Report on Business Television

BNN Bloomberg (formerly Business News Network and Report on Business Television) is a Canadian English language specialty channel owned by Bell Media. It broadcasts programming related to business and financial news and analysis. The channel is headquartered at 299 Queen Street West in Downtown Toronto.

Since April 30, 2018, the network has operated as a partner of the U.S. business channel Bloomberg Television, 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 and CKOC in Hamilton under the branding ''BNN Bloomberg Radio''.

History

As Report on Business Television (RoBTV)

The network was licensed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in 1996 to a joint venture of Thomson Corporation (50%), Western International Communications (25%) and Cancom (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''.

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 newspaper chain, including the ''National Post'', the ''Globe''s chief rival, while Thomson transferred the ''Globe'' and its shares of ROBTv to Bell Globemedia, a newly formed media company 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'' on Bell Expressvu.

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)

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 on December 6, 2010, the building in which CTV's Much and Toronto's 24-hour news service CP24 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.

As BNN Bloomberg

On January 9, 2018, Bell Media announced that it had reached a licensing and content agreement with Bloomberg L.P., 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 content in Canada;

Bloomberg had previously partnered with Channel Zero on Bloomberg TV Canada, 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 New York Stock Exchange, 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'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. In March 2016, ratings data from Numeris 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 station) as BNN Bloomberg Radio. The station features audio simulcasts of BNN Bloomberg television programs, as well as other Bloomberg Radio programs. The station is aimed to a national audience for streaming via iHeartRadio. On February 9, 2021, Bell flipped CKOC in Hamilton to BNN Bloomberg Radio as well, after it dropped its own TSN Radio format.

Notable on-air personalities

* Michael Hainsworth
* Amanda Lang
* Bruce Croxon

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