Citytv (sometimes shortened to City, which was the network's official branding from 2012 to 2018) is a
Canadian
Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...
television network
A television broadcaster or television network is a telecommunications network for the distribution of television show, television content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations, pay television providers or ...
owned by the
Rogers Sports & Media subsidiary of
Rogers Communications. The network consists of six
owned-and-operated (O&O) television stations located in the metropolitan areas of
Toronto
Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
,
Montreal
Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
,
Winnipeg
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...
,
Calgary
Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...
,
Edmonton
Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...
, and
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 cit ...
, a cable-only service that serves the province of
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...
, and three independently owned affiliates serving smaller cities in
Alberta
Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...
and
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...
. There is also one station using the brand name serving
Bogotá
Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish Imperial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city, capital and largest city ...
,
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...
.
The Citytv brand name originates from its flagship station,
CITY-TV in Toronto, a station that went on the air in September 28, 1972, in the former Electric Circus nightclub, and which became known for an intensely local format based on newscasts aimed at younger viewers, nightly movies, and music and cultural programming. The Citytv brand first expanded with then-parent company
CHUM Limited
CHUM Limited was a Canadian media company based in Toronto, Ontario in operation from 1945 to 2007. The company was founded in 1945 as York Broadcasters Limited when it launched CHUM (AM), CHUM-AM 1050 but was acquired by salesman Allan Waters in ...
's acquisition of former
Global
Global may refer to:
General
*Globe, a spherical model of celestial bodies
*Earth, the third planet from the Sun
Entertainment
* ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003
* ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007
* ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 198 ...
owned-and-operated station
CKVU-TV in Vancouver, followed by its purchase of
Craig Media's stations and the re-branding of its
A-Channel system
A system is a group of interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its open system (systems theory), environment, is described by its boundaries, str ...
in
Central Canada
Central Canada (, sometimes the ''Central Provinces'') is a Canadian region consisting of Ontario and Quebec, the largest and most populous provinces of the country. Geographically, they are not at the centre of Canada but instead overlap wi ...
as Citytv in August 2005. CHUM Limited was acquired by CTVglobemedia (now
Bell Media
Bell Media Inc. (Canadian French, French: ) is a Canadian media conglomerate that is the mass media subsidiary of BCE Inc. (also known as Bell Canada Enterprises, the owner of telecommunications company Bell Canada). Its operations include nati ...
) in 2007; to comply with
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) ownership limits, the Citytv stations were sold to Rogers. The network grew through further affiliations with three
Jim Pattison Group
The Jim Pattison Group is a Canadian conglomerate based in Vancouver. Jim Pattison, a Vancouver-based entrepreneur, is the chairman, CEO, and sole owner of the company. The Jim Pattison Group, Canada's second largest privately held company, h ...
-owned stations, along with Rogers's acquisition of the cable-only
Saskatchewan Communications Network and Montreal's
CJNT-DT
CJNT-DT (channel 62) is a television station in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, part of the Citytv network. Owned and operated by network parent Rogers Sports & Media, the station maintains studios inside the Rogers Building at the corner of McGil ...
. At one point, Citytv also existed in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
and
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan ( , ; Spanish for "Saint John the Baptist, John") is the capital city and most populous Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality in the Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the ...
.
While patterned after the original station in Toronto, since the 2000s, and particularly since its acquisition by Rogers, Citytv has moved towards a series-based prime time schedule much like its competitors', albeit one still focused on younger demographics.
Early beginnings
The licence of the original Citytv station, granted the
callsign of
CITY-TV by the CRTC, was awarded in Toronto on November 25, 1971, by Channel Seventy-Nine Ltd., which consisted of – among others – Phyllis Switzer,
Moses Znaimer,
Jerry Grafstein and Edgar Cowan. The four principal owners raised over $2 million to help start up the station, with Grafstein raising about 50% of the required funds, Znaimer raising around 25%, and the remainder being accrued by Switzer and Cowan. CITY-TV began broadcasting on September 28, 1972, for the first time using the "Citytv" brand and initially operated as an
independent station
An independent station is a broadcast station, usually a television station, not affiliated with a larger broadcast television network, network. As such, it only broadcasts broadcast syndication, syndicated programs it has purchased; brokered pr ...
