while in the Central Time Zone it generally airs from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m., in both cases mirroring
7612-632: The Corriere Canadese , and Ethnic Channels Group among others. Rogers proposed maintaining the existing Omni Regional structure, but with an increased investment in original scripted and factual programming, the addition of Arabic, Hindi, and Tagalog-language newscasts, local newscasts on the East, Pacific, and Prairies feeds in Mandarin and Punjabi, and a local newscast in Italian on the East feed (which would replace
7785-562: The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and 2012 Summer Olympics in London , Omni stations broadcast coverage of the games in minority languages as part of the CTV/Rogers consortium. On June 27, 2013, CJMT in Toronto broadcast Mandarin-language coverage of a Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball game started by Taiwanese player Chien-Ming Wang , marking the first ever Canadian MLB broadcast in
7958-499: The 2018–19 television season , the network reintroduced its original "Citytv" branding, and its social media accounts. The Jim Pattison Group announced in July 2009 that its three television stations in western Canada ( CKPG-TV , CFJC-TV , and CHAT-TV ), formerly affiliated with E! , would join Citytv starting on September 1, 2009. These stations do not carry the Citytv branding; instead,
8131-452: The ATV system of CTV affiliates, and cable-only channel ASN . Many Citytv programs were aired on ASN during this period, effectively making ASN an unbranded Citytv O&O. Both ATV and ASN were acquired by Baton Broadcasting (now Bell Media) in 1997; ASN continued to air much of the Citytv schedule until it became part of the A (now CTV 2 ) television system in 2008. This means that Atlantic Canada
8304-547: The City New Year's Eve Bash , the yearly concert special expanded to include a second event in Calgary, Alberta for its 2012–13 edition. In 2013–14, Citytv began simulcasting ABC's Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve instead of airing its own full special, though it continued to sponsor (and air some coverage of) the New Year's event in Toronto. Citytv Toronto's CityNews , which used to be known as CityPulse , had developed
8477-525: The Corriere Canadese sent a letter to the cabinet requesting an appeal of the CRTC's decision, citing that the Commission ignored "widespread and intense dissatisfaction" with Rogers and Omni "in respect of its minimal conditions of license for Omni Regional to serve the multi-lingual multi-ethnic community of Canadians". The complaint pointed out the CRTC's previous disagreement with the structure of Omni Regional upon its initial approval, and argued that
8650-478: The Great Movies block; as Citytv transitioned to a primetime lineup consisting of mainly domestic and American series during the 2000s, Great Movies was scaled back, then replaced in 2008 by reruns, reality shows and infomercials. The station attracted attention and controversy by airing The Baby Blue Movie , a softcore pornography film showcase on Friday nights after midnight. Although this programming block
8823-537: The Rogers Sports & Media subsidiary of Rogers Communications . The network consists of six owned-and-operated (O&O) television stations located in the metropolitan areas of Toronto , Montreal , Winnipeg , Calgary , Edmonton , and Vancouver , a cable-only service that serves the province of Saskatchewan , and three independently owned affiliates serving smaller cities in Alberta and British Columbia . There
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#17328516404108996-527: The Saskatchewan Communications Network (SCN) from 3 p.m.-6 a.m. CT daily, beginning on January 2, 2012. This program block followed the national program grid of Citytv and was known on-air as "Citytv on SCN". Shortly after, on January 17, 2012, Rogers announced its intent to acquire SCN from Bluepoint. The deal gave the Citytv system stations in all provinces west of Quebec and south of the federal territories of Northern Canada . The sale
9169-508: The Windsor region near Detroit . Television viewership outside Ontario was limited to British Columbia's Lower Mainland with access to American programming from Seattle and some sets in Montreal . Television sales were promoted not only by the arrival of CBC Television , but by revised credit practices at that time, which allowed purchases without requiring an initial cash deposit. Following
9342-711: The 10:00 p.m. hour, Atlantic and Mountain Time Zone stations will typically delay their 11:00 p.m. news programming to 12:00 a.m. and air the entire program in unison with the time zone directly west (thus, a program scheduled to air from 9:00 to 11:00 p.m. in Eastern and Pacific Time Zones is typically aired from 10:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. in the Atlantic and Mountain Time Zones (10:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Newfoundland Time), with syndicated programming airing in
9515-507: The 1970s and 1980s, nearly every major Canadian market saw the launch of independent third stations, most of which were either launched by or eventually acquired by Izzy Asper 's Canwest , and which served as a de facto third network although they were not yet branded or formally structured as such; these stations, by and large, were eventually unified as the Global Television Network. The 1980s and 1990s saw exponential growth in
9688-482: The 8:00 p.m. hour). CBC Television airs all programming corresponding to the local time zone, except for a 30-minute delay in the Newfoundland Time Zone. Overnight programming varies from broadcaster to broadcaster, and may consist of purchased programming or infomercials , or repeat airings of daytime programming. As of 2003 three quarters of English-Canadian television shows on prime time were from
9861-479: The Atlantic provinces, and two hours reflecting Manitoba and Saskatchewan). The number of daily national newscasts expanded to six, and there will be six hours per-week of local news programming for Calgary/Edmonton, Toronto, and Vancouver. Programming must be governed by advisory panels for each region, and Rogers must maintain the Omni broadcast stations during the services' license terms. The service must also be operated on
10034-412: The CRTC approved Rogers' takeover of the Citytv stations, giving the company one year to divest itself of the religious Omni stations. A tentative deal to sell the stations to S-VOX , owner of VisionTV , was announced on November 6. On March 31, 2008, the CRTC approved both Rogers' acquisition of CHNM and its sale of CIIT and CHNU to S-VOX. CHNU was rebranded as "CHNU 10" on October 31, 2007, a year before
10207-620: The CTV affiliate-owner in British Columbia to include many of the stations of Allarcom and Maclean Hunter , in order to satisfy its long-held desire to enter Alberta , but also giving it a second network. CHUM secured two regional services in Ontario before expanding to British Columbia and merging with Craig, its equivalent in the Canadian Prairies . The early 2000s, aside from the completion of
10380-548: The Canada–US border were available for several years prior, and gained a sizeable audience in cities like Toronto, within range of U.S. signals, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) was the first entity to broadcast television programming within Canada, launching in September 1952 in both Montreal and Toronto. Private CBC affiliates began operating late in 1953 to supplement the Corporation's own stations;
