CBC Television

This article is about the Canadian television network. For other uses, see CBC Television (disambiguation).

CBC Television

Type	Broadcast television network
Country	Canada
Availability	National (available in parts of northern U.S. and Caribbean, via cable or antenna)
Slogan	Canada lives here.
Owner	Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Key people	Kirstine Stewart, executive vice president, CBC English-language services
Launch date	September 6, 1952
Official website	CBC Television

CBC Television (also known as CBC) is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national English-language public broadcaster. (Its French-language counterpart is Télévision de Radio-Canada, headquartered in Montreal.)

Headquartered in Toronto, CBC Television is available through local TV stations across Canada, many of which are owned by the CBC. Almost all of the CBC's programming is of Canadian origin. Although the CBC is supported by public funding, commercial advertising revenue supplements the network, in contrast to CBC Radio and public broadcasters from several other countries, which are commercial-free.

Overview

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

As of 6:00 a.m. on October 9, 2006, the network went to a 24-hour schedule, becoming one of the last major English-language broadcasters to do so. Previously, most CBC-owned stations actually signed off the airwaves during the early morning hours (typically 1:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.). Instead of the infomercials aired by most private stations, or a simulcast of CBC Newsworld 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, movies, and other programming from the CBC library.^[1] However, its French counterpart, Télévision de Radio-Canada, still signs off every night.

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 only broadcast 30 to 60 minutes a day of local news, and usually no other local programming.^[2]

This was screenshot logo from 1986 of CBC Television with red and yellow lettering, including the CBC logo in white. This logo was used as a secondary logo, used only in promos and junctions for station identification.

This alternate logo was used by CBC Television for print ads and program promos from the 1960s until 1974. A version of this logo was also used for CBC Radio (with "Radio" replacing "Television"). However, this was never used as an official logo for CBC Television.

Until the mid-1990s, the network carried a variety of American programs in addition to its core Canadian programming, directly competing with private Canadian broadcasters such as CTV and Global. Since then, it has restricted itself to Canadian programs, a handful of British programs, and a few American movies 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, hit series such as Little Mosque on the Prairie and The Border helped the network achieve its strongest ratings performance in over half a decade.^[3]

Logo used by CBC Television from 2001-2009. Previous variants of the logo retained the CBC logo, but the text was in a different font.

In 2002, CBC Television and CBC News Network became the first broadcasters in Canada (and very likely the first broadcasters worldwide^{[citation needed]}) required to provide closed captioning for 100% of their programming. On those networks, only outside commercials need not be captioned, though a bare majority of them are aired with captions. All shows, bumpers, billboards, promos, and other internal programming must be captioned. The requirement stems from a human rights complaint filed by deaf lawyer Henry Vlug,^[4] which was settled in 2002.^[5]

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Programming

News and current affairs

Sports

Entertainment

Among CBC Television's best-known primetime series are comedy series Rick Mercer Report, This Hour Has 22 Minutes and Little Mosque on the Prairie, and dramas such as The Tudors, Heartland and Intelligence. 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 lineup, including the following new series to premiere that fall:

Dragons' Den (reality)
Intelligence (drama)
Rumours (comedy)
Underdogs (a spinoff of Marketplace)
Jozi-H (medical drama; a Canadian-South African co-production)
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; already on schedule but will air in "core" of primetime for first time)
repeats of The Hour on the main CBC network

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.

In 2006, daytime programming was also revamped. While there were still repeats of CBC and foreign series, new talk shows such as The Gill Deacon Show and the regional franchise Living were added. The Gill Deacon Show was cancelled after just seven months, and replaced with another talk show, Steven and Chris, which is still on the air today; Living was cancelled in August 2009. Steven and Chris also is shown on the US television channel Live Well Network.

On January 9, 2007, the CBC began airing a highly publicized new series called Little Mosque on the Prairie, a comedy about a Muslim family living in rural Saskatchewan. The series garnered strong ratings as well as international media attention. It was also announced that Martha Stewart's daytime show would be added to the CBC daytime lineup, with the nighttime Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! following in on September 2008 (with a few edits to limit the amount of US advertising).^[11]^[12]

In January 2008, CBC television launched the drama series The Border, MVP and jPod, the reality series The Week The Women Went and the comedy Sophie. Only The Border and Sophie were renewed for a second season in the fall of 2008. The new series Being Erica and Wild Roses began airing in January 2009.