, and its transmitter operated at an
effective radiated power of 31
kW. The station operated from studio facilities located at 99 Queen Street East, near Church Street, at the former Electric Circus nightclub.
The station lost money early on, and was in debt by 1975. Multiple Access Ltd. (the owners of
CFCF-TV in
Montreal
Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
) purchased a 45% interest in the station, and sold its stake to
CHUM Limited
CHUM Limited was a Canadian media company based in Toronto, Ontario in operation from 1945 to 2007. The company was founded in 1945 as York Broadcasters Limited when it launched CHUM (AM), CHUM-AM 1050 but was acquired by salesman Allan Waters in ...
, the parent company of
CKVR-TV in
Barrie,
Ontario
Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...
, in 1978.
On May 1, 1976, the station's main transmitter began broadcasting at 208 kW from the
CN Tower
The CN Tower () is a communications and observation tower in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Completed in 1976, it is located in downtown Toronto, built on the former Railway Lands. Its name "CN" referred to Canadian National, the railway co ...
. The station switched channel allocations on July 1, 1983, moving to UHF channel 57, the result of
Industry Canada
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED; ; )''Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada'' is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of Industry (). is a department of the G ...
's decision to reassign frequencies corresponding to high-band UHF channels 70 to 83 to the new
AMPS mobile phone
A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...
systems as a result of a CCIR international convention in 1982.
In 1981, CITY was purchased outright by CHUM with the sale of Moses Znaimer's interest in the station. Znaimer remained with the station as an executive until 2003, when he retired from his management role but continued to work with the station on some production projects. CITY and the other CHUM-owned television properties moved their operations to the company's headquarters at
299 Queen Street West in May 1987, which became one of the most recognizable landmarks in the city. On March 30, 1998, CHUM launched CablePulse 24 (
CP24), a local cable news channel whose programming used anchors from and featured reports filed by CITY-TV's news staff, rebroadcasts of the station's ''CityPulse'' newscasts and select programming from CITY and other CHUM stations.
Expansion beyond Toronto
CHUM added CITY-TV's three rebroadcast transmitters in
Woodstock (CITY-TV-2 on channel 31, which also served nearby
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
) on September 1, 1986, while another transmitter was set up in
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...
in 1996 (CITY-TV-3 on channel 65).
CITY-TV's groundbreaking format became successful when CHUM dropped CKVR's longtime affiliation with
CBC Television
CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting, p ...
on September 1, 1995 and relaunched it as an
independent station
An independent station is a broadcast station, usually a television station, not affiliated with a larger broadcast television network, network. As such, it only broadcasts broadcast syndication, syndicated programs it has purchased; brokered pr ...
. Eventually, CHUM began to replicate the format when it acquired four Ontario stations from Baton Broadcasting in 1997, namely
CHRO in
Pembroke,
CFPL-TV in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
,
CKNX-TV in
Wingham, and
CHWI-TV in
Windsor. Most of these stations were also former CBC affiliates, and in markets where CKVR's sister station, CITY-TV, was already or subsequently became available on basic cable.
Until 1997, CHUM owned two television outlets in
Atlantic Canada
Atlantic Canada, also called the Atlantic provinces (), is the list of regions of Canada, region of Eastern Canada comprising four provinces: New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. As of 2021, the landma ...
: 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
Simultaneous substitution (also known as simsubbing or signal substitution) is a practice mandated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) requiring pay television, broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs) in ...
privileges for Citytv Toronto on its cable systems in
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...
and
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the populatio ...
. 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
Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...
and
Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island is an island Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. While it is the smallest province by land area and population, it is the most densely populated. The island has several nicknames: "Garden of the Gulf", ...
.
