CBC Television

Overview

CBC Television provides a complete 24-hour network schedule of news, sports, entertainment, and children's programming; in most cases, it feeds the same programming at the exact local times nationwide, except to the Newfoundland Time Zone, where programs air 30 minutes "late".

On October 9, 2006, at 6:00 a.m., the network switched to a 24-hour schedule, becoming one of the last major English-language broadcasters to transition to such a schedule. Most CBC-owned stations previously signed off the air during the early morning (typically from 1:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.).

Instead of the infomercials aired by most private stations, or a simulcast of CBC News Network in the style of BBC One's nightly simulcast of BBC News Channel, the CBC uses the time to air repeats, including local news, primetime series, films and other programming from the CBC library.

Its French counterpart, ICI Radio-Canada Télé, which continued to sign off every night for some years, now broadcasts a simulcast of its sister news network Ici RDI after regular programming ends for the night until the next programming day begins.

While historically there has been room for regional differences in the schedule, as there is today (see "Stations", below), for CBC-owned stations, funding has decreased to the point that most of these stations no longer broadcast any significant local programming beyond local newscasts and an edition of the summer regional documentary series Absolutely Canadian.

Until 1998, the network carried a variety of American programs in addition to its core Canadian programming, directly competing with private Canadian broadcasters such as CTV, Citytv and Global. Since then, it has restricted itself to Canadian programs, a handful of British programs, and a few American films and off-network repeats. Since this change, the CBC has sometimes struggled to maintain ratings comparable to those it achieved before 1995, although it has seen somewhat of a ratings resurgence in recent years. In the 2007–08 season, popular series such as Little Mosque on the Prairie and The Border helped the network achieve its strongest ratings performance in over half a decade.

History

In 1950, CBC was granted channels 2 and 5 in Montréal and 9 in Toronto. The stations were initially expected to sign on in 1951.

Programming

News and current affairs

The CBC's flagship newscast, The National, airs Sunday through Fridays at 10:00 p.m. local time (except in Newfoundland, where it airs at 10:30 p.m.) and Saturdays at 6:00 p.m. EST. Until October 2006, CBC owned-and-operated stations aired a second broadcast of the program at 11:00 p.m.; This later broadcast included only the main news portion of the program, and excluded the analysis and documentary segment. This second airing was later replaced with other programming, and as of the 2012-13 television season, was replaced on CBC's major market stations by a half-hour late newscast. There is also a short news update, at most, on late Saturday evenings. During hockey season, this update is usually found during the first intermission of the second game of the doubleheader on Hockey Night in Canada.

The show also simultaneously broadcasts rolling coverage from CBC News Network from noon to 1 p.m. local time in most time zones (also from 6 to 7 a.m. in regions where a local CBC Radio One morning show is not simulcast instead).

In addition to the mentioned late local newscasts, CBC stations in most markets fill early evenings with local news programs, generally from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., while most stations also air a single local newscast on weekend evenings (comprising a supper hour broadcast on Saturdays and a late evening newscast on Sundays). Weekly newsmagazine The Fifth Estate is also a CBC mainstay, as are documentary series such as Doc Zone.

Sports

One of the most popular shows on CBC Television is the weekly Saturday night broadcast of NHL hockey games, Hockey Night in Canada. It has been televised by the network since 1952. During the NHL lock-out and subsequent cancellation of the 2004–05 hockey season, the CBC instead aired various recent and classic films, branded as Movie Night in Canada, on Saturday nights. Many cultural groups criticized this and suggested the CBC air games from minor hockey leagues; the CBC responded that most such broadcast rights were already held by other groups, but it did base each Movie Night broadcast from a different Canadian hockey venue. Other than hockey, CBC Sports properties included Toronto Raptors basketball, Toronto FC soccer, and various other amateur and professional events.

The telecast of the Olympics including the Summer and Winter Olympic Games on Canadian television on CBC's broadcast started in 1956. It has the rights to broadcast the Olympic Games until 2032.

