BNN Bloomberg (formerly Business News Network and Report on Business Television) is a Canadian English language
specialty channel owned by
Bell Media
Bell Media Inc. (French: ) is a Canadian company formed by the amalgamation of several companies.
Establishment (2011–13)
On December 9, 2011, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan announced the sale of its majority stake in Maple Leaf Sports ...
. It broadcasts programming related to business and financial news and analysis. The channel is headquartered at
299 Queen Street West
299 Queen Street West, also known as Bell Media Queen Street or Bell Media Studios, is the headquarters of the television/radio broadcast hub of Bell Canada's media unit, Bell Media located at the intersection of Queen Street West and John Str ...
in
Downtown Toronto
Downtown Toronto is the main central business district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located entirely within the district of Old Toronto, it is approximately 16.6 square kilometres in area, bounded by Bloor Street to the northeast and Dupont Str ...
.
Since April 30, 2018, the network has operated as a partner of the U.S. business channel
Bloomberg Television
Bloomberg Television (on-air as Bloomberg) is an American-based pay television network focusing on business and capital market programming, owned by Bloomberg L.P. It is distributed globally, reaching over 310 million homes worldwide. It is hea ...
, although BNN still produces a large portion of its business day programming in-house. Much of the channel's programming is also simulcast by radio stations
CFTE in
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
and
CKOC
CKOC (1150 AM) is a radio station in Hamilton, Ontario. Owned by Bell Media, it broadcasts a business news format. CKOC is a 50,000-watt, Class B station operating on a Regional (not clear-channel) broadcast frequency, with transmitters locate ...
in
Hamilton Hamilton may refer to:
People
* Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname
** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland
** Lord Hamilt ...
under the branding ''BNN Bloomberg Radio''.
History
As Report on Business Television (RoBTV)
![Report on Business Television logo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Report_on_Business_Television_logo.png)
The network was licensed by the
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in 1996 to a
joint venture
A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and economic risk, risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four rea ...
of
Thomson Corporation
The Thomson Corporation was one of the world's largest information companies. It was established in 1989 following a merger between International Thomson Organisation Ltd (ITOL) and Thomson Newspapers. In 2008, it purchased Reuters Group to fo ...
(50%),
Western International Communications
WIC Western International Communications Ltd. (or WIC) was a Canadian media company that operated from 1982 to 2000, with operations including broadcast and specialty television, radio, and satellite distribution via a majority interest in Can ...
(25%) and
Cancom
Shaw Broadcast Services (French: Services de Radiodiffusion Shaw) is the division of Canadian telecommunications company Shaw Communications that is responsible for providing and managing the distribution of television channels to cable companies ...
(25%). It launched on September 1, 1999 as ''Report on Business Television'' (although using the abbreviation ''ROBTv''); it was co-branded with ''
Report on Business'', the business news section of the Thomson-owned ''
The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
''.
In 2000,
Canwest acquired WIC and its interest in ROBTv. As part of the agreement transferring WIC's interests in Cancom to
Shaw Communications, Canwest acquired Cancom's share of the channel as well.
The same year, the owners came into conflict with each other: Canwest acquired the
Southam
Southam () is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district of Warwickshire, England. Southam is situated on the River Stowe (called 'The Brook' by many locals), which flows from Napton-on-the-Hill and joins Warwickshire's ...
newspaper chain, including the ''
National Post
The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...
'', the ''Globe''s chief rival, while Thomson transferred the ''Globe'' and its shares of ROBTv to
Bell Globemedia, a newly formed
media company
Mass media refers to a diverse array of media technologies that reach a large audience via mass communication. The technologies through which this communication takes place include a variety of outlets.
Broadcast media transmit information ...
which also included
CTV, in which Thomson held a 20% interest.
Following threats of legal action from both sides, in 2001 CanWest agreed to sell its 50% interest to Bell Globemedia, in exchange for carriage of a proposed competitor aligned with the ''
Financial Post
The ''Financial Post'' was an English Canadian business newspaper, which published from 1907 to 1998. In 1998, the publication was folded into the new ''National Post'',"Black says Post to merge with new paper". ''The Globe and Mail'', July 23, ...