In 2000, after
Canwest Global Communications acquired the assets of
Western International Communications which led to a
network shuffle in Vancouver, CHUM applied to the CRTC to acquire
CKVU-TV (Global Vancouver) on July 26, 2001 for $175 million, with the intention of making it a newest Citytv station. CHUM planned on spending $8.03 million on British Columbia-based independent productions, $5.95 million on local news and information programming, and $1.37 million on local culture, social policy, and talent development over a period of seven years. A similar application was filed in 1996 by the CRTC but was dropped in favor of Baton launching
CIVT-TV in 1997.
CHUM gained CRTC approval for its acquisition of CKVU on October 15, 2001.
[Decision CRTC 2001-647](_blank)
October 15, 2001. Accessed online September 1, 2009
September 4, 2009. Meanwhile,
CIVI-TV in
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Gre ...
went on the air in October 2001 using the same format as CITY-TV. CKVU became known as "Citytv Vancouver" on July 22, 2002. Prior to CHUM's acquisition of CKVU, some Citytv programming were split between
KVOS-TV in
Bellingham, Washington
Bellingham ( ) is the county seat of Whatcom County, Washington, Whatcom County in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. It lies south of the Canada–United States border, U.S.–Canada border, between Vancouver, British Columbia, ...
, 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.
On April 12, 2004,
CHUM Limited
CHUM Limited was a Canadian media company based in Toronto, Ontario in operation from 1945 to 2007. The company was founded in 1945 as York Broadcasters Limited when it launched CHUM (AM), CHUM-AM 1050 but was acquired by salesman Allan Waters in ...
announced a deal to purchase Craig Media for $265 million.
The move came more than a month after the CRTC denied CHUM's applications for new Calgary and Edmonton stations, which they applied back in 2003, because the market did not have sufficient advertising revenue to support a new entrant.
The sale was approved by the
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission on November 19, 2004. CHUM had to sell off Toronto 1 because it already owned stations in Toronto and nearby
Barrie; Toronto 1 was sold to
Quebecor Media, owners of the media units
TVA and
Sun Media.
In February 2005, CHUM announced it would align Craig's A-Channel stations with its existing major-market stations under the Citytv brand. No other significant changes were made, since the A-Channel stations's on-air look had always been very similar to that of Citytv; they initially retained their local programs, relaunched under Citytv's ''
Breakfast Television
Breakfast television (Europe and Australia) or morning show (Canada and the United States) is a type of news broadcasting, news or infotainment television programme that broadcasts Live television, live in the morning (typically broadcast pro ...
'' morning brand and ''
CityNews'' news brand.
CHUM hoped to lift the ratings of the stations with the new moniker.
The change took effect on August 2 of the same year, when the A-Channel name was transferred to CHUM's
NewNet stations.
On July 12, 2006, CHUM announced that it would dramatically reduce its newsgathering operations in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, and Winnipeg, as well as in several other cities. It laid off 281 part- and full-time employees, effectively cancelleing its supper-hour, late-night and weekend newscasts, laying off hundreds of news department staff among 281 job cuts. In a coincidental development, that same day,
BCE Inc., owner of Bell Globemedia and the parent company of
CTV, announced it would buy CHUM Limited.
Ownership changes
Bell Globemedia had intended to retain CHUM's Citytv system while divesting CHUM's
A-Channel stations and Alberta cable channel
Access
Access may refer to:
Companies and organizations
* ACCESS (Australia), an Australian youth network
* Access (credit card), a former credit card in the United Kingdom
* Access Co., a Japanese software company
* Access International Advisors, a hed ...
to get the CRTC to approve the acquisition.
In October 2006, Citytv launched a daily national newscast, ''
CityNews International'', which was produced in Toronto for broadcast on the western Canadian stations and on CHUM's Toronto news channel
CP24. The Edmonton and Calgary stations also began broadcasting a daily 30-minute magazine show, ''Your City'', instead of a full-fledged newscast. The Vancouver news operation, which had operated for 30 years under various owners and station identities, was not maintained aside from ''
Breakfast Television
Breakfast television (Europe and Australia) or morning show (Canada and the United States) is a type of news broadcasting, news or infotainment television programme that broadcasts Live television, live in the morning (typically broadcast pro ...