10553-567: The Canadian Radio-Television Commission (now the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission ). The government still referred to the Canadian broadcasting system as the "single system". Among other concerns, this implied that both private and public networks were working toward the same goals, notably the national objective of unity and Canadian content and ownership. Government intervention helped
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#173285164041010726-836: The Canadian broadcasting industry economically but failed to create a distinct culture that was in sharp contrast to American popular culture. However, it did allow Quebec to run its own broadcasting service and economically, it helped out the Canadian broadcasters, particularly the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB). Due to their protests, Bill C-58 was passed. Among many changes, Bill C-58 removed tax deductibility benefits for Canadian Corporations advertising on American stations. The 1968 Act had also given priority carriage for Canadian broadcast services. Policies such as these produced important economic benefits for Canadian broadcasters. Economic prosperity for Canadian broadcasters took priority over Canadian identity in that prosperity
10899-707: The Canadian network overriding the signal interrupts the program for a news bulletin, unless the cable company switches the signal back to the American station's feed. Many Canadian broadcasters broadcast on a 24-hour schedule. Daily programming begins at about 6:00 a.m., usually with a local or national morning show . Daytime programming, including talk shows and soap operas , follows, although some Canadian stations may air "brokered-time" religious or charitable programming as well, which unlike traditional infomercials can count towards Canadian content requirements. Most Canadian television stations are required to carry some news programming as per their licence. As opposed to
11072-608: The Cantonese Fairchild TV and Mandarin Talentvision channels. Unifor and community groups questioned whether this arrangement was in compliance with Omni Regional's CRTC license, which stated that the service would "produce and broadcast" half-hour national newscasts in multiple languages, but leaving it unclear whether they must be produced by the licensee itself. They also cited concerns over Fairchild's news coverage having historically skewed conservative . Rogers defended
11245-576: The Citytv stations have been sparse over the years. Between 2005 and 2014, the predominant sports property on Citytv was coverage of the National Football League . Craig Media (then-owners of the current Citytv stations in Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary) owned the rights to Monday Night Football in the early 2000s, and these rights moved to Citytv for MNF ' s final season on ABC in 2005, before being moved again to TSN in 2006. Following
11418-409: The Eastern and Pacific Time Zones is typically seen from 9:00 to 11:00 p.m. in the Atlantic and Mountain Time Zones (9:30 to 11:30 p.m. Newfoundland Time)), and 10:00 p.m. programming aired earlier in the evening at 8:00 p.m. (8:30 p.m. Newfoundland Time). Also, in the rare event a program scheduled to start before 10:00 p.m. in the Eastern and/or Pacific Time Zones runs into
11591-518: The European and Caribbean communities. The Omni brand expanded outside of Toronto for the first time in 2005, with Rogers' acquisition of religious independent stations in Vancouver and Winnipeg . In 2007, Rogers secured new multicultural licenses in Calgary and Edmonton, announced its sale of the Vancouver and Winnipeg stations to S-VOX , and then acquired Vancouver's existing multicultural station CHNM . In 2012, Omni added an affiliate in Montreal via
11764-521: The Italian national newscast, as the majority of Canada's Italian population lives in Ontario and Quebec). In May 2019, the CRTC approved Rogers' application, granting Omni Regional a three-year license renewal taking effect September 1, 2020. Changes included that at least 70% of the broadcast day and 70% of primetime must be devoted to Canadian productions, and at least 12 hours of programming per-week must be acquired from independent producers (including at least two hours per-week of programming reflecting
11937-544: The Multiculturalism Act." Independent Community Television Montreal (ICTV)—who had proposed a service known as Tele1—also requested an appeal, accusing CRTC commissioners Ian Scott and Caroline J. Simard of having " communicated independently with representatives of Rogers and Bell on multiple occasions and without notice to ICTV", resulting in an unfair process. In August 2019, the Federal Court of Appeal dismissed
12110-538: The Omni Regional channels would result in an additional $ 14 million in annual revenue from carriage fees, which it planned to mostly invest into the production of daily half-hour national newscasts in the Cantonese, Italian, Mandarin, and Punjabi languages—programming that had been cancelled in 2015 in the previous round of cuts. Omni also pledged to increase its investments in original domestic content. With reservations, CRTC approved Rogers' application for Omni Regional on May 15, 2017, and granted it must-carry status under
12283-539: The Omni brand was transferred to CHNM. CIIT was rebranded "CIIT11" in July 2008, after S-VOX took control of the station. Both stations rebranded as Joytv on September 1, 2008; CHNM rebranded as "Omni BC" on the same date. The two new stations in Calgary and Edmonton launched on September 15, 2008 under the call letters CJCO and CJEO . Rogers announced an agreement to acquire the one Canadian multicultural television station it did not already own, CJNT-DT Montreal on May 3, 2012, from Channel Zero , after having passed on
12456-467: The Omni stations' core formats remained intact. Omni Television stations have occasionally aired sporting events in minority languages, and in English as an overflow for Citytv or Sportsnet . Prior to their move to Citytv and the eventual acquisition of late games by CTV, the Omni stations aired late-afternoon NFL games for a period, and in the 2014 season, simulcast selected Thursday Night Football games from CBS (which also aired on Sportsnet). During
12629-429: The Omni stations' schedules are devoted exclusively to ethnic programming. While under Rogers ownership, CHNU and CIIT aired many of the same types of programs as CFMT and CJMT, despite the difference in the nature of service of multicultural and religious stations. CHNU and CIIT had previously aired many of the same types of syndicated sitcoms and multicultural programs shown regularly on the Omni stations in Toronto, and
12802-510: The Omni system were announced, either by Rogers or by the CRTC, during a one-month span from June to July 2007. First, on June 8, the CRTC granted Rogers licences to operate new multicultural stations in Calgary and Edmonton , beating out a competing proposal from Multivan Broadcast Corporation (which won the bid for the Vancouver multicultural licence in 2002 against Rogers and launched CHNM-TV). On June 28, 2007, Rogers made public its offer to sell
12975-475: The Ontario/Manitoba border have adopted this scheduling format for their local news programming. In contrast, some stations carry a locally produced morning news programs even if they do not carry evening newscasts at all (such as City's owned-and-operated stations, all of which produce a weekday morning news/talk program using the title Breakfast Television ; the television system's Toronto flagship CITY-DT
13148-561: The Pan-Asian and Pan-African audiences. Since 2019, Omni Television has carried the Eurovision Song Contest . Omni stations formerly scheduled a limited amount of English-language entertainment programming aimed at mainstream audiences, such as syndicated sitcoms , talk shows , and game shows , as well as CBS 's late-night talk shows (primarily Late Show with David Letterman , and The Late Late Show under Tom Snyder and