It was also the exclusive carrier of Canadian Curling Association events during the 2004–05 season. Due to disappointing results and fan outrage over many draws being carried on CBC Country Canada (now called Cottage Life), the association tried to cancel its multiyear deal with the CBC signed in 2004. After the CBC threatened legal action, both sides eventually came to an agreement under which early-round rights reverted to TSN. On June 15, 2006, the CCA announced that TSN would obtain exclusive rights to curling broadcasts in Canada as of the 2008–09 season, shutting the CBC out of the championship weekend for the first time in 40-plus years.

CBC Sports suffered another major blow when it was announced that after the 2007 season, the CFL regular season games and the Grey Cup would be moving to TSN, ending the CBC's tenure with the CFL. It has been stated that the CFL was not happy with the CBC's lacklustre production during the CBC's 2005 union lock-out, which forced the network to use CBC management to work the behind-the-scenes telecast and use stadium public address announcers in place of their regular announcer crew.

On June 23, 2007, the network aired the first game in a two-year deal to broadcast Toronto Blue Jays games; the contract ended at the end of the 2008 season, and was not renewed.

In August 2007, it was also announced that the CBC would broadcast National Basketball Association games involving the Toronto Raptors, starting with the 2007–08 NBA season, through at least 2009–10; the CBC would carry 10 games for the 2007–08 and 20 games for the 2008–09 and 2009–10 seasons.

Entertainment

Among CBC Television's best-known primetime series are comedy series Rick Mercer Report (2004–18), This Hour Has 22 Minutes (since 1993) and Little Mosque on the Prairie (2007–12), and dramas such as The Tudors (2007–10), Heartland (since 2007) and Intelligence (2006–07). In recent years, British series such as Coronation Street and Doctor Who have been given greater prominence. As noted above, it now carries very little American programming apart from some syndicated daytime shows.

In 2006, the CBC announced radical changes to its primetime line-up, including the following new series to premiere that fall:

Dragons' Den (reality)

Intelligence (drama; 2006–07)

Rumours (comedy; 2006–07)

Underdogs (a spinoff of Marketplace)

Jozi-H (medical drama; a Canadian-South African co-production; 2006–07)

The One: Making a Music Star (a Canadian version of the American reality show simulcast by CBC in July 2006; Canadian series was not included on the schedule)

72 Hours: True Crime (crime documentary series; aired in "core" of primetime for first time; 2004–07)

Repeats of The Hour on the main CBC network, from 2005 to 2014.

Many were surprised by these changes to the CBC schedule, which were apparently intended to attract a younger audience to the network; some suggested they might alienate the core CBC viewership. Another note of criticism was made when the network decided to move The National in some time zones to simulcast the American version of The One over the summer. This later became a moot point, as The One was taken off the air after two weeks after extremely low American and Canadian ratings, and the newscast resumed its regular schedule.

Children's programming

Children's programming, often marketed as "CBC Kids" and "The Outlet", occupies most of the morning on weekdays and much of weekend mornings.

CBC HD

On March 5, 2005, CBC Television launched a high definition simulcast of its Toronto (CBLT-DT) and Montreal (CBMT-DT) stations. Since that time, the network has also launched HD simulcasts in Vancouver (CBUT-DT), Ottawa (CBOT-DT), Edmonton (CBXT-DT), Calgary (CBRT-DT), Halifax (CBHT-DT), Windsor, (CBET-DT), Winnipeg (CBWT-DT), and St. John's (CBNT-DT).

All HD channels map to their analogue positions via the North American PSIP virtual channeling standard.

In fall 2007, the CBC upgraded its Toronto facilities, becoming the second fully HD news broadcaster in Canada. The National and all its news programs originating from the same news studio in Toronto (including CBC News: Sunday Night) are now available in HD.

On September 1, 2011, as part of the analogue television shutoff and digital conversion, all CBC over-the-air HD broadcasts switched from the 1080i to 720p resolution format.

