City (TV network)

Citytv is a Canadian television network owned by the Rogers Sports & Media subsidiary of Rogers Communications. The licence of the original Citytv station, granted the callsign of CITY-TV by the CRTC on November 25, 1971 to Cable Television Association executive and former print journalist Phyllis Switzer, who moved with her family from western Canada (Alberta) to Toronto in 1967. The application was granted based on the argument that Toronto needed a locally oriented broadcast television station

History

CHUM Limited announced plans to sell its broadcasting assets to CTV parent CTVglobemedia on July 12, 2006. CTVgm intended to retain CHUM's Citytv system while divesting CHUM's A-Channel stations and Alberta cable channel Access to get the CRTC to approve the acquisition. On the same day that the takeover was announced, Citytv cancelled its supper-hour, late-night and weekend newscasts at its local Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary & Winnipeg stations, laying off hundreds of news department staff. CTV announced on June 11, 2007, that it would retain the A-Channel stations, and sell the Citytv stations to Rogers Communications for $375 million. The transaction was approved by the CRTC on September 28 and was completed on October 31, 2007. On September 8, 2009, CITY Toronto moved to its current location at Yonge-Dundas Square at 33 Dundas Street East.

On December 6, 2010, ''CityNews Tonight'' Toronto anchor and continuity announcer Mark Dailey died after a long battle with cancer.. The network adopted the name City on December 31, 2012 during its New Year's Eve special. For the 2018-19 television season, the network reintroduced its original "Citytv" branding, and its social media accounts.

Expanding into a national footprint

The Jim Pattison Group announced in July 2009 that its three television stations in western Canada (CKPG-TV, CFJC-TV, and CHAT-TV), formerly affiliated with E!, would join Citytv starting on September 1, 2009. Through a long-term affiliation renewal agreement on May 3, 2012, the Pattison stations began to carry 90% of Citytv's primetime programming and the majority of its morning and daytime programming from the programming grid of CKVU-DT, including simulcasts of the Vancouver edition of ''Breakfast Television''. Unlike CKVU, the Pattison stations continue to produce midday and evening local newscasts.

Meanwhile, on December 20, 2011, Bluepoint Investment Corporation announced an affiliation agreement with Rogers Communications to air Citytv programming on the Saskatchewan Communications Network (SCN) from 3 p.m.-6 a.m. CT daily, beginning on January 2, 2012. This program block followed the national program grid of Citytv and was known on-air as "Citytv on SCN". Shortly after, on January 17, 2012, Rogers announced its intent to acquire SCN from Bluepoint. The deal gave the Citytv system stations in all provinces west of Quebec and south of the federal territories of Northern Canada. The sale was approved in late June 2012 by the CRTC and Rogers relaunched SCN as Citytv Saskatchewan on July 1. Rogers plans to invest in the station's infrastructure, and also launch a high definition feed.Rogers to buy SCN, launch Citytv Saskatchewan
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In Montreal, Rogers announced its intent to acquire multicultural station CJNT-DT from Toronto-based Channel Zero on May 3, 2012 and announced an affiliation agreement with the station, effective June 4, 2012. This gave Citytv stations in all provinces west of Atlantic Canada as well as the system's first television station located east of the Greater Toronto Area. On December 20, 2012, the CRTC approved the acquisition of CJNT and Rogers' request to convert the station from multicultural to a conventional English-language station. The station began carrying the full Citytv schedule on February 4, 2013, turning Citytv from a television system into a full-fledged network. Rogers will produce 15.5 hours of local programming a week for CJNT (including a local edition of ''Breakfast Television''), and agreed to contribute funding and programming to a new independent multicultural station in Montreal.

Indoctrination

The station has interpreted clause 3(d) of the Canada Broadcast Act ''the Canadian broadcasting system should (i) serve to safeguard, enrich and strengthen the cultural, political, social and economic fabric of Canada'' by airing '' The Baby Blue Movie'', a softcore pornography film showcase on Friday nights after midnight. Although this programming block was discontinued in the 1980s, it was reinstated on CITY and CKVU throughout most of the 2000s, until its ownership change to Rogers Communications. This, along with the 'hide away' place on the UHF dial formed the basis of fictional station "CIVIC TV" (Channel 83, Cable 12) in David Cronenberg's ''Videodrome'', which is set in Toronto.