13321-543: The Pattison stations began to carry 90% of Citytv's primetime programming and the majority of its morning and daytime programming from the programming grid of CKVU-DT, including simulcasts of the Vancouver edition of Breakfast Television . Unlike CKVU, the Pattison stations continue to produce midday and evening local newscasts. Meanwhile, on December 20, 2011, Bluepoint Investment Corporation announced an affiliation agreement with Rogers Communications to air Citytv programming on
13494-572: The Sportsnet channels: the 2012 Rogers Cup , and the 2012 Davis Cup World Group Play-off between Canada and South Africa . On November 26, 2013, Rogers announced a 12-year, $ 5.2 billion deal to become the exclusive national rightsholder to the National Hockey League in the 2014–15 season . Beginning in October 2014, Citytv began to broadcast NHL games produced by Sportsnet as part of Hockey Night in Canada , and Rogers Hometown Hockey ,
13667-465: The Toronto stations carried some religious teaching programs. The common brand allowed cost savings for promotions and for the acquisition of the general-entertainment programs that all of the Omni stations had used to generate most of their revenues. However, due in particular to Vancouver multicultural station CHNM (while under Multivan ownership) and Toronto religious station CITS , which both opposed Rogers's acquisition of Trinity's religious stations,
13840-415: The U.S. model, most stations, even in major markets like Toronto , carry a single newscast during the late-afternoon/early-evening period, specifically from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. However, as in the U.S., "strip" programming fills the following hour, at least in the Eastern and Pacific time zones, and is followed by prime time programming. One or more newscasts follow, usually beginning at 11:00 p.m.;
14013-874: The U.S. networks. However, viewers in the Mountain Time Zone – i.e. Alberta – have historically received U.S. network feeds from the Pacific Time Zone, not from the Mountain Time Zone. Similarly, those in Atlantic Canada receive U.S. feeds from the Eastern Time Zone. Local stations in those regions also use 8:00 to 11:00 p.m. (8:30 to 11:30 p.m. in Newfoundland and Southeast Labrador ) as prime time, but with most programming advanced by an hour (thus programming seen from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. in
14186-460: The United States. American television programs are much more profitable for English Canadian networks than domestic ones. A Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage report found that networks lost $ 125,000 per hour of English-language Canadian drama, but made a profit of $ 275,000 per hour of American drama. Scripted television programming in Canada tends toward the shorter runs more typical of British television rather than
14359-414: The United States. While under Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission regulations at least 60% of program has to be Canadian-produced, and 50% during prime time, English-language private broadcasters such as CTV and Global have always had difficulty airing more than a bare minimum of Canadian-produced programming in primetime; in actual practice, network and local news accounts for
14532-667: The Winnipeg and Edmonton editions of Breakfast Television ; in Winnipeg, it was replaced by a simulcast of the morning show from co-owned radio station CITI-FM , and the Edmonton edition was replaced by the spin-off Dinner Television , an evening newsmagazine and discussion program which did not feature original news reporting. On June 5, 2017, Rogers announced that it would relaunch local CityNews evening newscasts across its stations, which would air at 6:00 and 11:00 p.m. nightly. The Edmonton and Winnipeg newscasts premiered on September 4, 2017, followed by Calgary, Montreal, and Vancouver on September 3, 2018. Sports broadcasts on
14705-485: The afternoon American Thanksgiving games until the 2017 season , when these rights were acquired by TSN. Under Rogers ownership, Citytv has aired occasional sports broadcasts as an overflow channel for co-owned Sportsnet, such as a 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification group-stage match between Canada and Panama on September 11, 2012, in simulcast with Sportsnet One . It has also broadcast supplementary coverage of two tennis events that were primarily broadcast by
14878-680: The air in October 2001 using the same format as CITY-TV. CKVU became known as "Citytv Vancouver" on July 22, 2002. Prior to CHUM's acquisition of CKVU, some Citytv programming were split between KVOS-TV in Bellingham, Washington , which is close to Vancouver, and CTV-owned CIVT-TV , during the 1990s and early 2000s when Citytv did not have a station in Vancouver; CHAN-TV , then a CTV affiliate, also aired some Citytv programs, such as CityLine . The WIC stations in Alberta (including CITV-TV and CICT-TV ) bought provincial rights to some Citytv programs prior to
15051-434: The cable-only Saskatchewan Communications Network and Montreal's CJNT-DT . At one point, Citytv also existed in Barcelona and San Juan, Puerto Rico . While patterned after the original station in Toronto, since the 2000s, and particularly since its acquisition by Rogers, Citytv has moved towards a series-based prime time schedule much like its competitors, albeit one still focused on younger demographics. The licence of
15224-729: The case of the Maritimes ) through a network of rebroadcasters rather than through multiple licensed stations. Some privately owned network affiliates do still exist, although these are now relatively rare and exist only in smaller television markets. Bell Globemedia (soon after renamed CTVglobemedia and then Bell Media ) announced plans to acquire CHUM Limited, in a deal that would place Canada's four largest private English-language broadcast services under just two owners (in CTVgm's case, CTV and Citytv ). The enlarged CTVgm would also own interests in nearly 40 specialty channels and pay services. As part of
15397-570: The case, and the CRTC's decision was upheld by the Department of Canadian Heritage . All Rogers-owned Omni stations are licensed to air programming in no fewer than 20 languages to communities encompassing at least 20 cultures—ethnic programming comprises 60% of the Omni stations' schedules. The Toronto-based Omni stations are differently licensed with respect to the languages and communities they serve: CFMT airs programming for European and Caribbean language communities, while CJMT airs programming for
15570-616: The colloquial sense, below, although in the regulatory sense they may or may not be licensed networks. However, they are often treated very differently from U.S. networks. For instance, most networks provide a full slate of programming, often, but not always, buying the national rights to "syndicated" programs that air across affiliates of multiple American networks. In Canada, hence Dr. Phil and The Ellen DeGeneres Show only air on CTV stations, and Entertainment Tonight only on Global stations. However, for historical reasons, The Oprah Winfrey Show (until it ended its run in 2011) aired on
15743-508: The company chose to retain CP24, and the channel was re-aligned with CFTO (CTV). As a replacement, Rogers received approval for, and launched, CityNews Channel in October 2011. The network was modelled on Rogers-owned radio station CFTR 680 , and featured news, weather, traffic reports, and other content drawing from the resources of Rogers properties such as Maclean's and Sportsnet . On May 30, 2013, as part of budget cuts, Rogers announced that