From 2005, the CBC has contributed production funds for the BBC Wales revival of Doctor Who, for which it received a special credit at the end of each episode. This arrangement continued until the end of fourth season, broadcast in 2008. The CBC similarly contributed to the first season of the spin-off series, Torchwood.^[13]

Children's programming

Children's and youth programming, often marketed as "Kids' CBC" (for younger kids) or "The Outlet" (formerly The X/The Void) (for pre-teens), occupies most portion of the morning and much of weekend mornings. However, despite a number of revamps, its influence is in decline with the continued rise of various specialty services serving the market.

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CBC HD

On March 5, 2005, CBC Television launched an HD simulcast of its Toronto (CBLT-DT) and Montreal (CBMT-DT) stations. Since that time they have 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). CBC HD is available nationally via satellite and on digital cable as well as for free via DTT using a regular TV antenna and a digital tuner (included in most new TVs) on the following channels:

Toronto: 20 (5.1), since March 5, 2005^[14]
Montreal: 20 (6.1), since February 21, 2005^[15]
Vancouver: 43 (2.1), since January 9, 2006^[16]
Ottawa: 25 (4.1), since September 13, 2006^[17]
Edmonton: 42 (5.1), since April 1, 2011^[18]
Calgary: 21 (9.1), since April 1, 2011^[19]
Halifax: 54 (3.1), since August 31, 2011^[20]
Windsor: 9 (9.1), since August 31, 2011^[21]
St. John's: 8 (8.1), since August 31, 2011^[22]
Winnipeg: 27 (6.1), since December 9, 2011^[23]

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 broadcasting in 1080i to 720p.^[24]

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Stations

Most CBC television stations, including those in the major cities, are owned and operated by the CBC itself. CBC O&O stations deviate very little 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, don't ID themselves at all). All CBC O&O stations have a standard call-letter naming convention, in that the first two letters are "CB" 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 are private affiliates of the CBC, that is, stations which are owned by commercial broadcasters but air a predominantly CBC schedule. Such stations generally follow the CBC schedule, although they may opt out of some CBC programming in order to air locally-produced programs, syndicated series or programs purchased from other broadcasters, such as A, which do not have a broadcast outlet in the same market. In these cases, the CBC programming being displaced may be broadcast at a different time than the network, or may not be broadcast on the station at all. Most private affiliates generally opt out of CBC's afternoon schedule and Thursday night arts programming. Private affiliates carry 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 35 minutes. Some of the private affiliates have begun adding CBC's overnight programming to their schedules since the network went to 24-hour broadcasting.

Private CBC affiliates are not as common as they were in the past, as many such stations have been purchased either by the CBC itself or by Canwest Global or CHUM Limited, respectively becoming E! or A-Channel (now CTV Two) stations. One private CBC affiliate, CHBC-TV Kelowna, joined E! (then known as CH) on February 27, 2006. When a private CBC affiliate reaffiliates with another network, the CBC has 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 will not add new retransmitters to these areas. Incidentally, CFJC, CKPG and CHAT are all owned by The Jim Pattison Group as an independent media group. With the closure of E! and other changes in the media landscape, several former CBC affiliates have since joined Citytv or Global, or closed altogether.

According to filings to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) by Thunder Bay Electronics (owner of CBC's Thunder Bay affiliate CKPR-DT)^[25] and Astral Media (owner of CBC affiliates CFTK-TV in Terrace and CJDC-TV in Dawson Creek)^{[citation needed]}, the CBC informed them that it will not extend its association with any of its private affiliates beyond August 31, 2011. Incidentally, that is also the date for analogue shutoff in Canada. Given recent practice and the CBC's decision not to convert any re-transmitters to digital, even in markets with populations in the hundreds in thousands, it is not expected that the CBC will open new transmitters to replace its affiliates, and indeed may pare back its existing transmitter network. However, in March 2011 CKPR announced they had come to a programming agreement with the CBC, in which CKPR will continue to provide CBC programming in Thunder Bay for a period of five years.^[26] On March 16, 2012, Astral Media announced the sale of its assets to Bell Media, owners of CTV and CTV Two, for $3.38 billion with CFTK and CJDC included in the acquisition. Whether the stations will remain CBC affiliates or become owned-and-operated stations of CTV or CTV Two following the completion of the merger is undetermined.^[27]

CBC television stations in Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and Yukon, branded as CBC North, tailor their programming mostly to the local native population, and broadcast in many native languages such as Inuktitut, Gwichʼin, and Dene.

