CBC Television (PatrZDZ's vision)

**CBC Television** (also known as **CBC TV**) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-language counterpart is Radio-Canada Télé.

With main studios at the Canadian Broadcasting Centre in Toronto, CBC Television is available throughout Canada on over-the-air television stations in urban centres, and as a must-carry station on cable and satellite television providers. CBC Television can also be live streamed on its CBC Gem video platform. Almost all of the CBC's programming is produced in Canada. Although CBC Television 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 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 hours (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 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, films and other programming from the CBC library.

Its French counterpart, Radio-Canada Télé, which continued to sign off every night for several years thereafter, 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*.

The network carries a variety of American programs in addition to its core Canadian programming, directly competing with private Canadian broadcasters such as CTV and Global. 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.

In 2002, CBC Television and CBC Newsworld became the first broadcasters in Canada that are required to provide closed captioning for all 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, which was settled in 2002.

## Programming

### News and current affairs

The CBC's flagship newscast, The National, airs weeknights at 10:00 p.m. local time (except in Newfoundland, where it airs at 10:30 p.m.). Other newscasts include CBC News Morning, airing weekdays at 5:00 a.m.; Midday, airing weekdays at noon, CBC News Saturday Report airing at 5:30 p.m. during the season of Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday nights (outside of hockey season it is broadcast at 10:00 p.m.) and CBC News Sunday Night airing in the 10:00 slot on Sunday nights.

CBC stations in most markets fill early evenings and late nights with local news programs, generally from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. and from 11:00 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., while most stations also air a three local newscasts on weekend evenings (comprising a supper hour broadcast on Saturdays and a late evening newscast on Saturdays and 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, 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.

The telecast of the Olympics including Summer and Winter Olympic Games at Canadian television on CBC's broadcast started in 1956. It has the rights to broadcast the Olympic Games until 2024.

Other than hockey and the Olympics, CBC Sports properties include the Canadian Football League, and various other amateur and professional events. It is also the exclusive carrier of Canadian Curling Association events.

### 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.

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* (2006–07) and the regional franchise *Living* (2007–09) were aired. *The Gill Deacon Show* was cancelled after just seven months, and replaced with another talk show, *Steven and Chris* from 2008 to 2015 (*Steven and Chris* is also shown on the Live Well Network in the United States); *Living* was cancelled in August 2009.

On January 9, 2007, the CBC began airing a highly publicized new series called *Little Mosque on the Prairie* (2007–12), a comedy about a Muslim family living in rural Saskatchewan. The series garnered strong ratings as well as international media attention, for most of its five year run. It was also announced that Martha Stewart's daytime show would be added to the CBC daytime line-up, with the nighttime *Wheel of Fortune* and *Jeopardy!* following in September 2008 (with a few edits to limit the amount of U.S. advertising).

In January 2008, CBC Television launched the drama series *The Border* (2008–10), *MVP* (2008) and *jPod* (2008), the reality series *The Week The Women Went* (2008–09) and the comedy *Sophie* from 2008 to 2009. Only *The Border* and *Sophie* were renewed for a second season in the fall of 2008. The new series *Being Erica* (2009–10) and the short-lived *Wild Roses* (2009) began airing in January 2009.

Beginning in 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*. More recently, the network has also begun picking up Canadian rights to some Australian series, including the drama series *Janet King* and *Love Child*, and the comedy-drama series *Please Like Me*.

#### CBC Gem

**CBC Gem** is CBC Television's video-on-demand platform; it includes streaming of live and on-demand programming from CBC Television, a number of short-form comedy, drama, and non-fiction web series; Canadian feature-length, short, and documentary films, and selected international programming from other public broadcasters around the world.

The service is available via the web and as a mobile app (formerly the **CBC TV app**). Gem also offers a premium subscription including ad-free video on-demand, as well as CBC News Network. New and upcoming shows like TopLine can be watched on CBC Gem.

### Children's programming

Children's programming, often marketed as "CBC Kids" and "The Outlet", occupies most of the morning hours 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). CBC HD is available nationally via satellite and on digital cable as well as for free over-the-air using a regular TV antenna and a digital tuner (included in most new television sets) on the following channels:

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. 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 are private affiliates of the CBC, that is, stations which are owned by commercial broadcasters but predominantly incorporate CBC programming within their schedules. Such stations *generally* follow the CBC schedule, airing a minimum 40 hours per week of network programming. However, they often choose to opt out of some CBC programming in order to air locally produced programs, syndicated series or programs purchased from other broadcasters, such as Citytv, which does 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 are not 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. Most private affiliates produce their own local newscasts for a duration of at least 35 minutes. Some of the private affiliates later began adding CBC's overnight programming to their schedules since the network began broadcasting 24 hours a day in October 2006.

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.

## 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, CBC's senior parliamentary editor, Don Newman, appeared on MSNBC.

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

For a number of years CBC co-produces a news programme, *Hemispheres*, with Australia's national broadcaster, the ABC; the program is hosted from Sydney and Vancouver and includes reports from both networks' foreign correspondents. It is broadcast in both Canada and Australia and across Asia and the Pacific on ABC Australia.

### 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.

In northwest Washington State, CBC owned-and-operated station CBUT is transmitted to almost one million Comcast cable subscribers in Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma, Olympia, and Everett.

In northern and central Michigan, Montreal CBC owned-and-operated station CBMT can be seen on Charter cable systems in cities like Alpena, Bay City, Midland, Mount Pleasant and Marquette.

In addition, many cable systems in northern Minnesota and northern North Dakota carry CBWT, CBC's Winnipeg owned-and-operated station.

Some communities in the US, such as Alexandria, Minnesota, offer CBC North on low-powered repeaters, courtesy of the local TV association.

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).