15916-503: The consolidation described above, brought an apparent convergence craze among the major media conglomerates. CanWest bought the Southam newspaper chain, including the leading broadsheet papers in several major cities, raising new concerns on media concentration . Telecom giant BCE , believing it needed control over content to fuel its new media strategy, formed Bell Globemedia , essentially CTV and its specialty services put together with
16089-561: The creation of private television networks. Private stations did emerge but could not exist independently, and were obliged to become affiliated with the French national network or the English national network. The Act of 1958 as well as its revised version in 1968 allowed for the existence of privatized networks. The private stations were then recognized as direct competitors to the CBC, which maintained its role as national broadcaster but lost its regulatory power. The 1968 Broadcasting Act created
16262-446: The decision to drop the newscasts was financially motivated; the newscasts only brought in CA$ 3.9 million in advertising revenue per-year, but had production expenses of CA$ 9 million . Rogers' decision to drop ethnic newscasts resulted in criticism by Julian Fantino , Member of Parliament for Vaughan , who described the loss of Italian-language news coverage to be "devastating"; Vaughan has
16435-433: The development of the respective E! and A (now CTV Two) systems. Nonetheless, the local news coverage these stations provide do not prevent them from airing programs with mass appeal during the rest of their schedules, frequently promoted on their sister stations. Citytv Citytv (sometimes shortened to City , which was the network's official branding from 2012 to 2018) is a Canadian television network owned by
16608-450: The difficulties that might arise in protecting the French language , inexpensive imported U.S. programs, which filled the schedules of many English language Canadian TV channels, were not attractive to French-speaking audiences. In this situation, society affected the division in the Canadian broadcasting industry as much as the division affected society. The intensity of fears of "continentalism"
16781-510: The discontinuation of the South Asian newscasts. On May 7, 2015, Rogers announced further cuts affecting Omni, including the re-structuring of the Omni News programs, the cancellation of V-Mix and Bollywood Boulevard , and the elimination of redundancy in technical staff between the Omni and Citytv stations. On June 14, 2016, Rogers announced that it had submitted an application to the CRTC for
16954-544: The diversity of voices. In the fall of 2004, Omni launched high definition simulcasts of both Toronto stations, CFMT and CJMT. However, at the time both stations were only available through digital cable. In the summer of 2008, both stations began broadcasting digitally over-the-air. In December 2009, CHNM began broadcasting an over-the-air digital signal and broadcasts in standard definition . Television in Canada Television in Canada officially began with
17127-620: The divestment, CTV would have exceeded the CRTC's concentration of media ownership limits. CTV announced on June 11, 2007, that it would retain the A-Channel stations, and sell the Citytv stations to Rogers Communications for $ 375 million. The transaction was approved by the CRTC on September 28 and was completed on October 31, 2007. On September 8, 2009, CITY Toronto moved to its current location at Yonge-Dundas Square at 33 Dundas Street East . On December 6, 2010, CityNews Tonight Toronto anchor and continuity announcer Mark Dailey died after
17300-698: The fact that reporters are so-called "one-man bands", Citytv embraced the use of video journalism by highlighting the use of technology; Citytv videographers often carry a second home video camera to record images of them videotaping on the scene. The low-grade video is then incorporated into the story to show viewers how the story was recorded. At one time, Citytv's Toronto flagship CITY-TV produced more local programs than any other television station in Canada, and more local programming than any other station in North America other than Boston 's WCVB-TV . Citytv produced shows such as Speakers' Corner , CityLine and
17473-464: The first private CBC affiliate in Canada was CKSO-TV in Sudbury , Ontario in October of that year, with CFPL-TV in London , Ontario following a few weeks later. All television stations that signed on in Canada were required to be CBC affiliates, as the CBC was the only television network operating in Canada at the time. In 1948, there were 325 television sets in Canada, but thousands more were sold in
17646-587: The first station not affiliated with either network, not counting the initial launch period of most of the soon-to-be CTV stations. Over the next 25 years or so, many more new stations were launched, primarily CBC stations in major markets replacing private affiliates (which subsequently joined with CTV or became independent) and new independent stations in the largest centres, such as CITY-TV in Toronto, CITV-TV in Edmonton , and CKND-TV in Winnipeg . During this time cable television also began to take hold, securing
17819-525: The format when it acquired four Ontario stations from Baton Broadcasting in 1997, namely CHRO in Pembroke , CFPL-TV in London , CKNX-TV in Wingham , and CHWI-TV in Windsor . Most of these stations were also former CBC affiliates, and in markets where CKVR's sister station, CITY-TV, was already or subsequently became available on basic cable. Until 1997, CHUM owned two television outlets in Atlantic Canada :
17992-526: The fortunes of individuals such as Ted Rogers , who secured the licences for much of Toronto. In 1966, CHCH in Hamilton formed the nucleus of the first serious attempt to form Canada's third terrestrial television network. The original plan was withdrawn for regulatory and financial reasons by 1969, but a scaled-down version resulted in the 1974 launch of CKGN-TV in Toronto, whose branding as Global Television Network would eventually extend nationwide. Through
18165-426: The help of elevated outdoor antennas and amplifiers. U.S. television programs and the networks that originated them thus became popular in those Canadian cities within range of their signals, and those cities represented a sizeable proportion of the total Canadian population. This helped spur development of a specifically Canadian television programming and transmission system during the late 1940s and early 1950s, but at
18338-416: The historic development of mass communication and television in the country. Three factors have made the historical development of television in Canada a unique one: The threat of American influence, the language divide, and the government's response to both of these. American influence and the fear of that influence greatly affected television's development in Canada. The first decades of the 20th century saw
18511-605: The intention of making it a newest Citytv station. CHUM planned on spending $ 8.03 million on British Columbia-based independent productions, $ 5.95 million on local news and information programming, and $ 1.37 million on local culture, social policy, and talent development over a period of seven years. A similar application was filed in 1996 by the CRTC but was dropped in favor of Baton launching CIVT-TV in 1997. CHUM gained CRTC approval for its acquisition of CKVU on October 15, 2001. Meanwhile, CIVI-TV in Victoria, British Columbia went on