''. In the same month, Citytv Toronto became the first television station in Canada to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in
high definition.
The following year on June 8, the CRTC approved the CTV takeover of CHUM. However, the CRTC made the deal conditional on CTV divesting itself of Citytv, because there were already CTV
owned-and-operated station
In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an network af ...
s serving the same cities (
CFTO-TV Toronto,
CIVT-TV Vancouver,
CFCN-TV Calgary,
CFRN-TV Edmonton, and
CKY-TV Winnipeg). Without the divestment, CTV would have exceeded the CRTC's
concentration of media ownership limits. 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
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 Citytv system began to phase in a modified branding in October 2012, with a new logo consisting only of the name "City", and some promotions using the verbal branding "City Television" (later also switched to simply "City") instead of "Citytv". The change marked the first major alteration to the "Citytv" brand since its introduction in 1972. 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.
Rogers moved Citytv's Toronto operations to the
Rogers Building at Bloor and Mount Pleasant in March 2025.
[Devon Banfield]
"‘New desk, new hosts,’ Breakfast Television is leaving its iconic downtown studio after almost 16 years"
'' Now'', March 14, 2025.
Transformation into a television network
The
Jim Pattison Group
The Jim Pattison Group is a Canadian conglomerate based in Vancouver. Jim Pattison, a Vancouver-based entrepreneur, is the chairman, CEO, and sole owner of the company. The Jim Pattison Group, Canada's second largest privately held company, h ...
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. These stations do not carry the Citytv branding; instead, the stations continue to use the same branding and logos they used as affiliates of the E! system. The Pattison-owned Citytv affiliates produce local newscasts, but do not produce their own versions of ''
Breakfast Television
Breakfast television (Europe and Australia) or morning show (Canada and the United States) is a type of news broadcasting, news or infotainment television programme that broadcasts Live television, live in the morning (typically broadcast pro ...
'' nor title their midday and evening newscasts under the ''CityNews'' brand like the Citytv owned-and-operated stations do. 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](_blank)
/ref>
In Montreal, Rogers announced its intent to acquire multicultural station CJNT-DT
CJNT-DT (channel 62) is a television station in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, part of the Citytv network. Owned and operated by network parent Rogers Sports & Media, the station maintains studios inside the Rogers Building at the corner of McGil ...
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
Atlantic Canada, also called the Atlantic provinces (), is the list of regions of Canada, region of Eastern Canada comprising four provinces: New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. As of 2021, the landma ...
as well as the system's first television station located east of the Greater Toronto Area
The Greater Toronto Area, commonly referred to as the GTA, includes the Toronto, City of Toronto and the regional municipality, regional municipalities of Regional Municipality of Durham, Durham, Regional Municipality of Halton, Halton, Regional ...
. On December 20, 2012, the CRTC approved the acquisition of CJNT and Rogers's 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.
Programming
Citytv is well known for its unconventional approach to news and local programming. There is no news desk (anchors read the news standing up, or on stools), and cameras are sometimes hand-held. Citytv also pioneered the concept of videojournalism, where reporters often carry their own camera report and videotape their own stories. Citytv calls its videojournalists "videographers", but unlike many stations in American television markets that try to conceal the fact that reporters are so-called "one-man bands", Citytv embraced the use of video journalism by highlighting the use of technology; Citytv videographers often carry a second home video camera to record images of them videotaping on the scene. The low-grade video is then incorporated into the story to show viewers how the story was recorded.
At one time, Citytv's Toronto flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of navy, naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically ...
