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CBC News Network

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CBC News Network
CountryCanada
HeadquartersToronto, Ontario
Ownership
OwnerCanadian Broadcasting Corporation

CBC News Network (formerly CBC Newsworld) is a Canadian English language news channel owned and operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). It broadcasts into over 10 million homes in Canada, and is a Category C specialty channel. It is the world's third-oldest television service of this nature, after CNN in the United States and Sky News in the United Kingdom.

CBC News Network's French-language counterpart is Ici RDI, also owned by the CBC.

Revenue

According to the Canadian Communications Monitoring report - Broadcasting system 2014, there are 11.3 million subscribers and revenue of $86.7 million. [1]

History

Logo used by CBC Newsworld from 2001-2009.

With CNN already being widely available in Canada, during the 1980s both private and public Canadian broadcasters began to apply for a licence for a similar 24-hour news service in Canada. In 1987 the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) awarded a licence to the CBC. Its initial launch was delayed several times: first when Allarcom, who had filed a competing application for an all-news channel, chose to appeal the CRTC decision;[2] second, when the federal cabinet issued a directive to the CBC to revise its service plan for the network to include private commercial broadcasters and to launch a parallel French language service;[3] and finally when cable companies were reluctant to add the service just five months after a similar launch of numerous other channels.[4]

CBC Newsworld finally began broadcasting on July 31, 1989. The network originally broadcast from several regional studios in Halifax, Toronto, Winnipeg and Calgary. However, budget cuts over the years eventually forced the network to centralize most of its operations in Toronto and Calgary.

It is funded by cable subscriber fees and commercial advertising. Unlike the CBC's main television network, the channel cannot directly receive operational funds from the corporation's public funding allotment — although it does benefit from synergies with other CBC services, such as the ability to share reporters and programs with the main network.[5] In the 1990s, the channel also aired repeats of CBC Television's political sketch comedy series This Hour Has 22 Minutes and Royal Canadian Air Farce, but these were discontinued in 2001 after a CRTC directive that the shows did not qualify as news programming.[6]

While sometimes thought to be a mandatory basic cable channel, there are in fact a number of cable systems, owned at the time by Persona, that did not carry CBC News Network at all during much of the 2000s. The channel was dropped by these systems in 2000, due to a fee dispute between Persona (then known as Regional Cablesystems; later acquired by Eastlink) and the CBC.[7] The channel is believed to have since returned to most (if not all) of these systems.

Newsworld International

Main article: Newsworld International

Some of CBC News Network's programming also aired on the now-defunct Newsworld International, a former American cable news network co-owned by the CBC and the Power Corporation of Canada. CBC Newsworld (as it was then known) produced some programming for Newsworld International, and scheduled programming from other news networks like BBC World, which did not air on the Canadian channel.

Newsworld International was sold to USA Networks in 2000, then to Vivendi Universal in 2001. and then to Al Gore and Joel Hyatt in 2004. Newsworld continued to provide the network's programming until Gore and Hyatt launched their own network, Current TV, on August 1, 2005. In 2013, the channel was sold again to the Al Jazeera Media Network and ultimately became Al Jazeera America on August 20, 2013.

2009 re-launch

On October 21, 2009, it was announced that CBC Newsworld would be re-branded as CBC News Network on October 26 as part of a larger re-launch of the CBC News division. A new lineup of programs was introduced to the network, with a greater emphasis towards live news coverage. New programs included CBC News Now (the channel's rolling news coverage), Power & Politics, The Lang and O'Leary Exchange (a business news program hosted by Amanda Lang and investor of Dragons' Den fame Kevin O'Leary) and Connect with Mark Kelley.[8]

CBC News Network HD

In January 2009, the CBC launched an HD simulcast of CBC News Network (then known as CBC Newsworld) originally called CBC Newsworld HD. The channel was renamed CBC News Network HD on October 26, 2009 to coincide with the rebranding of CBC Newsworld to CBC News Network. The HD feed has been confirmed at 720p resolution on Shaw cable after it was added to the lineup in 2014.

It is currently available through all major TV providers.

Programming

CBC News Network originally aired a number of magazine-style programs, along with hourly news updates. In recent years, the network has moved from that style of programming to focusing solely on live news programs and documentary programs, including The Passionate Eye and Rough Cuts, both formerly hosted by Michaëlle Jean, and Politics, a political affairs program which was hosted by Don Newman and aired twice daily. The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos was launched in 2005 in an attempt to attract younger viewers; similar news-oriented talk shows, such as Pamela Wallin Live, CounterSpin, Face Off and Benmergui Live, also aired on the network in the 1990s.

The network's daytime schedule consists of the rolling newscast CBC News Now, which airs from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends. Instead of producing a separate morning news or noon-hour program, most CBC Television stations simulcast CBC News Now from 6 to 7 a.m. and 12 to 1 p.m. local time.

Power & Politics airs from 5 to 7 p.m., followed by the business news program The Exchange from 7 to 8 p.m. An evening edition of CBC News Now, anchored by Ian Hanomansing, airs at 8 p.m., and a simulcast of the Atlantic Canadian edition of The National airs from 9 to 10 p.m. From 10 p.m. until the first edition of CBC News Now the following morning, the schedule consists of repeat airings of CBC news and documentary programs.

Anchors

Current

Past

References

  1. ^ http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/publications/reports/policymonitoring/2014/cmr4.htm
  2. ^ "Allarcom asks cabinet to overturn ruling giving licence to CBC for all-news channel". Ottawa Citizen, December 23, 1987.
  3. ^ "CBC being sent back to drawing board over all-news plan". The Globe and Mail, January 27, 1988.
  4. ^ "CBC all-news network launch put off to August from February". The Globe and Mail, December 23, 1988.
  5. ^ Decision CRTC 2000-3, CBC News Network's 2000 CRTC license renewal
  6. ^ "Broadcasters can't have it both ways". National Post, July 9, 2001.
  7. ^ Newsworld disappears from rural cable, CBC Saskatchewan, September 26, 2000
  8. ^ CBC News (2009-10-21). "Changes to The National as CBC unveils new look". cbc.ca. Retrieved 2009-10-21.
  9. ^ "Major changes ahead at CBC News". The Globe and Mail, Print Edition: June 16, 2009, Page R1.
  10. ^ "CBC rebrands all-news network as CBC NN". Toronto Star, October 21, 2009.
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