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CBC Television worldwide

Carriage of CBC News

From 1994 through July 2005, CBC 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, carried the CBC's coverage of the September 11, 2001, 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 3 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 Canadian Parliament, 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, CBC's senior parliamentary editor, Don Newman, appeared on MSNBC.

Several PBS stations also air some CBC programming, especially The Red Green Show, although no CBC programming currently airs on the full network schedule.

For a number of years CBC co-produced a news programme, Hemispheres, with the ABC, Australia's national broadcaster, which was hosted from Sydney and Vancouver and included reports from both networks' foreign correspondents. It was broadcast in both Canada and Australia and across Asia and the Pacific on the Australia Network.

Border audiences

CBC Television stations can be received in many United States communities along the Canadian border over-the-air and have a significant audience. Such a phenomenon can also take place within Great Lakes communities such as Ashtabula, Ohio, which receives programming from the CBC's London, Ontario, transmitter, based upon prevailing atmospheric conditions over Lake Erie.

CBC's sports coverage has also attained high viewership in border markets, including its coverage of the NHL's Stanley Cup Playoffs, which was generally considered to be more complete and consistent than coverage by other networks such as NBC. 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 hours on the East (where it would still be delayed for West coast primetime).^[28]

Southeastern Michigan (including Detroit), and Northern Ohio, (including Toledo and surrounding areas) receive local Windsor CBC-owned station CBET-DT over the air, and on local cable systems, such as Bright House Networks, Wide Open West, Charter, Comcast, and Buckeye CableSystem. The station can also be seen as far as Cleveland, Ohio, with a strong antenna.
Montreal CBC O&O station CBMT-DT can be seen on various cable systems in the northern parts of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, including Charter cable systems in Michigan cities like Alpena, Bay City, Midland, Mount Pleasant, Houghton and Marquette.
In Maine, Time Warner Cable (formerly Adelphia Cable) carries CBMT in Bangor; cable viewers along the border can receive CBAT-DT. The Bangor Daily News carries listings for CBAT (and CKLT-DT Saint John as well).
In northwest Washington state, CBC O&O station CBUT-DT is distributed to almost one million Comcast cable subscribers in Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma, Olympia, and Everett.
In the Champlain Valley of Northern Upstate New York and Vermont, local cable systems in Plattsburgh, New York and Burlington, Vermont (Charter and Comcast, respectively) carry CBMT.
Many cable systems in northern Minnesota and northern North Dakota carry CBWT-DT, CBC's Winnipeg affiliate, including the cities of Grand Forks and Bemidji.
The Buffalo, New York cable systems carry CBLT from Toronto. It is also easily receivable via antenna as far south as Cattaraugus County and some communities in Niagara County can receive the HD feed via an antenna.
The SUNY Oswego campus cable system carries CKWS-TV in Kingston, although it is an affiliate, not owned by the CBC. On public cable systems, Time Warner carries CKWS in Jefferson and western St. Lawrence counties, and as far south as Utica. In eastern St. Lawrence County, CBC O&O CBOT-DT from Ottawa is carried instead.
Some communities in the US, such as Alexandria, Minnesota, offer CBC North on low-powered repeaters, courtesy of the local TV association.

Caribbean and Bermuda

Several Caribbean nations carry feeds of CBC TV:

Bahamas, on the CoralWave (Cable Bahamas) TV system in the Northern Bahamas (Channel 8)
Barbados, on the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation Multi-Choice TV Cable system (Channel 703)
Bermuda, on the CableVision digital cable service's Variety Tier (Channel 138)
Trinidad and Tobago, on the Columbus Communications Trinidad Ltd. (CCTL) TV system
Turks and Caicos Islands, on WIV Channel 64^{[citation needed]}

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Over-the-air digital television transition

