First air date 1986 | Sister station(s) TVOntario
TFO | |
Owner Government of Ontario
(Ontario Educational Communications Authority) Call letters' meaning C J Ontario Legislature | ||
The Ontario Parliament Network is a television network in the Canadian province of Ontario, established in 1986 to broadcast the parliamentary proceedings of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. It is available on all cable television providers in Ontario, as well as by webcast.
When the legislature is not sitting, the network broadcasts committee hearings which take place in the Amethyst Room. Each Sunday, a compilation series called Sunday Encore rebroadcasts the highlights from the previous week. Closed captioning is also provided. The Ontario Parliament Network's coverage of Question Period is also aired from 3:00-4:00am the following morning on TVOntario stations.
When meetings are adjourned and there are no sittings, the channel plays music in full-length albums and shows pictures in and around the building with scheduled sittings and events. This music includes jazz musicians like Oscar Peterson, Moe Koffman, Ed Bickert, Lorne Lofsky and Jim Galloway, and there are also classical, Latin, flamenco and British-style brass band albums. The classical performers include guitarists Liona Boyd and Norbert Kraft, cellist Ofra Harnoy, and trumpeter Johnny Cowell. Orchestras are the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Chamber Orchestra, and CBC Vancouver Orchestra. Around Christmas time, the selection changes to Christmas-themed albums by the same people and shows pictures inside the building all decorated with Christmas garments and tree. The names of the albums are not mentioned while they are playing.
List of transmitters
In a number of small communities in Northern Ontario without cable service, TVOntario also operates LPTV transmitters which broadcast the network as a conventional over-the-air signal. These transmitters broadcast with the call sign CJOL-TV.
As well as the service's regular programming, the transmitters also formerly leased broadcasting time to the Wawatay Native Communications Society, a producer of First Nations television programming. In 1989, the service hosted the first-ever television broadcast of a First Nations pow-wow.
In April 2012, TVOntario announced that it would be decommissioning all of its remaining analog transmitters and associated towers by October 2013 including towers that it owns, which would impact the Ontario Parliament Network, as it shares towers with TVOntario. As of December 2012, the Ontario Parliament Network only has 10 remaining over-the-air transmitters, according to Industry Canada's TV spectrum database. Previously, there had been 32 transmitters with the call sign of CJOL-TV. As of 2015, it is uncertain if any of these remaining analog transmitters are still in operation.