In August 2012, after the CBC shut down all of their remaining analogue transmitters, CBC television (as well as CBC News Network) began broadcasting all programming solely in the 16:9 aspect ratio and began letterboxing its widescreen feed for standard definition viewers just as Ici Radio-Canada Télé has done since September 2007.

Stations

All CBC television stations, including those in major cities, are owned and operated by the CBC itself, with their master control facilities all located at the Canadian Broadcasting Centre in Toronto. CBC owned-and-operated (O&O) stations operate as a mostly seamless national service with few deviations from the main network schedule, although there are some regional differences from time to time. For on-air identification, most CBC stations use the CBC brand rather than their call letters, not identifying themselves specifically until sign-on or sign-off (though some, like Toronto's CBLT, do not ID themselves at all except through PSIP). All CBC O&O stations have a standard call letter naming convention, in that the first two letters are "CB" (an ITU prefix in the CA-CE block allocated not to Canada (whose block is CF-CK), but to Chile) and the last letter is "T". Only the third letter varies from market to market; however, that letter is typically the same as the third letter of the CBC Radio One and CBC Radio 2 stations in the same market. An exception to this rule are the CBC North stations in Yellowknife, Whitehorse and Iqaluit, whose call signs begin with "CF" due to their historic association with the CBC's Frontier Coverage Package prior to the advent of microwave and satellite broadcasting.

Some stations that broadcast from smaller cities were private affiliates of the CBC, that is, stations which are owned by commercial broadcasters but predominantly incorporated CBC programming within their schedules. Such stations generally followed the CBC schedule, airing a minimum 40 hours per week of network programming. However, they often chose to opt out of some CBC programming in order to air locally produced programs, syndicated series or programs purchased from other broadcasters, such as CTV Two, which do not have a broadcast outlet in the same market. In these cases, the CBC programming being displaced may have been broadcast at a different time than the network, or were not broadcast on the station at all. Most private affiliates generally opted out of CBC's afternoon schedule and Thursday night arts programming. Private affiliates carried the 10 p.m. broadcast of The National as a core part of the CBC schedule, but generally omitted the 11 p.m. repeat (which is no longer broadcast). Most private affiliates produce their own local newscasts for a duration of at least 35 minutes.

Following the disaffiliation of the last privately owned CBC affiliate CKSA-DT in Lloydminster on August 31, 2016, no more private stations operate as CBC affiliates, as many such stations have been purchased either by the CBC itself or by Canwest Global or CHUM Limited, respectively becoming E! (a small system owned by Canwest, but separate from its fully national Global Television Network) or A-Channel (later A, now CTV Two) stations. One private CBC affiliate, CHBC-TV in Kelowna, joined E! (then known as CH) on February 27, 2006. When a private CBC affiliate reaffiliated with another network, the CBC normally added a retransmitter of its nearest O&O station to ensure that CBC service is continued. However, due to an agreement between CHBC and CFJC-TV in Kamloops, CFJC also disaffiliated from the CBC on February 27, 2006, but no retransmitters were installed in the licence area. Former private CBC affiliates CKPG-TV Prince George and CHAT-TV Medicine Hat disaffiliated on August 31, 2008, and joined E!, but the CBC announced it would not add new retransmitters to these areas. Incidentally, CFJC, CKPG and CHAT are all owned by an independent media company, Jim Pattison Group. With the closure of E! and other changes in the media landscape, several former CBC affiliates subsequently joined CTV, Citytv or Global, or closed altogether.

CBC Television worldwide

Carriage of CBC News

From 1994 through July 2005, CBC Television's news programming was aired in the United States on Newsworld International.

On September 11, 2001, several American broadcasters without their own news operations, including C-SPAN and Home Shopping Network, carried the CBC's coverage of the terror attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. In the days after September 11, C-SPAN carried CBC's nightly newscast, The National, anchored by Peter Mansbridge.

C-SPAN has also carried CBC's coverage of major events affecting Canadians. Among them:

Canadian federal elections.

Six days in September 2000 that marked the death and state funeral of Pierre Elliott Trudeau.