CITY-TV produced more local programs than any other television station in Canada, and more local programming than any other station in North America other than Boston
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
's WCVB-TV. Citytv produced shows such as '' Speakers' Corner'', '' CityLine'' and was the original home of '' FashionTelevision'', '' SexTV'' and '' MediaTelevision''. Many of these series were not exclusively focused on Toronto – ''FT'', for instance, consisted largely of foreign runway
In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt concrete, asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (sod, ...
footage – and are easily syndicated to other outlets. The latter three shows are now owned by CTVglobemedia as a result of its takeover of CHUM and subsequent divestiture of the Citytv stations.
CITY prominently broadcast feature films during primetime, in late night and on weekends as part of the ''Great Movies'' block; as Citytv transitioned to a primetime lineup consisting of mainly domestic and American series during the 2000s, ''Great Movies'' was scaled back, then replaced in 2008 by reruns, reality shows and infomercials.
The station attracted attention and controversy 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
A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...
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.
Citytv was one of the first television stations in Canada to implement a diversity policy in hiring its on-air staff, actively seeking out people of colour, people with disabilities, and other minority groups to work as on-air journalists. Znaimer described the policy as wanting the station to "look like Toronto".
Beginning in 1983, Citytv began to produce a New Year's Eve
In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve refers to the evening, or commonly the entire day, of the last day of the year, 31 December, also known as Old Year's Day. In many countries, New Year's Eve is celebrated with dancing, eating, drinkin ...
special live from Nathan Phillips Square in Downtown Toronto
Downtown Toronto is the main city centre 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 Street to the nor ...
. 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
Citytv Toronto's '' CityNews'', which used to be known as ''CityPulse'', had developed a large following since its debut in 1977. Other stations around the world have imitated its format to varying degrees of success. However, Citytv itself was unsuccessful in expanding its audience to other Canadian markets, as evidenced by the eventual cancellation of the other stations' traditional newscasts. Flagship station CITY-DT, along with Jim Pattison Group-owned affiliates CFJC-TV, CKPG-TV and CHAT-TV are the only Citytv stations producing midday or evening newscasts. The Pattison stations use their individual callsigns, instead of branding under the Citytv name and do not use the ''CityNews'' title for their weekday newscasts. Four of City's five other owned-and-operated broadcast stations (CKVU-DT, CKAL-DT, CKEM-DT and CHMI-DT) only produce localized versions of the morning program franchise ''Breakfast Television
Breakfast television (Europe and Australia) or morning show (Canada and the United States) is a type of news broadcasting, news or infotainment television programme that broadcasts Live television, live in the morning (typically broadcast pro ...
''. Citytv Saskatchewan, meanwhile, does not carry any local programming, and would be unable to broadcast ''Breakfast Television'' due to its mandate of airing educational programming in the morning and daytime hours.
Due to the structural problems facing the conventional television industry in Canada and the Great Recession
The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009. , Rogers Media announced cost-cutting measures at the Citytv stations on January 19, 2010, which included massive layoffs and the cancellation of the following newscasts:
* ''CityNews at Noon'' in Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto
* ''Lunch Television'' in Vancouver
* ''Your City'' in Calgary and Edmonton, which was an evening replacement for previous CityNews programming that was cancelled in 2006.
* The satirical news program ''The CityNews List'' in Vancouver
* ''CityOnline'', ''CityNews at Five'' and all weekend news programming in Toronto (the latter two were restored in 2011)
* City's national and international newscast, ''CityNews International''
CITY-DT used to operate CP24, a cable news channel covering the Greater Toronto Area
The Greater Toronto Area, commonly referred to as the GTA, includes the Toronto, City of Toronto and the regional municipality, regional municipalities of Regional Municipality of Durham, Durham, Regional Municipality of Halton, Halton, Regional ...
. During CTVglobemedia's purchase of CHUM Limited, the company chose to retain CP24, and the channel was re-aligned with CFTO (CTV). As a replacement, Rogers received approval for, and launched, CityNews Channel in October 2011. The network was modelled on Rogers-owned radio station CFTR 680, and featured news, weather, traffic reports, and other content drawing from the resources of Rogers properties such as '' Maclean's'' and Sportsnet
Sportsnet is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language Discretionary service, discretionary sports broadcasting, sports specialty channel owned by Rogers Sports & Media. It was established in 1998 as CTV Sportsnet, a joint venture betw ...