18684-729: The language, along with stories from foreign broadcasters in countries in which the language is natively spoken (or the Indian subcontinent , in the case of the Punjabi edition). On May 7, 2015, Rogers announced a restructuring of Omni News programs as part of cutbacks that led to the loss of 110 jobs across the company. The existing newscasts would by replaced by new public affairs -oriented programs produced in Cantonese, Mandarin and Punjabi. The new programs featured in-depth discussion of local issues, and did not feature original news reporting. Colette Watson, Rogers' vice president of television, explained that
18857-463: The language. Rogers acquired national media rights to the National Hockey League beginning in the 2014–15 NHL season ; the Omni stations added Hockey Night in Canada : Punjabi Edition , which features Punjabi -language telecasts of NHL games on Saturday nights, and selected playoff games. The Punjabi broadcasts are carried over from the CBC 's past digital coverage of games in the language. Beginning in
19030-509: The later half of the 2018 season, and expanding into the 2019 season, Omni carried a regular schedule of Sunday-afternoon Blue Jays games in Tagalog . Prior to its rebranding as Omni 1 in 2002, CFMT aired news in Portuguese , Italian and Cantonese from Monday to Friday, with a Mandarin program on the weekend. With the launch of CJMT (branded as Omni 2), a South Asian news program in English
19203-590: The launch of CKAL and CKEM in 1997. On April 12, 2004, CHUM Limited announced a deal to purchase Craig Media for $ 265 million. The move came more than a month after the CRTC denied CHUM's applications for new Calgary and Edmonton stations, which they applied back in 2003, because the market did not have sufficient advertising revenue to support a new entrant. The sale was approved by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission on November 19, 2004. CHUM had to sell off Toronto 1 because it already owned stations in Toronto and nearby Barrie ; Toronto 1
19376-407: The longer seasons that predominate in the United States. A typical Canadian drama or comedy series will produce between six and thirteen episodes in its first season, although an exceptionally popular series such as Corner Gas may produce up to 20 episodes in later seasons. A slight deviation from this model is with the long-running teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation (the fourth iteration of
19549-550: The main exception is The National , which airs at 10:00 p.m. on CBC. However, there is a growing trend of some television stations adopting a newscast schedule similar to the American television model, with locally produced newscasts in the mornings (usually lasting about 3 to 3½ hours and airing only on weekdays, though a few stations do carry weekend morning newscasts) and during the lunch hour, in addition to early and late-evening newscasts; most owned-and-operated stations of Global nationwide and most CTV O&Os located west of
19722-401: The majority of Craig Ferguson 's run). The Omni stations do not typically air primetime programs simulcast from U.S. networks, but Omni occasionally served as an overflow channel for Citytv after Rogers' purchase of the network—allowing them to maintain their simsub rights in its duopoly markets. As of the 2015–16 television season, all of these programs have been dropped, and nearly all of
19895-686: The majority of services operate in English, there are a growing number of similar services in the French language, serving primarily Quebec . Ici Radio-Canada Télé , the French-language equivalent of CBC Television, broadcasts terrestrially across Canada, while TVA , one of Quebec's two commercial French-language networks, is available across Canada on satellite and cable. RDI , the French equivalent of CBC News Network , also has cross-Canada cable carriage rights, as does TV5 Québec Canada . Most other French-language networks are available only in Quebec, although some have optional cable carriage status in
20068-464: The merger (most of the properties were sold to Corus Entertainment – which already owned Teletoon and its related children's specialty channels – although Remstar acquired MusiMax and MusiquePlus and DHX Media acquired Family Channel and its sister channels ). As outlined below, Canadian regulations ensure that the majority of programming aired by Canadian stations are of domestic origin. However, thanks to domestic newscasts and daytime programming,
20241-460: The mid-2010's, the Omni stations struggled financially; Rogers Media president Keith Pelley explained that between 2011 and 2014, advertising revenue had fallen from CA$ 80 million to CA$ 35 million . On May 30, 2013, Rogers announced the shutdown of production facilities at CJCO and CJEO, ending the production of local programming and news content from the Omni Alberta stations, and as a result,
20414-472: The money – the poorer the country, the more American productions." English Canadian broadcasting illustrated how this was problematic for some Anglophone Canadians as well as the Canadian government . A major question was how any sense of "Canadianism" could come out of such an attractive (and rich) American world. There was a fear of communicating ideas and opinions that were not Canadian, to Canadians - especially
20587-577: The morning and daytime hours. Due to the structural problems facing the conventional television industry in Canada and the Great Recession , Rogers Media announced cost-cutting measures at the Citytv stations on January 19, 2010, which included massive layoffs and the cancellation of the following newscasts: CITY-DT used to operate CP24 , a cable news channel covering the Greater Toronto Area . During CTVglobemedia's purchase of CHUM Limited,
20760-457: The multichannel universe, beginning with pay television services and later continuing with various waves of specialty services, usually launched in one fell swoop. The launch of direct-to-home satellite television services in the mid-1990s accelerated this growth. The early- to mid-1990s in particular also saw further growth and consolidation of broadcast television. Baton Broadcasting , owner of Toronto CTV affiliate CFTO-TV and already seen as
20933-649: The near future. Other major specialty operators include Corus Entertainment (owned by the Shaw family) and Channel Zero . Consolidation has also continued between cable companies, and between specialty channel operators. There are now few of the small family-owned television groups that dominated the formative era of Canadian television, the most notable perhaps being the Stirling family, which owns NTV in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador . The twinstick model of broadcasting, in which
21106-451: The network would be shut down. Citytv continued to produce Breakfast Television for all markets, and 6:00 p.m. and late-night CityNews Tonight in Toronto only (the evening newscasts in Toronto excluded weekend broadcasts until March 2011; the 5 p.m. newscast, meanwhile, would return in September 2011). 60 employees (including long-time Toronto news anchor Anne Mroczkowski ) were laid off across Canada. In 2015, Rogers cancelled
21279-451: The network's dominant player, bought or replaced most of the network's other affiliates and ultimately acquired the network itself. In 1997, Asper's regional networks became united under the Global Television Network brand previously used only by his Ontario station. Additional groups also sprouted up in the form of Western International Communications , CHUM Limited and Craig Media . In 2000, CanWest bought WIC, which had itself grown from
21452-424: The new multicultural station CFHD-DT , with Rogers agreeing to help support the station in exchange for relieving CJNT of its own multicultural remit. Since September 2017, Omni began to be distributed throughout the remainder of the country, as a group of specialty channels with mandatory carriage . This group is licensed under the blanket name Omni Regional ; Rogers argued that revenue from mandatory carriage
