CBLFT-DT

CBLFT-DT, virtual and UHF channel 25, is an Ici Radio-Canada Télé owned-and-operated television station located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The station is owned by the Société Radio-Canada division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, as part of a twinstick with CBC Television outlet CBLT-DT (channel 5). CBLFT maintains studio facilities based out of the Canadian Broadcasting Centre on Front Street West in downtown Toronto, and its transmitter is located atop the CN Tower in downtown Toronto. On cable, the station is available on Rogers Cable channel 12 and in high definition on digital channel 515; on satellite, CBLFT is also available on Bell TV channel 99.

The station provides French-language programming to the Greater Toronto Area and most of Ontario, including the Western, Central and Northeastern regions of the province.

History

CBLFT was originally licensed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission in 1972 as a standalone station; the station first signed on the air on March 23, 1973. Until CBLFT signed on, CBC O&O CBLT (channel 5) aired French-language programming from Radio-Canada on Sunday mornings. The station originally transmitted from the CBC's Jarvis Street transmitter site, but as with almost all other radio and television stations in Toronto, approval was given by the CRTC to move the transmitter site to the CN Tower on December 14, 1973. Several transmitters in Northern Ontario which were already in operation as rebroadcasters of CBOFT in Ottawa were reassigned to CBLFT's license, and various additional rebroadcasters were added throughout Ontario in the 1970s and 1980s.