CTV News logo

CTV News is the news division of the CTV Television Network in Canada. The name CTV News is also applied as the title of local and regional newscasts on the network's owned-and-operated stations (O&Os), which are closely tied to the national news division. Local newscasts on CTV Two are also branded as CTV News, although in most cases they are managed separately from the newscasts on the main CTV network.

National programs[link]

CTV's national news division produces the following programs:

• CTV National News, the nightly newscast anchored by Lisa LaFlamme (weekdays) and Sandie Rinaldo (weekends);
• Canada AM, a weekday morning news and entertainment program;
• W5, a weekly newsmagazine series;
• Question Period, a weekly news and interview series.

CTV News also operates the national 24-hour news channel CTV News Channel and the 24-hour national business news channel Business News Network, both of which are available across Canada on cable and satellite.

Local programs[link]

Chopper 9, CTV British Columbia's full time news helicopter, CTV Toronto is the only other station that uses the CTV chopper, the latter unit is also used on Bell Media's Toronto-based local news channel, CP24, but referred to as Chopper 24

Local programs use the title CTV News on the air. In most markets, local CTV News programs air at noon, 6 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. or 11:30 p.m. on weekdays, and at 6 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. or 11:30 p.m. on weekends.

National aggregate ratings published by BBM Canada refer to the local broadcasts collectively as CTV Evening News, CTV Late News, CTV Noon News, etc. Since most CTV affiliates are owned by the network, CTV offers the opportunity to buy national ads on local programming across its O&Os, making these aggregate ratings useful for advertisers.

Local CTV News programs are produced in the following markets:

• Barrie (CKVR)
• Calgary (CFCN)
• Edmonton (CFRN)
• Greater Sudbury (CICI)
• Halifax (CJCH / CTV Two Atlantic)
• Kitchener (CKCO)
• London (CFPL)
• Montreal (CFCF: CTV News Montreal)
• Ottawa (CJOH / CHRO)
• Regina (CKCK)
• Saskatoon (CFQC)
• Toronto (CFTO)
• Vancouver (CIVT)
• Victoria (CIVI)
• Winnipeg (CKY)
• Windsor (CHWI)

CTV O&Os in smaller markets air a newscast produced in one of the larger markets noted above, although some may also produce a shorter local news insert aired during a break in the main market's program, and many stations produce their own Noon newscasts.

Bell Media's secondary A system which was acquired through the purchase of CHUM Limited, and operated primarily in smaller markets (or alternate areas of larger markets) produced similar local newscasts known as A News. When the A system re-branded as "CTV Two" on August 29, 2011, the stations' newscasts switched to the CTV News branding.^[1] The CTV News broadcasts on the CTV Two stations use the main CTV logo in the on-air graphics featured in the newscasts as with the main CTV network. Most of these stations are nevertheless required to operate their local news operations separately from CTV stations serving the same or adjacent markets. This restriction does not apply to CTV Two Atlantic, a cable channel which has been co-owned with the CTV stations serving that region since its launch (incidentally, such restrictions also do not apply to CTV Two Alberta, also a cable-only channel, which produces a current affairs program, Alberta Primetime, using resources from that province's CTV stations).

Affiliates not owned by the network also air their own local newscasts, such as NTV (which despite dropping CTV's entertainment programming in 2002, still provides coverage of Newfoundland for CTV News and airs its national newscasts), and CITL-TV (which airs "Newcap News", a production shared with its sister station, private CBC affiliate CKSA-TV).

Bell Media also operates CP24, a regional news channel focusing on the Greater Toronto Area and most of Southern Ontario, which was acquired through its purchase of CHUM Limited, and formerly aligned with CITY-TV. The channel airs news programs focused on the region, and currently airs simulcasts of CFTO's 6:00pm and 11:30pm newscasts.

News bureaus[link]

CTV News has bureaus across Canada and around the world, but many were closed to cut costs (most recent being the ones in Moscow and Kampala) and replaced with reporters sent to locations from the existing bureaus.