. On May 30, 2013, as part of budget cuts, Rogers announced that the 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). 60 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'', an evening newsmagazine and discussion program which did not feature original news reporting.
On June 5, 2017, Rogers announced that it would relaunch local ''CityNews'' evening newscasts across its stations, which would air at 6:00 and 11:00 p.m. nightly. The Edmonton and Winnipeg newscasts premiered on September 4, 2017, followed by Calgary, Montreal, and Vancouver on September 3, 2018.
Sports
National broadcasts
Sports broadcasts on the Citytv stations have been sparse over the years. Between 2005 and 2014, the predominant sports property on Citytv was coverage of the National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...
.
Craig Media (then-owners of the current Citytv stations in Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary) owned the rights to '' Monday Night Football'' in the early 2000s, and these rights moved to Citytv for ''MNF''s final season on ABC in 2005, before being moved again to TSN in 2006. Following the sale to Rogers, CKVU carried Sunday afternoon "late window" (4:00/4:15 p.m. ET, 1:00/1:15 p.m. PT) games during the 2007 season (as did Omni Television station CJMT in Toronto). From the 2008 season through 2013
2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years).
2013 was designated as:
*International Year of Water Cooperation
*International Year of Quinoa
Events
January
* January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...
, all Citytv stations carried Sunday late-window games. 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
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
and Panama
Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...
on September 11, 2012, in simulcast with Sportsnet One
Sportsnet One (SN1 or SN One) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language Discretionary service, discretionary digital cable and satellite television, satellite specialty channel owned by Rogers Media, Rogers Sports & Media; it operates ...
. It has also broadcast supplementary coverage of two tennis
Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
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
The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...
in the 2014–15 season. Beginning in October 2014, Citytv began to broadcast NHL games produced by Sportsnet
Sportsnet is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language Discretionary service, discretionary sports broadcasting, sports specialty channel owned by Rogers Sports & Media. It was established in 1998 as CTV Sportsnet, a joint venture betw ...
as part of ''Hockey Night in Canada
''Hockey Night in Canada'' (often abbreviated ''Hockey Night'' or ''HNiC'') is a long-running program of broadcast ice hockey play-by-play coverage in Canada. With roots in pioneering hockey coverage on private radio stations as early as 1923, ...
'', 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.
Local/regional broadcasts
*In addition to NFL regular-season games, CITY also aired some Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East div ...
preseason games (including those held at the Rogers Centre).
*The Citytv stations in Alberta (while still branded "A-Channel") carried some regional NHL games during their first few years of operation. They occasionally carried regional broadcasts in the event of conflicts with other Sportsnet programming (Sportsnet West being the regional rightsholder to both the Edmonton Oilers
The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton. The Oilers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference. Th ...
and Calgary Flames
The Calgary Flames are a professional ice hockey team based in Calgary. The Flames compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference. The ...
) until December 2009. Similarly, CKVU Vancouver carried two regional Vancouver Canucks
The Vancouver Canucks are a professional ice hockey team based in Vancouver. The Canucks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conferenc ...
broadcasts during the 2009-10 season, again due to programming conflicts on Sportsnet Pacific. Sportsnet has since preferred the use of regional overflow feeds tied to the license of Sportsnet One
Sportsnet One (SN1 or SN One) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language Discretionary service, discretionary digital cable and satellite television, satellite specialty channel owned by Rogers Media, Rogers Sports & Media; it operates ...
for these purposes.
*CITY-TV Toronto broadcast some regular-season basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
games during the inaugural season of the Toronto Raptors.
*On March 2, 2008, CITY-TV aired its first baseball game, a Toronto Blue Jays
The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Since 1989, the team has p ...
spring training game, against the Cincinnati Reds. The Blue Jays, like City, are owned by Rogers.