21625-480: The new proposal also weakened Omni's mandates to provide ethnic news and public affairs programming (replacing four hour-long programs in specific languages with six half-hour programs in non-specific third languages). It argued that "the CRTC choice is an affront to its original Call for a unique service, to the objectives of the Broadcasting Act and to the constitutionality of the principles of equality inherent in
21798-419: The novelty. Television performer and producer Lorne Michaels said, about the advent of television, "it was all we talked about at school. We literally raced home to watch TV". It became important to Canada that Canadian values would be projected onto this large audience and then onto the entire nation. Although many watched the available American television programs, some feared that Canada would end up stuck in
21971-657: The only Citytv stations producing midday or evening newscasts. The Pattison stations use their individual callsigns, instead of branding under the Citytv name and do not use the CityNews title for their weekday newscasts. Four of City's five other owned-and-operated broadcast stations (CKVU-DT, CKAL-DT , CKEM-DT and CHMI-DT ) only produce localized versions of the morning program franchise Breakfast Television . Citytv Saskatchewan, meanwhile, does not carry any local programming, and would be unable to broadcast Breakfast Television due to its mandate of airing educational programming in
22144-454: The opportunity when the station was previously put up for sale in 2009 by Canwest during its financial difficulties. While intending to relaunch it as a Citytv station, Rogers did not rule out the possibility of requesting that CJNT be re-licensed as an English-language station, but in the meantime CJNT aired Omni programs (including Omni News ) to fulfill much of its ethnic programming requirements after it became affiliated with Citytv prior to
22317-423: The original Citytv station, granted the callsign of CITY-TV by the CRTC, was awarded in Toronto on November 25, 1971 by Channel Seventy-Nine Ltd., which consisted of – among others – Phyllis Switzer, Moses Znaimer , Jerry Grafstein and Edgar Cowan. The four principal owners raised over $ 2 million to help start up the station, with Grafstein raising about 50% of the required funds, Znaimer raising around 25%, and
22490-520: The partnership as compliant with the license, and stated that they had editorial control over the programs. Unifor stated that it would file a grievance and a complaint with the CRTC over this agreement. The CRTC dismissed the complaint in April 2018, ruling that "produce" was broadly defined to allow for subcontracting, and that Rogers' editorial control (including limits on content sharing with newscasts on Fairchild's own channels) were sufficient as to not reduce
22663-449: The popular Degrassi franchise), which due to a switch to a more serialized format in 2011, began producing up to 40 episodes per season. Less expensive forms of programming, such as news and sketch comedy programs, will usually produce many more episodes each year, coming closer to the American model. The French-language commercial networks air significantly more Canadian content than their English counterparts, and domestic programming
22836-545: The previous statement but must provide a variety of programs reflecting different points of view. CRTC regulations have so far prevented a large number of the infomercial - or religious-based stations now frequently found in major centres in the U.S. from operating in Canada; infomercials, even those made in Canada, are not considered Canadian content. Nearly all broadcast stations have now been aligned, in one form or another, into national groups based on ownership and/or content. Many of these groups are designated as "networks", in
23009-592: The proposal, CTVgm would sell several of CHUM's less valuable properties, such as the smaller A-Channel system, to Rogers Communications , Canada's largest cable provider and already a major media company in its own right. On June 8, 2007, however, the CRTC approved the CHUM merger, conditional on CTV divesting itself of Citytv rather than A-Channel. This sparked another round of media consolidation. In early 2007, Canwest, in partnership with Goldman Sachs , announced an agreement to buy Alliance Atlantis , another major specialty channel operator, and more deals are expected in
23182-545: The ratings of the stations with the new moniker. The change took effect on August 2 of the same year, when the A-Channel name was transferred to CHUM's NewNet stations. On July 12, 2006, CHUM announced that it would dramatically reduce its newsgathering operations in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, and Winnipeg, as well as in several other cities. It laid off 281 part- and full-time employees, effectively cancelleing its supper-hour, late-night and weekend newscasts, laying off hundreds of news department staff among 281 job cuts. In
23355-536: The re-branding of its A-Channel system in Central Canada as Citytv in August 2005. CHUM Limited was acquired by CTVglobemedia (now Bell Media ) in 2007; to comply with Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) ownership limits, the Citytv stations were sold to Rogers. The network grew through further affiliations with three Jim Pattison Group -owned stations, along with Rogers' acquisition of
23528-506: The religious-licensed Omni stations in Winnipeg and Vancouver as part of its contemporaneous purchase of Citytv (which the CRTC ordered CTVglobemedia to sell them off as part of the CHUM Limited takeover deal). Rogers indicated, however, that it viewed retaining the multilingual licences in Toronto, Calgary and Edmonton (effectively creating twinsticks in those three markets) as compatible with CRTC policy, since they are licensed to serve
23701-454: The remainder being accrued by Switzer and Cowan. CITY-TV began broadcasting on September 28, 1972 for the first time using the "Citytv" brand and initially operated as an independent station , and its transmitter operated at an effective radiated power of 31 kW . The station operated from studio facilities located at 99 Queen Street East, near Church Street, at the former Electric Circus nightclub. The station lost money early on, and
23874-488: The request, Rogers had hinted that a similar agreement had been tentatively reached with EastLink , the main cable provider in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island . In 2000, after Canwest Global Communications acquired the assets of Western International Communications which led to a network shuffle in Vancouver , CHUM applied to the CRTC to acquire CKVU-TV (Global Vancouver) on July 26, 2001 for $ 175 million, with
24047-652: The rest of Canada. V , for instance, is carried on cable in New Brunswick and parts of Ontario and is available nationally by satellite. The Ontario government's French public television network TFO is the only French-language broadcaster in Canada whose operations are located entirely outside of Quebec. Other ethnic and multicultural services, serving one or more cultural groups outside of these two official languages, are also growing in strength. Six terrestrial TV stations, CFMT and CJMT in Toronto, CFHG in Montreal , CJEO in Edmonton , CJCO in Calgary and CHNM in Vancouver , air multicultural programming in