The war in Iraq. The National aired on C-SPAN each night for about three weeks following the attacks on Iraq.

Peter Mansbridge signed off his broadcasts during that time, saying "I'm Peter Mansbridge. Thanks for watching, those of you here in Canada, and viewers across the United States watching us on C-SPAN."

The power outage crisis in summer 2003.

Key proceedings in Parliament of Canada, such as state openings.

U.S. presidential elections.

In 2004, C-SPAN picked up The National the day after the election for the view from Canadians.

State and official visits of American presidents to Canada.

During MSNBC's coverage of President George W. Bush's visit to Canada, the CBC's senior parliamentary editor, Don Newman, appeared on MSNBC.

Canada–United States border audiences

CBC Television stations can be received over-the-air or through cable in many American communities along the Canada–United States border, and have a significant audience in those areas.

CBC's sports coverage has also attained high viewership in border markets, including its coverage of the NHL's Stanley Cup Playoffs. Its coverage of the Olympic Games also found a significant audience in border regions, primarily due to the fact that CBC aired more events live than NBC's coverage, which had been criticized in recent years for tape delaying events to air in primetime, even if the event is being held in a market in the Pacific Time Zone during primetime on the East (where it would still be delayed for West Coast primetime).

Over-the-air digital television transition

The CRTC ordered that in 28 "mandatory markets," full power over-the-air analogue television transmitters had to cease transmitting by August 31, 2011. Broadcasters could either continue serving those markets by transitioning analogue transmitters to digital or cease broadcasting over-the-air. Cable, IPTV, and satellite services are not involved or affected by this digital transition deadline.

While its fellow Canadian broadcasters converted most of their transmitters to digital by the Canadian digital television transition deadline of August 31, 2011, the CBC converted only about half of the analogue transmitters in mandatory areas to digital (15 of 28 markets with CBC Television stations, and 14 of 28 markets with Télévision de Radio-Canada stations). Due to financial difficulties reported by the corporation, the corporation published digital transition plans for none of its analogue retransmitters in mandatory markets to be converted to digital by the deadline. Under this plan, communities that receive analogue signals by rebroadcast transmitters in mandatory markets would lose their over-the-air signals as of the deadline. Rebroadcast transmitters account for 23 of the 48 CBC and Radio-Canada transmitters in mandatory markets. Mandatory markets losing both CBC and Radio-Canada over-the-air signals include London, Ontario (metropolitan area population 457,000) and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (metro area population 257,000). In both of those markets, the corporation's television transmitters are the only ones that were not planned to be converted to digital by the deadline.

Because rebroadcast transmitters were not planned to be converted to digital, many markets stood to lose over-the-air coverage from CBC or Radio-Canada, or both. As a result, only seven of the markets subject to the August 31, 2011, transition deadline were planned to have both CBC and Radio-Canada in digital, and 13 other markets were planned to have either CBC or Radio-Canada in digital. In mid-August 2011, the CRTC granted the CBC an extension, until August 31, 2012, to continue operating its analogue transmitters in markets subject to the August 31, 2011, transition deadline. This CRTC decision prevented many markets subject to the transition deadline from losing signals for the CBC or Radio-Canada, or both at the transition deadline. At the transition deadline, Barrie, Ontario lost both CBC and Radio-Canada signals as the CBC did not request that the CRTC allow these transmitters to continue operating.

CBC and affiliate transmitters in mandatory markets

In addition to the above noted digital transmitters, the non-mandatory market Radio-Canada transmitter in Rimouski, Quebec, CJBR-DT, was transitioned to digital on August 31, 2012. The non-mandatory market CBC Yellowknife transmitter, CFYK-DT, was transitioned to digital on July 31, 2012. Of the non-mandatory affiliates, CKWS-DT Kingston and CHEX-DT Peterborough, Ontario converted in 2013, while CFTK-TV Terrace and CJDC-TV Dawson Creek, British Columbia has yet to convert; these stations has since changed its affiliations to other networks.