*CKVU occasionally carried broadcasts of Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...
's Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional Association football, soccer club based in Vancouver. The Whitecaps compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The MLS ite ...
as part of Sportsnet's regional broadcast deal with the team from 2010 to 2013.
*CJNT occasionally carried overflow broadcasts of the Montreal Canadiens
The Montreal Canadiens (), officially ' ( Canadian Hockey Club) and colloquially known as the Habs, are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal. The Canadiens compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic D ...
as part of Sportsnet's regional broadcast deal with the team from 2014 through 2017.
*CKEM carried FC Edmonton games for a period.
Citytv stations
Individual stations are normally branded on-air as simply "Citytv" (from 2012 to 2018, the stations were referred to as "City"); the location may be added, for example "Citytv Toronto", if disambiguation is necessary. The list also mentions which stations had been owned by either CHUM Ltd. or Rogers, depending on affiliation.
Like most Canadian networks, Citytv stations are generally available as distant signals on most cable and satellite providers nationwide.
Owned-and-operated stations
Affiliates and international franchises
The Citytv brand has been licensed to local television stations in Bogotá
Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish Imperial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city, capital and largest city ...
, Colombia, and formerly in Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
, 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
Video on demand
Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films Digital distribution, digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typica ...
access to Citytv programming has been available in various forms, such as through TV provider's set-top boxes, or streaming media
Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a Computer network, network for playback using a Media player (disambiguation), media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of Network packet, packets from a Server (computing), ...
through the network's website and mobile apps.
CitytvNow
In June 2018, Rogers announced it would launch an expanded service called Citytv Now (stylized Citytv NOW) for authenticated customers of partnered TV service providers, such as corporate sibling Rogers Cable. Citytv Now features fulls-season (and several past season) availability of shows airing on Citytv. For a time, the service also featured exclusive programs not airing on the broadcast network.
Citytv+
On April 12, 2022, Rogers announced the launch of Citytv+ (pronounced Citytv Plus), an add-on channel for Amazon's Prime Video. The service includes most of the programming available on Citytv and its siblings, including Omni Television, as well as recent and selected past programming aired by the Canadian FX and FXX networks. The service succeeds Shomi, a joint venture between Rogers Communications and the now-defunct Shaw Media
Shaw Media, Inc. was the television broadcasting division of Shaw Communications. It owned the Global Television Network, which broadcasts nationally via 13 television stations, as well as 19 specialty channels including Slice (TV channel), Slice ...
prior to the latter's merger with Corus Entertainment
Corus Entertainment Inc. (often simply known as Corus) is a Canadian mass media and television production company. The company was founded in 1987 as Shaw Radio Ltd. as a subsidiary of Shaw Communications and was spun-off from Shaw in 1999. It h ...
; and has been compared to the latter company's StackTV
StackTV (stylized in all-caps as STACKTV) is a Canadian subscription video streaming package offered by Corus Entertainment. It was announced on June 3, 2019 and was originally offered through Amazon's Prime Video Channels; the offering launche ...
service. Bravo was added following its relaunch under Rogers in September 2024.
Live linear feeds of most Citytv stations, as well as CityNews 24/7, also became available to Amazon Prime subscribers at no additional cost through Prime Video. CityNews 24/7 is a headline news channel, similar to those offered online by Global News
Global News is the news and Current affairs (news format), current affairs division of the Canadian Global Television Network. The network is owned by Corus Entertainment, which oversees all of the network's national news programming as well as ...
, and an indirect successor to the CityNews Channel (which operated from 2011 to 2013, following the separation of Citytv and CP24 in 2009).
On January 1, 2025, Rogers's authenticated streaming platform was relaunched under the Citytv+ name, replacing the separate websites and mobile apps for Citytv and FX/FXX. Access to Rogers's newly-launched Warner Bros. Discovery-branded channels was added to both this platform and the Prime Video add-on at this time.
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