'' on
Bell Expressvu
Bell Satellite TV (french: Bell Télé; formerly known as Bell ExpressVu, Dish Network Canada and ExpressVu Dish Network and not to be confused with Bell's IPTV Bell Fibe TV, Fibe TV service) is the division of BCE Inc. that provides satellite ...
.
Bell Globemedia assumed full control of ROBTv in late 2001; the channel was then rebranded as Report on Business Television, discontinuing use of the abbreviated "ROBTv" brand.
As Business News Network (BNN)
![Business News Network logo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Business_News_Network_logo.svg)
On March 12, 2007, the channel was renamed Business News Network. The name change occurred to give exclusive rights to the "Report on Business" name to ''The Globe and Mail'' and for the channel to have its own identity. It also alleviated a common problem with the ROBTv name: other media and viewers called it "Rob TV", rather than sounding out the ROB acronym as preferred by the network.
BNN relocated its operations from 720 King Street West to
299 Queen Street West
299 Queen Street West, also known as Bell Media Queen Street or Bell Media Studios, is the headquarters of the television/radio broadcast hub of Bell Canada's media unit, Bell Media located at the intersection of Queen Street West and John Str ...
on December 6, 2010, the building in which CTV's
Much and Toronto's 24-hour news service
CP24
CP24 is a Canadian English-language specialty news channel owned by Bell Media, a subsidiary of BCE Inc. and operated alongside the Bell-owned CTV Television Network's owned-and-operated television stations CFTO-DT (CTV Toronto) and CKVR-DT ( ...
are based.
The Thomson family reacquired control of the ''Globe'' (and therefore Report on Business) in late 2010, and CTVglobemedia's broadcasting assets were sold to
Bell Canada; as a result, the channel and the newspaper are no longer co-owned, although Bell retains a 15% interest in the paper. Following the merger with Bell Canada, on April 1, 2011, Bell Canada renamed its new business unit from CTVglobemedia to
Bell Media
Bell Media Inc. (French: ) is a Canadian company formed by the amalgamation of several companies.
Establishment (2011–13)
On December 9, 2011, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan announced the sale of its majority stake in Maple Leaf Sports ...
.
As BNN Bloomberg
On January 9, 2018, Bell Media announced that it had reached a licensing and content agreement with
Bloomberg L.P.
Bloomberg L.P. is a privately held financial, software, data, and media company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was co-founded by Michael Bloomberg in 1981, with Thomas Secunda, Duncan MacMillan, Charles Zegar, and a 1 ...
, under which BNN would be co-branded as BNN Bloomberg — a rebranding which took effect April 30, 2018.
The rebranded network collaborates with Bloomberg's existing news bureaus, which include five Canadian bureaus staffed by over 25 reporters.
Bell Media Radio also holds rights to distribute
Bloomberg Radio
Bloomberg Radio is a radio service of Bloomberg L.P. that provides global business news programming 24 hours a day. The format is general and financial news, offering local, national and international news reports along with financial market up ...
content in Canada;
Bloomberg had previously partnered with
Channel Zero on
Bloomberg TV Canada
Bloomberg TV Canada was a Canadian English language Category B television channel owned by Channel Zero. It was a localized version of the U.S. financial news channel Bloomberg Television; its programming was largely identical, but also featured ...
, which was the U.S. service supplanted with programs covering Canadian financial news; that channel shut down in October 2017. BNN's existing domestic programming was largely maintained upon the rebranding, although the network does carry Bloomberg's business day programs for Asia and Europe outside of the North American business day. In addition, the 1:00 p.m. ET hour of ''Bloomberg Markets: Americas'' became a co-production with BNN, with
Amanda Lang co-hosting from Toronto. As a result of the partnership, the U.S. Bloomberg Television was once again pulled from Canadian television providers, but the network, as well as BNN Bloomberg itself, can be streamed online by
BNN subscribers on participating television providers.