A list of current bureaus:

National[link]

• Ottawa
  • Bureau Chief: Robert Fife
  • Chief Parliamentary Correspondent: Craig Oliver
  • Reporters: Richard Madan, Roger Smith, Daniele Hamamdjian

• Halifax
  • Bureau Chief: Todd Battis

• Montreal
  • Bureau Chief: Genevieve Beauchemin

• Toronto
  • Medical Correspondent: Avis Favaro
  • Medical Contributor: Dr. Marla Shapiro
  • Investigative Reporter: Victor Malarek
  • Reporters: Scott Laurie, John Vennavally-Rao, Omar Sachedina, Seamus O'Regan

• Winnipeg
  • Bureau Chief: Jill Macyshon

• Calgary
  • Bureau Chief: Janet Dirks

• Vancouver
  • Bureau Chief: Sarah Galashan

International[link]

• London - Europe
  • Bureau Chief: Tom Kennedy
  • Correspondent: Ben O'Hara-Byrne

• Washington - United States
  • Bureau Chief: Paul Workman
  • Correspondent: Joy Malbon

• Los Angeles - United States West Coast
  • Bureau Chief: Tom Walters

• Beijing - Far East and Southeast Asia
  • Bureau Chief: Vacant

• New Delhi - South Asia
  • Bureau Chief: Janis Mackey Frayer

• Jerusalem - Middle East
  • Bureau Chief: Martin Seemungal

[edit] My News

In 2008, the CTV News website introduced My News, a citizen journalism feature allowing for citizens to upload their images or videos relating to current events. Viewers may also upload media for any station or program.^[2]

References[link]

External links[link]

• CTV News

CTV Television Network (commonly referred to as CTV) is a Canadian English language television network, owned by Bell Media, which is a subsidiary of BCE Inc.. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival Global Television Network in key markets.^[1]

Bell Media also operates additional CTV-branded properties, including CTV's 24-hour national cable news channel (CTV News Channel) and the secondary CTV Two television system.

There has never been a full name for the initials "CTV". However, it is generally assumed to mean "Canadian Television", which was used in a promotional campaign by the network in 1998.

History[link]

Formation[link]

In 1958, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker's government passed a new Broadcasting Act, establishing the Board of Broadcast Governors (forerunner to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, or CRTC) as the governing body of Canadian broadcasting, thus ending the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's (CBC) dual role as regulator and broadcaster. The new board's first act was to take applications for "second" television stations in Halifax, Montreal (in both English and French), Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver in response to an outcry for an alternative to the CBC's television service. Calgary and Edmonton were served by privately owned CBC affiliates; the other six markets by CBC owned-and-operated stations (O&Os).

The nine winners, in order of their first sign-on, were:

• CFCN-TV Calgary (September 9, 1960)
• CHAN-TV Vancouver (October 31, 1960)
• CJAY-TV Winnipeg (November 12, 1960)
• CFTO-TV Toronto (January 1, 1961)
• CJCH-TV Halifax (January 1, 1961)
• CFCF-TV Montreal (English) (January 20, 1961)
• CFTM-TV Montreal (French) (February 19, 1961)
• CJOH-TV Ottawa (March 12, 1961)
• CBXT-TV Edmonton (October 1, 1961)

The first eight stations were privately owned; the Edmonton station was a CBC O&O, meaning that the existing station in that city, CFRN-TV, would lose its CBC affiliation once CBXT signed on.

Even before his station was licensed, John Bassett, the chief executive of the ultimately-successful Toronto applicant Baton Aldred Rogers Broadcasting,^[2] had expressed interest in participating in the creation of a second television network, "of which we see the Toronto station as anchor".^[3] Indeed, Baton had already begun quietly contacting the successful applicants in other cities to gauge their interest in forming a cooperative group to share Canadian programming among the stations.^[3] This led to the July 1960 formation of the Independent Television Organization (ITO), consisting of all eight of the newly-licensed private stations, plus CFRN. Each station would have a single vote in the ITO's operations, regardless of the size of the station's audience. (CFTM, being a French-language station and thus having little reason to collaborate with the other stations, would soon withdraw from the group; it would later emerge as the flagship of the first private French-language network, TVA.) The ITO soon resolved to apply for a network licence to link these second stations.^[4]

However, the ITO faced opposition from Spence Caldwell, a former CBC executive and one of the unsuccessful applicants for the Toronto licence, who had first approached the BBG in April 1960 to pitch a second-station network proposal of his own. Under his plan, at least 51% of the shares of the network would be owned by various prominent Bay Street investors who had previously backed his Toronto station bid; only 49% would be reserved for the network's affiliates to purchase, if they wished. The BBG – and particularly its chair Andrew Stewart (who at the time also served as the president of the University of Alberta) – was not in favour of a station-owned network, fearing that the Toronto station would eventually come to dominate it. Although it did not immediately approve Caldwell's proposal, it soon set several conditions on such a network that effectively made Caldwell's group the only feasible applicant.^[5]

That fall, the Caldwell group (now named the Canadian Television Network, or CTN) and the ITO faced off in a series of meetings with the BBG. The ITO decided not to follow through with a formal network application, but the stations – particularly Baton, which said it had no interest in participating in CTN, and believed it could still be successful without one – continued to indicate various concerns with the viability of Caldwell's proposal. Ultimately the BBG granted a licence to CTN, conditional on securing the affiliation of six of the eight ITO stations.^[6]