1 Lloydminster's CBC affiliate, CKSA-DT, disaffiliated with the network in September 2016, changing to an affiliate of Global. CBXT Edmonton and/or CBKT Regina now serves the region via cable and satellite. Radio-Canada never had a transmitter serving the Lloydminster area.

2 Thunder Bay's CBC affiliate, CKPR-DT, disaffiliated with the network in September 2014, changing to an affiliate of CTV. CBLT now serves the city via cable and satellite.

3 The Greater Toronto Area was served by CBC Television flagship CBLT, while the Durham Region was served by an affiliate, CHEX-TV-2. CHEX-TV-2 would not be required to convert to digital until 2019. CHEX-TV-2 would drop CBC programming in exchange for CTV in 2015; it since became a Global outlet for the Durham Region in 2018.

4 The Radio-Canada affiliate serving Rivière-du-Loup, CKRT-DT, ceased operations on August 31, 2021, after Radio-Canada declined to renew CKRT's affiliation, with no sufficient alternate sources available. Radio-Canada programming has since become available in the region only by cable and satellite, with CJBR-TV Rimouski seen on many cable systems. CBC Television never had a transmitter serving the Rivière-du-Loup area.

5 The Radio-Canada affiliate serving Rouyn-Noranda/Val-d'Or, CKRN-DT, ceased operations on March 25, 2018. Radio-Canada programming has since become available in the region only by cable and satellite, with CBFT Montreal seen on many cable systems. CBC Television was provided by two different repeaters: CBVD-TV channel 5 Malartic (repeating CBMT Montreal, serving Val-d'Or) and CFCL-TV-2 / CBLT-8 channel 2 in Kearns, Ontario (repeating CFCL-TV Timmins, later CBLT Toronto, serving Rouyn-Noranda); these repeaters would close with the rest of the repeater network in 2012.

History

In 2006, the CBC submitted a plan to the CRTC for transitioning the over-the-air television signals from analogue to digital. In this submission, the CBC stated that its 654 analogue transmitters reached 98% of the population, and that it planned on installing 44 digital transmitters, reaching 80% of Canadians.

The CRTC decided to impose a mandatory transition date switching over-the-air television signals from analogue to digital, following consultation with CBC and the public. The CBC had requested during this consultation that broadcasters be given four years to transition. Following the consultation, on May 17, 2007, the CRTC imposed a transition timeline of four years, resulting in a transition deadline of August 31, 2011, and requiring that over-the-air analogue transmitters be shut off by that date.

On July 6, 2009, the CRTC limited the August 31, 2011 transition deadline to certain mandatory markets, greatly reducing the number of transmitters needing to be transitioned. In CBC's 2009–2010 Corporate Plan, the corporation stated that it planned on having 30 transmitters broadcasting in digital by the deadline, costing $30 million.

On August 6, 2010, the CBC issued a press release stating that due to financial reasons, the CBC and Radio-Canada would only transition 27 transmitters total, one in each market where there was an originating station (i.e. a CBC or Radio-Canada television station located in that market). Further, the CBC stated in the release, that only 15 of the transmitters would be in place by August 31, 2011, due to lack of available funds, and that the remainder would not be on the air until as late as August 31, 2012. Additionally, the CBC stated in the release that it was asking the CRTC for permission to continue broadcasting in analogue until the identified transmitters for transition were up and running. At the time of the press release, only eight of the corporation's transmitters (four CBC and four Radio Canada) were broadcasting in digital.

On November 30, 2010, the CBC's senior director of regulatory affairs issued a letter to the CRTC regarding CBC's plans for transitioning to digital. The letter states, "CBC/Radio-Canada will not be converting its analogue retransmitters in mandatory markets to digital after August 31, 2011." On December 16, 2010, some months after the CRTC issued a bulletin reminding broadcasters that analogue transmitters had to be shut off by the deadline in mandatory markets, the CBC revised the documents accompanying its August 6, 2010, news release to state that it had the money for and is striving to transition all 27 transmitters by August 31, 2011.