CBC and affiliate transmitters in mandatory markets

		CBC Television (English language)		Télévision de Radio-Canada ("SRC" – French language)
Province	Market	Analogue	Digital	Analogue	Digital
AB	Calgary	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
AB	Edmonton	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
AB	Lethbridge	Yes	No	Yes	No
AB	Lloydminster	Yes (affiliate)	Yes (affiliate)	No	No
BC	Vancouver	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
BC	Victoria	Yes (Vancouver transmitter)	Sidney/Saanich only (Vancouver transmitter)	Sidney/Saanich only (Vancouver transmitter)	Sidney/Saanich only (Vancouver transmitter)
MB	Winnipeg	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
NB	Fredericton	Yes (Saint John transmitter)	Yes	Yes	No
NB	Moncton	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
NB	Saint John	Yes	No	Yes	No
NL	St John's	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
NS	Halifax	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
ON	Kitchener	Yes	No	Yes	No
ON	London	Yes	No	Yes	No
ON	Ottawa/Gatineau, QC	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
ON	Thunder Bay	Yes (affiliate)	Yes (affiliate)	Yes	No
ON	Toronto	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
ON	Windsor	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
PE	Charlottetown	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
QC	Montreal	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
QC	Québec	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
QC	Rivière-du-Loup	No	No	Yes (affiliate)	Yes (affiliate)
QC	Rouyn-Noranda/Val-d’Or	Yes (Kearns, ON and Malartic, QC transmitters)	No	Yes (affiliate)	Yes (affiliate)
QC	Saguenay	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
QC	Sherbrooke	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
QC	Trois-Rivières	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
SK	Regina	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
SK	Saskatoon	Yes	No	Yes	No
Total	28 markets	27 yes, 1 no	15 yes, 12 no, 1 partially	27 yes, 1 no	14 yes, 13 no, 1 partially

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.

History

In 2006, the CBC submitted a plan to the CRTC for transitioning 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.^[31]

The CRTC decided to impose a mandatory transition date switching over-the-air television signals from analog to digital, following consultation with CBC and the public. 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.^[32] 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 8 of the corporation's transmitters (4 CBC and 4 Radio Canada) were broadcasting in digital.

On November 30, 2010, CBC's Senior Director, 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 re-transmitters in mandatory markets to digital after August 31, 2011." ^[33]

On December 16, 2010, some months after the CRTC issued a bulletin reminding broadcasters that analog 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.

On March 23, 2011, the CRTC rejected an application by the CBC to install a digital transmitter serving Fredricton, New Brunswick in place of the analogue transmitter serving Fredericton and Saint John, NB, which would have served only 62.5% of the population served by the existing analogue transmitter.^[34] The CBC issued a press release stating "CBC/Radio-Canada intends to re-file its application with the CRTC to provide more detailed cost estimates that will allow the Commission to better understand the unfeasibility of replicating the Corporation’s current analogue coverage."^[35] The press release further adds that the CBC suggests coverage could be maintained if the CRTC were to "allow CBC Television to continue providing the analogue service it offers today – much in the same way the Commission permitted recently in the case of Yellowknife, Whitehorse and Iqaluit."

On March 29, 2011, the CRTC added the following condition of licence to over-the-air stations owned by CBC: "Unless otherwise authorized by the Commission, the licencee shall not transmit analogue television signals after 31 August 2011 in mandatory markets designated as such by the Commission in Broadcasting Regulatory Policy 2011-184 or transmit television signals on channels 52 to 69.".^[36]

On August 18, 2011, the CRTC issued a decision that allows CBC's mandatory market rebroadcasting transmitters in analogue to remain on-air until August 31, 2012.^[37] Before that deadline, CBC's licence renewal process will take place and CBC's digital transition plans will be examined as part of that process. The requirement remains for all of CBC's full power transmitters occupying channels 52 to 69 to either relocate to channels 2 to 51 or become low power transmitters. In some cases, CBC has opted to reduce the power of existing transmitters to low power transmitters, which will result in signal loss for some viewers.

On April 4, 2012, CBC released its budget plans, in which it announced that all of its approximately 620 analogue television transmitters will be shut down on July 31, 2012, which is early than planned, due to funding reductions from the federal government.^[29]^[38]^[39]

On July 17, 2012, the CRTC approved the shut down of CBC's analogue transmitters, noting that "while the Commission has the discretion to refuse to revoke broadcasting licences, even on application from a licencee, it cannot direct the CBC or any other broadcaster to continue to operate its stations and transmitters."^[40]

On July 31, 2012, at around 11:59 pm in each time zone, the remaining 620 analogue transmitters were shut down, leaving the network with 27 digital television transmitters across the country, and some transmitters operated by some affiliated stations.

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Slogans

1966: "Television is CBC"
1970 (ca.): "When you watch, watch the best"
1973: "First Choice!"
1977: "Bringing Canadians Together"
1980: "We Are the CBC"
1984: "Look to us for good things" (general) / "Good To Know" (news and public affairs)
1985: "Look again!"
1986-1989: "Best on the Box"
1989–1992: "CBC and You"
1992–1995: "Go Public" / "CBC: Public Broadcasting" (that season, the CBC emphasised the fact that they are a public broadcaster)
1995–2001: "Television to Call Our Own"
2001–2006: "Canada's Own"
2006–present: "Canada Lives Here"