24220-448: The result of Industry Canada 's decision to reassign frequencies corresponding to high-band UHF channels 70 to 83 to the new AMPS mobile phone systems as a result of a CCIR international convention in 1982. In 1981, CITY was purchased outright by CHUM with the sale of Moses Znaimer's interest in the station. Znaimer remained with the station as an executive until 2003, when he retired from his management role but continued to work with
24393-485: The sale to Rogers, CKVU carried Sunday afternoon "late window" (4:00/4:15 p.m. ET, 1:00/1:15 p.m. PT) games during the 2007 season (as did Omni Television station CJMT in Toronto). From the 2008 season through 2013 , all Citytv stations carried Sunday late-window games. After rights to late games were acquired by CTV (who also airs early games), Sportsnet and Citytv maintained rights to Thursday Night Football and
24566-410: The sale. As part of the sale, Rogers requested that the CRTC convert CJNT to an English-language station, on the condition that both Channel Zero and Rogers provide services and resources to CFHD-DT , International Channel/Canal International (ICI), a newly proposed, locally owned multicultural station. Both were approved by the CRTC on December 20, 2012. ICI officially launched on December 11, 2013. In
24739-492: The same month, Citytv Toronto became the first television station in Canada to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition . The following year on June 8, the CRTC approved the CTV takeover of CHUM. However, the CRTC made the deal conditional on CTV divesting itself of Citytv, because there were already CTV owned-and-operated stations serving the same cities ( CFTO-TV Toronto, CIVT-TV Vancouver, CFCN-TV Calgary, CFRN-TV Edmonton, and CKY-TV Winnipeg). Without
24912-558: The same time caused it to develop within American technical standards that had been previously mandated by the Federal Communications Commission between 1941 and 1946. Since the first Canadian stations ( CBFT in Montreal and CBLT in Toronto) signed on in September 1952, television developed differently in Canada than in the United States because it was introduced and developed in a different context. The distinct social, political, and economic situation of Canada shaped
25085-486: The sign-on of the nation's first television stations in Montreal and Toronto in 1952. As with most media in Canada , the television industry, and the television programming available in that country, are strongly influenced by media in the United States , perhaps to an extent not seen in any other major industrialized nation. As a result, the government institutes quotas for " Canadian content ". Nonetheless, new content
25258-419: The south and east Asian communities. CFMT (Omni.1), which focuses on European and Latin American communities, retains its existing distribution in southern and eastern Ontario. Rogers also sought 9(1)( h ) must-carry status for the service. Colette Watson, Rogers' vice president of television, stated that Omni Television was "not sustainable in its current state"; the company stated that must-carry status for
25431-485: The station on some production projects. CITY and the other CHUM-owned television properties moved their operations to the company's headquarters at 299 Queen Street West in May 1987, which became one of the most recognizable landmarks in the city. On March 30, 1998, CHUM launched CablePulse 24 ( CP24 ), a local cable news channel whose programming used anchors from and featured reports filed by CITY-TV's news staff, rebroadcasts of
25604-655: The station's CityPulse newscasts and select programming from CITY and other CHUM stations. CHUM added CITY-TV's three rebroadcast transmitters in Woodstock (CITY-TV-2 on channel 31, which also served nearby London ) on September 1, 1986, while another transmitter was set up in Ottawa in 1996 (CITY-TV-3 on channel 65). CITY-TV's groundbreaking format became successful when CHUM dropped CKVR's longtime affiliation with CBC Television on September 1, 1995 and relaunched it as an independent station . Eventually, CHUM began to replicate
25777-412: The stations continue to use the same branding and logos they used as affiliates of the E! system. The Pattison-owned Citytv affiliates produce local newscasts, but do not produce their own versions of Breakfast Television nor title their midday and evening newscasts under the CityNews brand like the Citytv owned-and-operated stations do. Through a long-term affiliation renewal agreement on May 3, 2012,
25950-460: The survival of Canadian television depended on public funding for Canadian programs, which would be produced, broadcast and controlled by a public corporation. The Broadcasting Act of 1932 began of government involvement. Its main aim was the "Canadianization of mass media". In other words, it wanted to create a Canadian broadcasting system to replace the American system that had infiltrated itself into Canada, as well as to unite Canadians in creating
26123-449: The system's first television station located east of the Greater Toronto Area . On December 20, 2012, the CRTC approved the acquisition of CJNT and Rogers' request to convert the station from multicultural to a conventional English-language station. The station began carrying the full Citytv schedule on February 4, 2013, turning Citytv from a television system into a full-fledged network. Rogers will produce 15.5 hours of local programming
26296-489: The television industry in Canada now more closely resembles the British or Australian models, in which the vast majority of stations are directly owned by their networks and offer only slight variance in local scheduling apart from local or regional newscasts, rather than the American network affiliate model that formerly predominated. In some cases, in fact, a single station serves an entire province (or even multiple provinces, in
26469-463: The ten most popular programs on French-language television were made in Quebec, including La Famille Plouffe . Gradually, French Canadians showed a strong preference for Quebec-produced television programs, which was significant considering the fierce American competition that English Canada dealt with (and still deals with to this day). French-language television was distinct from English-language television in that "one of its most distinctive aspects
26642-498: The two countries being tied very closely on an economic standpoint, almost anything produced in the U.S. could be considered to be of general interest to Canadians. Changes to this were attempted in the late 1980s. Government intervention throughout the development of television in Canada affected the way it was developed domestically as it developed through laws and policies rather than a free market. While American television stations, including affiliates of ABC , NBC and CBS , near
26815-700: The years from 1948 to 1952, most of them tuned to stations from either the Buffalo, Seattle, Cleveland or Detroit television markets . When Canadian television began, the Radio-Television Manufacturers Association of Canada estimated that 85,000 sets were expected to be sold in 1952. 95% of these were concentrated in Ontario, with 57.4% in the Golden Horseshoe region (40.2% in Toronto and Hamilton, 17.2% in Niagara Peninsula ) and 34.6% in
26988-406: The youth. With the exception of radio, television presented an opportunity, for the first time, to reach a very wide audience at the same time. By 1954, a million television sets had been sold in Canada. Even though those sets were very expensive at the time, the large majority (9 of 10) of Canadian households owned a television set by the end of the 1950s. People became excited and obsessed with
