CityNews Channel

CityNews Channel
CityNews Channel logo
Launched	October 3, 2011
Owned by	Rogers Media
Picture format	1080i (HDTV) 480i (SDTV)
Country	Canada
Language	English
Broadcast area	Ontario
Headquarters	Toronto, Ontario
Sister channel(s)	CITY-DT, CFMT-DT, CJMT-DT, CFTR-AM
Availability
Cable
Cable Cable	Channel 98 (SD) Channel 314 (HD)
Rogers Cable	Channel 1 (Digital) Channel 566 (HD) Channel 66 (Ottawa only)

CityNews Channel is a Canadian English language local news and information channel for the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Owned by Rogers Media and licenced as a Category B digital cable specialty channel, it is currently available in Ontario via Rogers Digital Cable and broadcasts a single feed in high definition which is also accessible through standard definition televisions.

The channel's branding is shared with its Rogers-owned conventional television system, Citytv, and its news brand CityNews. The channel broadcasts from 33 Dundas Street East in Downtown Toronto which also houses studios for Citytv Toronto, OMNI.1 and OMNI.2.

Format

CityNews Channel broadcasts as an all news format, consisting of local news and information from the GTA, and national and international news. It operates on a 24-hour news wheel as seen on the screen, with traffic and weather reports every 10 minutes on the :1s, sports news at :15 and :45 past the hour, and CityBiz, business news at :26 and :56 past the hour, a similar format used on Rogers-owned all-news radio station in Toronto, 680 News, as well as two of Citytv Toronto's local newscasts, CityNews at Five and Breakfast Television.

The station also airs simulcasts of all Citytv Toronto-produced local programming, including morning news program Breakfast Television and late-evening newscast CityNews Tonight, each of which features an additional half-hour only seen on CityNews Channel. During the overnight hours between 12am to 5:30am EST, the station airs an audio simulcast of 680 News, along with live traffic camera feeds from around the Toronto area.^[1]

The channel contains a large news ticker consisting of news headlines, weather, sports scores, and advertisements.

In addition to sharing branding and content with Citytv and content from 680 News, the channel airs content and features from several other Rogers-owned outlets including Maclean's,^[2] Sportsnet, MoneySense, Today's Parent and HELLO! Canada.^[1]

History

Under the ownership of CHUM Limited, Citytv previously operated CP24, another Toronto-based local news channel, from 1998 to 2007. However, CHUM Limited was purchased in 2007 by Bell Globemedia (later renamed CTVglobemedia, and again renamed Bell Media in 2011 following its purchase by Bell Canada), which then sold the Citytv stations to Rogers Media but CTV retained ownership of CHUM's cable channels, including CP24, which was paired with CTV's CFTO-DT instead of Citytv.

Rogers was granted approval for a television broadcast licence for CityNews Channel by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) on December 10, 2008.^[3][4] The channel was then tentatively known as CITY News (Toronto), and was initially set to launch in late 2009. However, the launch was delayed due to economic conditions, as well as the reconstruction of Citytv's new headquarters at 33 Dundas Street East.

On May 30, 2011, during Citytv's fall schedule announcement, Rogers officially announced plans to launch the new channel in the fall of the same year.^[2] The channel launched on October 3, 2011 as CityNews Channel and is available in HD.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Rogers Media to Launch CityNews Channel, Broadcaster Magazine, September 6, 2011.
2. ^ ^{a b} Rogers Media announces launch of new Toronto 24-hour CityNews Channel, Fall 2011 CNW 2011-03-30
3. ^ Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2008-347.
4. ^ CRTC Grants Citytv Licence For All News Channel. CityNews Toronto, December 10, 2008.

External links

• CityNews