CBC News Network

Revenue

According to the Canadian Communications Monitoring report - Broadcasting system 2014, there are 11.3 million subscribers and revenue of $86.7 million.

History

With CNN already being widely available in Canada during the 1980s, private and public Canadian broadcasters began to apply for a licence for a similar 24-hour news service in Canada. In 1987 the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) awarded a licence to the CBC. Its launch was delayed several times: first when Allarcom, who had filed a competing application for an all-news channel, chose to appeal the CRTC decision; second, when the federal cabinet issued a directive to the CBC to revise its service plan for the network to include private commercial broadcasters and to launch a parallel French language service; and finally when cable companies were reluctant to add the service just five months after a similar launch of numerous other channels.

CBC Newsworld began broadcasting on July 31, 1989 from several regional studios in Halifax, Toronto, Winnipeg and Calgary. However, budget cuts over the years forced the network to centralize most of its operations in Toronto and Calgary.

It is funded by cable subscriber fees and commercial advertising. Unlike the CBC's main television network, the channel cannot directly receive operational funds from the corporation's public funding allotment — although it does benefit from synergies with other CBC services, such as the ability to share reporters and programs with the main network. In the 1990s, the channel also aired repeats of CBC Television's political sketch comedy series This Hour Has 22 Minutes and Royal Canadian Air Farce, but these were discontinued in 2001 after a CRTC directive that the shows did not qualify as news programming.

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

Newsworld International

Some of CBC News Network's programming also aired on the now-defunct Newsworld International, a American cable news network co-owned by the CBC and the Power Corporation of Canada. CBC Newsworld (as it was then known) produced some programming for Newsworld International, and scheduled programming from other news networks like BBC World, which did not air on the Canadian channel.

Newsworld International was sold to USA Networks in 2000, then to Vivendi Universal in 2001. and then to Al Gore and Joel Hyatt in 2004. Newsworld continued to provide the network's programming until Gore and Hyatt launched their own network, Current TV, on August 1, 2005. In 2013, the channel was sold again to the Al Jazeera Media Network and became Al Jazeera America on August 20, 2013.

2009 re-launch

On October 21, 2009, it was announced that CBC Newsworld would be renamed CBC News Network on October 26 as part of a larger re-launch of the CBC News division. A new lineup of programs was introduced to the network, with a greater emphasis towards live news coverage. New programs included CBC News Now (the channel's rolling news coverage), Power & Politics, The Lang and O'Leary Exchange (a business news program hosted by Amanda Lang and investor of Dragons' Den fame Kevin O'Leary) and Connect with Mark Kelley.

CBC News Network HD

In January 2009, the CBC launched an HD simulcast of CBC News Network (then known as CBC Newsworld) called CBC Newsworld HD. The channel was renamed CBC News Network HD on October 26, 2009 to coincide with the renaming of CBC Newsworld to CBC News Network. The HD feed has been confirmed at 720p resolution on Shaw cable after it was added to the lineup in 2014.

It is available through all major TV providers.

Programming

CBC News Network used to air a number of magazine-style programs, along with hourly news updates. The network has moved from that style of programming to focusing solely on live news programs and documentary programs, including The Passionate Eye and Rough Cuts, both of which used to be hosted by Michaëlle Jean, and Politics, a political affairs program which was hosted by Don Newman and aired twice daily. The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos was launched in 2005 in an attempt to attract younger viewers; similar news-oriented talk shows, such as Pamela Wallin Live, CounterSpin, Face Off and Benmergui Live, also aired on the network in the 1990s.

The network's daytime schedule consists of rolling news programming (formerly branded as CBC News Now), which airs from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends. Instead of producing a separate noon-hour program, most CBC Television stations simulcast CBC News Network from 12 to 1 p.m. local time.

Power & Politics airs from 5 to 7 p.m., followed by the business news program On the Money from 7 to 8 p.m. An evening edition of CBC News Now, anchored by Ian Hanomansing, airs at 8 p.m., and a simulcast of the Atlantic Canadian edition of The National airs from 9 to 10 p.m. From 10 p.m. until the first edition of CBC News Now the following morning, the schedule consists of repeat airings of CBC news and documentary programs.

Current

Past