Programming
A large majority of the programming carried on BNN is produced in-house. Previously, it had been the Canadian broadcast partner of
CNNfn, an
American business news channel which ceased operations in December 2004. BNN features a televised stock ticker with real-time data from the
Toronto Stock Exchange
The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX; french: Bourse de Toronto) is a stock exchange located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the 10th largest exchange in the world and the third largest in North America based on market capitalization. Based in the ...
, the
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed ...
,
NASDAQ, and many international financial exchanges. In addition to its homebase in Toronto, BNN also operates news bureaus located at the NASDAQ Market Site in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
's Times Square, and in
Calgary.
BNN attracts approximately 5,000 regular viewers daily and has a strong viewership outside of the home (such as in gyms, restaurants and offices) which is not reflected in its ratings. This is a situation also faced by networks with high out-of-home viewing patterns such as
CNBC
CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...
. In March 2016, ratings data from
Numeris
Numeris (formerly the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement, or BBM Canada) is a Canadian audience measurement organization. Established on May 11, 1944 as a division of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, Numeris is the primary provider of viewers ...
showed BNN had an average weekly reach of more than 1 million viewers since December 2015.
Special programming
The network hosts a series of special presentations throughout the year, including specials for tax and
Registered Retirement Savings Plan seasons. In the fall of 2006, Report on Business Television hosted its first "Live On Location" event in Toronto during which a studio audience was featured during two of the network's most popular shows, ''Market Call'' with Jim O'Connell and ''SqueezePlay'' with Kim Parlee and Andrew Bell. This was the first time viewers had the opportunity to go live in person with the network during its regular broadcasts of ''Market Call''.
In May 2008, the network relaunched BNN.ca, featuring its first online contest called "The BNN.ca $25,000 Challenge". The updated BNN.ca showcased a new video player allowing investors to search, sort and personalize BNN video; and the new player increased availability of past BNN video by allowing viewers to access content for an unlimited period of time online. Other added features on the site included blogs, a "Market Monitor", feature video clips on the homepage, an online stock ticker, features such as "Hot Stocks" and "Guest Picks", stock indices, and tracking of the latest and popular news stories on the site.
BNN's weekend programming consists mainly of repeats of some of the programs aired on BNN's weekday schedule, as well as other Bloomberg Television series.
Radio
Concurrent with the April 30, 2018 rebranding of BNN, Bell also relaunched its Vancouver radio station
CFTE (formerly a
TSN Radio
TSN Radio is a semi-national sports radio brand and part-time network in Canada carried on AM radio stations owned by Bell Media.[Bloomberg Radio
Bloomberg Radio is a radio service of Bloomberg L.P. that provides global business news programming 24 hours a day. The format is general and financial news, offering local, national and international news reports along with financial market up ...]
programs. The station is aimed to a national audience for streaming via
iHeartRadio. On February 9, 2021, Bell flipped
CKOC
CKOC (1150 AM) is a radio station in Hamilton, Ontario. Owned by Bell Media, it broadcasts a business news format. CKOC is a 50,000-watt, Class B station operating on a Regional (not clear-channel) broadcast frequency, with transmitters locate ...
in Hamilton to BNN Bloomberg Radio as well, after it dropped its own TSN Radio format.
Notable on-air personalities
*
Michael Hainsworth
Michael Hainsworth is a former business reporter for CTV Toronto and CTV affiliates across Canada. He anchored ''The Close'' on Canada's financial news network, BNN Bloomberg (formerly Business News Network). He also filed business reports for To ...
*
Amanda Lang
*
Bruce Croxon
Bruce Croxon (born January 1, 1960) is a Canadian entrepreneur, television personality, and venture capitalist. Croxon is currently a partner at Round13 Capital and co-host of BNN's TV show, The Disruptors. Croxon co-founded the dating website La ...
References
External links
*
{{Television news in Canada
24-hour television news channels in Canada
Bell Media networks
Bloomberg L.P.
Television channels and stations established in 1999
Analog cable television networks in Canada
English-language television stations in Canada
Business-related television channels
CTV News
Business mass media in Canada
1999 establishments in Canada