27161-461: Was "[an] exceptional need for a national, multilingual multi-ethnic programming service that can provide Canadians with news and current events programming in multiple languages from a Canadian perspective", and formally requested applications for a national, multicultural specialty service that would receive must-carry status. The CRTC announced the eight applicants on April 17, 2018, which included competing proposals by companies such as Bell Media ,
27334-510: Was 100% ethnic, the station experienced financial difficulties, and was on the verge of bankruptcy when Rogers stepped in and purchased it in 1986. Rogers then attempted to launch a similar multicultural station in Vancouver in 1996, 1999 and 2002, but all three attempts were rejected by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). It was, however, given a second multicultural licence in Toronto to provide room for additional multicultural programing, and launched CJMT as
27507-445: Was allowed on the basis that, in another owner's hands, stations like CHCH in Hamilton, Ontario and CHEK in Victoria, British Columbia (both Canwest stations that were sold off in 2009, CHCH to Channel Zero and CHEK to a consortium of the station's employees) would inevitably turn their focus to the larger Toronto and Vancouver markets respectively, leaving their cities of licence with little or no local news coverage. This led to
27680-424: Was already trying to keep foreign ownership and programming at a minimum to avoid the American imperialism that would be caused by such dependency on the United States, which in fact was already incipient. The issue of economy of scale played a large role. "Americans [were] pushing smaller cultural communication aside with their dominating programming, not because they [were] based on a policy but because they ha[d]
27853-496: Was approved in late June 2012 by the CRTC and Rogers relaunched SCN as Citytv Saskatchewan on July 1. Rogers plans to invest in the station's infrastructure, and also launch a high definition feed. In Montreal, Rogers announced its intent to acquire multicultural station CJNT-DT from Toronto-based Channel Zero on May 3, 2012, and announced an affiliation agreement with the station, effective June 4, 2012. This gave Citytv stations in all provinces west of Atlantic Canada as well as
28026-408: Was as strong as its opposing force of attractiveness of American television programs to Canadian viewers. Most Anglophone viewers could relate easily to the American programs as much as they did to their Canadian programs, since people spoke the same language as they did. For example, in 1957, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation presented American programs such as The Ed Sullivan Show . However,
28199-522: Was discontinued in the 1980s, it was reinstated on CITY and CKVU throughout most of the 2000s, until its ownership change to Rogers Communications. This, along with the 'hide away' place on the UHF dial formed the basis of fictional station "CIVIC TV" (Channel 83, Cable 12) in David Cronenberg 's Videodrome , which is set in Toronto. Citytv was one of the first television stations in Canada to implement
28372-423: Was financially unsustainable, as there were no significant plans for new original programming beyond newscasts, and Rogers did not sufficiently demonstrate that the service would "ensure a sufficient reflection of Canada's third-language communities", as its structure did not sufficiently serve regions not currently served by an Omni station (such as Atlantic and Central Canada). As such, the CRTC recognized that there
28545-510: Was in debt by 1975. Multiple Access Ltd. (the owners of CFCF-TV in Montreal ) purchased a 45% interest in the station, and sold its stake to CHUM Limited , the parent company of CKVR-TV in Barrie , Ontario in 1978. On May 1, 1976, the station's main transmitter began broadcasting at 208 kW from the CN Tower . The station switched channel allocations on July 1, 1983, moving to UHF channel 57,
28718-585: Was introduced, and Mandarin was expanded from weekends only to Monday to Friday newscasts. CHNM , or Omni British Columbia, was branded as Channel M prior to its purchase by Rogers in 2008. As Channel M, and after being bought by Rogers, CHNM produced a national newscast in Punjabi , as well as Cantonese and Mandarin. Omni Alberta also produced newscasts in Cantonese and Mandarin, as well as an English language South Asian newscast, from its launch in 2008 until 2011. The programs featured coverage of Canadian news stories in
28891-533: Was necessary to restore and sustain the stations' local programming. Originally licensed by the CRTC on a three-year interim basis while the commission considered alternative proposals for a national multicultural channel, the Commission ultimately chose to re-licence Omni Regional until at least 2023, on the basis of commitments to expanded Canadian programming production. Derived from the Latin word "omnis" meaning "all", "Omni"
29064-418: Was not compromised for identity. This can be inferred through the vagueness and ineffective policies passed in the aim of protecting Canadian culture. For example, Canadian content regulations were introduced in 1959 and revised again in 1978. "Canadian content" is broadly defined as programs of "general interest to Canadians". Since Canadians easily identify with Americans and their popular culture as well as
29237-419: Was produced in Toronto for broadcast on the western Canadian stations and on CHUM's Toronto news channel CP24 . The Edmonton and Calgary stations also began broadcasting a daily 30-minute magazine show, Your City , instead of a full-fledged newscast. The Vancouver news operation, which had operated for 30 years under various owners and station identities, was not maintained aside from Breakfast Television . In
29410-854: Was rejected by the CRTC as this would have resulted in Bell increasing its share of the Canadian broadcasting market to 42%. Bell filed a new application for the proposed takeover with the CRTC on March 6, 2013, two days after the Competition Bureau approved the acquisition; the Commission approved the merger on June 27, 2013, with Bell volunteering to sell certain cable television properties including Family Channel , Disney XD , MusiMax , MusiquePlus and Historia as well as Astral's interest in Teletoon , in an attempt to relieve concerns surrounding Bell's total market share in English-language television following
29583-512: Was sold to Quebecor Media , owners of the media units TVA and Sun Media . In February 2005, CHUM announced it would align Craig's A-Channel stations with its existing major-market stations under the Citytv brand. No other significant changes were made, since the A-Channel stations's on-air look had always been very similar to that of Citytv; they initially retained their local programs, relaunched under Citytv's Breakfast Television morning brand and CityNews news brand. CHUM hoped to lift
29756-490: Was the bringing together of international and local influences, American and European television styles and programming ideas and merging them with the cultural idioms of rapidly modernizing and assertive Quebec." The merging of local and foreign ideas and techniques was a novelty in North American television. Since English and French language television in Canada had developed separately, French-language broadcasting developed
29929-502: Was the original home of FashionTelevision , SexTV and MediaTelevision . Many of these series were not exclusively focused on Toronto – FT , for instance, consisted largely of foreign runway footage – and are easily syndicated to other outlets. The latter three shows are now owned by CTVglobemedia as a result of its takeover of CHUM and subsequent divestiture of the Citytv stations. CITY prominently broadcast feature films during primetime, in late night and on weekends as part of
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