Baton's opposition to the CTN reversed in early 1961, soon after CFTO won the broadcast rights to the Canadian Football League Eastern Conference for the 1961 and 1962 seasons.^[7] Baton's original plan was to operate a temporary network to distribute the games incorporating CFTO, other independent stations, and CBC affiliates in smaller markets (assuming the public network released its affiliates to carry the game).^[8] Although the plan was never officially rejected (or approved), various uncertainties eventually led John Bassett to decide to sign an affiliation agreement with CTN instead to ensure the games would air.^[9] Most of the other second stations followed suit, with the exception of CHAN in Vancouver, which agreed to carry several network programs but never officially signed on as an affiliate for the duration of the Caldwell era, yet nonetheless would later claim to have been a "charter member" of the network.^[10][11]

Early years[link]

The network finally launched as the CTV Television Network on October 1, 1961.^{[12][13][nb 1]} The CBC had objected to the network's initial name, apparently claiming it had exclusive rights to the term "Canadian", and therefore the letters "CTV" have no official expanded meaning.^[19]

The CTV network's first night on-air began with Harry Rasky's promotional documentary on the new network. That was followed by a fall season preview program.^[12]

CTV's initial 1961–1962 season began with the following programs, five of which were Canadian productions:^[12]

1. The Andy Griffith Show (United States, CBS)
2. Checkmate (United States, CBS)
3. Cross Canada Barndance (Canada)
4. Maigret (United Kingdom, BBC)
5. The Rifleman (United States, ABC)
6. Showdown (Canada)
7. Sing Along With Mitch (United States NBC)
8. Take a Chance, a quiz show by Roy Ward Dickson adapted from radio (Canada)
9. Top Cat (United States, ABC)
10. Twenty Questions (Canada)
11. West Coast (Canada)
12. Whiplash (Australia, ATN-7)

Other series such as Telepoll and A Kin to Win were introduced later in the inaugural season.

At first, flagship CFTO was the only station that carried programming live. During CBC's off-hours, CTV used CBC's microwave system to send programming to the rest of the country on tape delay.^[13] Eventually, a second microwave channel opened up, enabling live programming from coast to coast.

The Caldwell-led management team immediately ran into financial trouble, and relations between the network and its stations were not smooth at first since CTV had essentially been the product of a forced marriage. For example, most of the rights to American programming rested with the ITO, not CTV.^[20] In many cases, CTV found itself competing with its own stations for the rights to programming.

Becoming a broadcasting powerhouse[link]

Caldwell's departure in 1965^[21] did little to alleviate the situation, and CTV soon found itself of the verge of bankruptcy. In 1966, the network's affiliates (which by this time included CJON-TV in St. John's, CKCO-TV in Kitchener, CHAB/CHRE in Moose Jaw/Regina, and the network's first and only U.S. affiliate, WNYP-TV in Jamestown, New York) sought permission to buy the network and run it as a cooperative. The board readily approved the proposal, and by the start of the 1966-67 season, the stations (except WNYP, which dropped CTV in 1969) owned their network.^[22] The network also began broadcasting in colour on September 1, 1966.^[22]

By the mid-1970s, CTV had expanded its footprint across Canada, mostly by twinstick arrangements in smaller cities, and with CBC affiliates switching to CTV once the CBC opened its own stations or added rebroadcasters of nearby O&O stations. In a unique twist, the original Saskatchewan affiliate, CHAB/CHRE, was bought by the CBC in 1968 (and eventually recalled CBKT), allowing Regina's original station, CKCK-TV, to join CTV.

CTV made a name for itself in news coverage when it convinced star CBC news anchor Lloyd Robertson to switch networks in 1976.^[23] (Robertson served as the network's main anchorman until 2011.) The network also has the country's longest-running national morning news show, Canada AM. Its weekly newsmagazine series, W-FIVE, has been a fixture on the network since 1966,^[24] predating the similar American program 60 Minutes by two years.

In the late 1970s, CTV often bought rights to pop and rock songs to serve as theme music for its programming, rather than commissioning original themes. Most notably, W5 used an instrumental portion of Supertramp's "Fool's Overture", Canada AM used an instrumental version of The Moody Blues' "Ride My See-Saw", and the game show Definition used Quincy Jones' "Soul Bossa Nova" (later seasons of Definition used another theme).

Baton takes over[link]

In the mid-1980s, Baton Broadcasting, owners of flagship CFTO in Toronto, began a drive to take over CTV by buying as many affiliates as possible. Having already bought CFQC-TV in Saskatoon in 1971^[25], Baton purchased the following stations between 1986 and 1990: