Citytv

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Citytv is a system of two Canadian television stations located in Toronto and Vancouver. They are owned by the CHUM Limited group.

Moses Znaimer, head of Citytv for many years, once described the system's philosophy by saying, "It's not the show, it's the flow."

Table of contents

1 History
2 Programming
3 Citytv stations
4 External links

History

The original Citytv station (granted callsign CITY-TV by the CRTC) was founded in Toronto in 1972 and began broadcasting for the first time on September 28 of that year.

In 1988 Citytv moved to its current headquarters at the CHUM-City Building, making it one of the most recognizable landmarks in the city.

Citytv launched a second station in Vancouver when it bought CKVU-TV from Global in 2001.

With CHUM's purchase (pending approval of the CRTC) of the television assets of Craig Media Inc in 2004, it is rumoured that the three A-Channel stations will be rebranded as Citytv stations. CHUM's purchase of Craig Media comes less than two months after they were denied new Citytv stations in Edmonton and Calgary, Alberta by the CRTC, a move which was made in retaliation to Craig's license grant for a new station in Toronto, Toronto One, which put them in competition with CHUM for the first time. [1]

CHUM has also licensed the Citytv name and brand identity to local television stations in Bogota, Colombia (Citytv BogotÃÂÃÂ¡) and Barcelona, Spain (Citytv Barcelona).

Programming

Citytv is best known for its unconventional approach to news and local programming. With a lack of a news desk (anchors read the news standing up) and laid-back yet hard-hitting presentation, Citytv has developed a following, and other stations have tried to imitate its format to varying degrees of success.

Citytv also produces more local programs than any other television station in Canada, such as Speaker's Corner, CityLine and Fashiontelevision.

The station also attracted attention and controversy by airing "Baby Blue Movies", or soft-core pornography, on Friday nights after midnight. Although this programming strategy was discontinued in the 1980s, it has recently been reinstated.

See also: List of programs broadcast by Citytv