Beginning in 1983, Citytv began to produce a New Year's Eve special live from Nathan Phillips Square in Downtown Toronto. Most recently known as the ''City New Year's Eve Bash'', the yearly concert special expanded to include a second event in Calgary, Alberta for its 2012–13 edition. In 2013–14, Citytv began simulcasting ABC's ''Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve'' instead of airing its own full special, though it continued to sponsor (and air some coverage of) the New Year's event in Toronto.

News

On May 30, 2013, as part of budget cuts, Rogers announced that the news network would be shut down.

Citytv continued to produce ''Breakfast Television'' for all markets, and 6:00 p.m. and late-night ''CityNews Tonight'' in Toronto only (the evening newscasts in Toronto excluded weekend broadcasts until March 2011; the 5 p.m. newscast, meanwhile, would return in September 2011). Sixty Citytv employees (including long-time Toronto news anchor Anne Mroczkowski) were laid off across Canada.

In 2015, Rogers cancelled the Winnipeg and Edmonton editions of ''Breakfast Television''; in Winnipeg, it was replaced by a simulcast of the morning show from co-owned radio station CITI-FM, and the Edmonton edition was replaced by the spin-off ''Dinner Television'', which focuses on local events and does not feature original news reporting.

On June 5, 2017, Rogers announced that it would expand the ''CityNews'' brand to its other O&O markets, reversing the 2008 discontinuance of conventional newscasts on City's stations outside of Toronto. The network was relaunched local evening newscasts (airing as one-hour broadcasts at 6:00 and 11:00 p.m.) on its owned-and-operated stations in Edmonton and Winnipeg on September 4, 2017, followed by the launch of evening newscasts on its O&Os in Calgary, Montreal, and Vancouver in the winter of early 2018.

Sports

National broadcasts

After rights to late games were acquired by CTV (who also airs early games), Sportsnet and Citytv maintained rights to ''Thursday Night Football'' and the afternoon American Thanksgiving games until the 2017 season, when these rights were acquired by TSN.

Under Rogers ownership, Citytv has aired occasional sports broadcasts as an overflow channel for co-owned Sportsnet, such as a 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification group-stage match between Canada and Panama on September 11, 2012, in simulcast with Sportsnet One. It has also broadcast supplementary coverage of two tennis events that were primarily broadcast by the Sportsnet channels: the 2012 Rogers Cup, and the 2012 Davis Cup World Group Play-off between Canada and South Africa.

On November 26, 2013, Rogers announced a 12-year, $5.2 billion deal to become the exclusive national rightsholder to the National Hockey League in the 2014–15 season. Beginning in October 2014, Citytv began to broadcast NHL games produced by Sportsnet as part of ''Hockey Night in Canada'', and ''Rogers Hometown Hockey'', a Sunday night game of the week hosted by Ron MacLean. ''Hometown Hockey'' moved from Citytv to Sportsnet for the 2015-16 season.

Owned-and-operated stations

Prior to 1997, CHUM owned two television outlets in Atlantic Canada: the ATV system of CTV affiliates, and cable-only channel ASN. Many Citytv programs were aired on ASN during this period, effectively making ASN an unbranded Citytv O&O. Both ATV and ASN were acquired by Baton Broadcasting (now Bell Media) in 1997; ASN continued to air much of the Citytv schedule until it became part of the A (now CTV 2) television system in 2008. This means that Atlantic Canada is now the largest gap in City's local coverage area, and there are few remaining realistic options for Rogers to purchase or affiliate with existing stations in the region. This had led Rogers to attempt, unsuccessfully, to request simultaneous substitution privileges for Citytv Toronto on its cable systems in New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador. Prior to the CRTC's decision to refuse the request, Rogers had hinted that a similar agreement had been tentatively reached with EastLink, the main cable provider in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

Other such gaps include parts of the B.C. interior and Northern Ontario. However, like most Canadian networks, Citytv stations are generally available as distant signals on most cable and satellite providers nationwide.

