CBC News Network

CBC News Network (formerly CBC Newsworld) is a Canadian English-language specialty news channel owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). It broadcasts into over 10 million homes in Canada. 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
CountryCanada
Broadcast areaNational
SloganCanada's 24-hour news
HeadquartersToronto, Ontario
Programming
Language(s)English
Picture format720p HDTV
(downscaled to letterboxed 480i for the SDTV feed)
Ownership
OwnerCanadian Broadcasting Corporation
Sister channelsCBC Television
Ici Radio-Canada Télé
Ici RDI
Ici ARTV
Ici Explora
Documentary Channel
CBC North
History
LaunchedJuly 31, 1989 (1989-07-31)
Former namesCBC Newsworld (1989–2009)
Links
Websitecbc.ca/cbcnewsnetwork
Availability
Cable
Available on most cable systemsChannel slots vary on each provider
Satellite
Bell Satellite TVChannel 502 (SD)
Channel 1564 (HD)
Shaw DirectChannel 390 / 092 (SD)
Channel 096 / 596 (HD)
IPTV
Bell Aliant Fibe TVChannel 233 (SD)
Channel 13 (SD)
Channel 421(HD)
Bell Fibe TVChannel 502 (SD)
Channel 1502 (HD)
Bell MTSChannel 140 (SD)
Channel 1140 (HD)
Optik TVChannel 9800 (SD)
Channel 800 (HD)
SaskTelChannel 15 (SD)
Channel 315 (HD)
VMediaChannel 26 (HD)
ZazeenChannel 49 (HD)

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

With CNN already being widely available in Canada during the 1980s, private and state-owned 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 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 began broadcasting on July 31, 1989 from several regional studios in Halifax, Toronto, Winnipeg and Calgary. As of 2017 there are production studios in Vancouver, Toronto and Halifax.

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, a number of cable systems, owned at the time by Persona, did not carry CBC News Network at all during much of the 2000s. The channel was dropped by these systems in 2000 because of a fee dispute between Persona (then known as Regional Cablesystems; later acquired by Eastlink) and the CBC.[7]

Newsworld International
Main article: Newsworld International

Some of CBC News Network's programming also aired on the now-defunct Newsworld International, an 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 then sold to USA Networks in 2000, then to Vivendi Universal Entertainment 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 became Al Jazeera America on August 20, 2013.

2009 re-launch

In December 2008, it was reported that the CBC planned to revamp Newsworld in 2009, as the result of a strategic review and market survey. The CBC found that consumer awareness of CBC Newsworld was lower in comparison to other specialty channels, and there was a perception that the CBC broke stories too slowly. Tentative plans also called for the revamped channel to have more prominent displays of news headlines and weather reports.[8]

On October 21, 2009, it was announced that CBC Newsworld would be renamed 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.[9]

CBC News Network HD

In January 2009, the CBC launched an HD simulcast of CBC News Network (then known as CBC Newsworld) called CBC Newsworld HD. The channel was renamed CBC News Network HD on October 26, 2009 to coincide with the renaming 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.

Programming

CBC News Network used to air a number of magazine-style programs, along with hourly news updates. 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 of which used to be 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 live rolling news coverage (formerly branded as CBC News Now), which airs from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET. Instead of producing a separate noon-hour program, most CBC Television stations simulcast CBC News Network from 12 to 1 p.m. local time, with an "L-bar" showing local news and weather headlines. Power & Politics airs live from 5 to 7 p.m. ET.

An evening edition of CBC News Now, anchored by Carole MacNeil, airs from 7 to 9 p.m. Only on Saturdays, these evening editions air for 30 minutes at 6, 9 and 11 p.m. ET, with various repeats overnight. Beginning with the Atlantic Time Zone airing at 9:00 p.m. ET, The National runs live until 2:00 a.m. ET and then on a loop until the first edition of CBC News Network the following morning.

Anchors

Current

Former

Logos
  • Current HD logo. Seen only in channel lineups
  • Logo used by CBC Newsworld from 2001-2009
  • Logo used from October 2009-March 2016
  • HD Logo used from October 2009-March 2016

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 licence 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. Robertson, Grant (2008-12-05). "CBC to retune its TV news division". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2017-06-25.
  9. CBC News (2009-10-21). "Changes to The National as CBC unveils new look". CBC News. Archived from the original on October 23, 2009. Retrieved 2009-10-21.
  10. "Major changes ahead at CBC News". The Globe and Mail, Print Edition: June 16, 2009, Page R1.
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