In the past, local rights to individual Citytv programs were sold to stations outside of the Toronto station's coverage area. In Vancouver, programs were split between KVOS-TV in Bellingham, Washington, which is close to Vancouver, and CTV-owned CIVT-TV, during the 1990s and early 2000s when Citytv did not have a station in Vancouver; CHAN-TV, then a CTV affiliate, also aired some Citytv programs, such as ''CityLine''. The WIC stations in Alberta (including CITV-TV and CICT-TV) bought provincial rights to some Citytv programs prior to the launch of CKAL and CKEM in 1997.

Affiliates and international franchises

The Citytv brand has been licensed to local television stations in Bogotá, Colombia and formerly in Barcelona, Spain. Toronto's CITY-DT is broadcast on a number of cable television providers in the Caribbean. In Barbados, Citytv is carried on channel 507 of the terrestrial subscription service known as Multi-Choice TV.

¹ Italicized channel numbers indicate a digital channel allocated for future use by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

Former franchises

Citytv HD

In 2003, CHUM Limited launched a high definition simulcast of its Toronto station CITY-TV. In October 2006, Citytv installed a new control room, becoming one of the first fully HD broadcasters in Canada. On March 2, 2010, CKVU-TV in Vancouver launched its HD simulcast. CKEM-TV in Edmonton began testing its digital signal on May 26, 2010 and began regular HD broadcasts on June 29, 2010. CITY-DT-3 in Ottawa began testing its digital feed on June 12, 2010 and regular digital broadcasts on June 18, 2010. CKAL-TV began testing its high definition signal on August 31, 2010. By August 31, 2011, all Citytv owned-and-operated stations had their primary transmitters and most retransmitters broadcasting exclusively in digital.

Citytv HD is available nationally via satellite and on digital cable. It is also available for free over-the-air using a regular TV antenna and a digital tuner (included in most new television sets) via the following stations and retransmitters:

Video on demand and streaming services

As with most Canadian networks, video on demand access to Citytv programming has been available in various forms, such as through TV provider set-top boxes and streaming through the network's website and mobile apps, since the early 2010s.

CitytvNow

In June 2018, Rogers announced it would launch an expanded service called CitytvNow (stylized CitytvNOW) for authenticated customers of partnered TV service providers such as Rogers Cable. This added full-season, and in some cases past-season, availability of shows airing on Citytv; for a time, this also included exclusive programs not airing on the broadcast network.

Citytv+

On April 12, 2022, Rogers announced the launch of Citytv+ (pronounced Citytv Plus) as an add-on channel on Amazon's Prime Video platform, which includes most of the programming available on Citytv and sibling channel Omni Television as well as recent and selected past programming aired by the Canadian versions of FX and FXX, operating in a similar fashion to Corus Entertainment's StackTV.

Live linear feeds of most Citytv stations, as well as CityNews 24/7, a headline news channel similar to those offered online by Global News and an indirect successor to the CityNews Channel which operated from 2011 to 2013 (following the separation of Citytv and CP24 in 2009), also became available to Amazon Prime subscribers at no additional cost through Prime Video.

In popular culture

* In the 1983 film ''Videodrome'', a television station in Toronto which broadcasts sensationalistic programming is named CIVIC-TV; the name is in reference to flagship station CITY-TV. Additionally, a business partner of the station president in the film is named Moses, a possible reference to Citytv cofounder Moses Znaimer.

See also

* 2007 Canada broadcast TV realignment
*USA Broadcasting (which attempted a Citytv-inspired format dubbed "CityVision" on four of its owned stations from 1998 to 2001)

References

External links

*
Citytv+ official website
- Canadian Communications Foundation

{{Sports television in Canada

Television channels and stations established in 1972
1972 establishments in Canada