About Citytv

Citytv

Citytv is a Canadian English-language television network owned by Rogers Sports & Media, the media division of Rogers Communications. Based in Toronto, Ontario, the network consists of six owned-and-operated stations in Canada's largest metropolitan markets, a cable-only service that covers the province of Saskatchewan, and two independently owned affiliate stations serving smaller cities in British Columbia. Born from the unconventional Toronto station CITY-TV, which began broadcasting on September 28, 1972, Citytv built its reputation on an intensely local format — newscasts aimed at younger viewers, nightly movies, and music and cultural programming. Since its acquisition by Rogers in 2007, the network has shifted toward a series-based prime-time schedule comparable to its competitors while keeping its focus on younger demographics, and it stands as Canada's third English-language television network.

Overview

The Citytv brand originates with its flagship station, CITY-TV in Toronto, which signed on from the unlikely surroundings of the former Electric Circus nightclub in 1972. From the start, the station rejected the formal conventions of Canadian broadcasting in favour of a street-level, youth-oriented style. Local newscasts spoke directly to younger audiences, movies filled the night-time hours, and music and cultural programming gave the station a distinctive urban personality. That formula — local, young, and culturally plugged in — became the template for the network that followed.

Today the network's owned-and-operated stations are located in the metropolitan areas of Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver, giving Citytv a broadcast presence in six of the country's biggest media markets. A cable-only service extends the network across Saskatchewan, and two independently owned affiliates carry Citytv programming in smaller British Columbia cities. The brand has also had an international life: a station serving Bogotá, Colombia has used the Citytv name, and Citytv services previously existed in Barcelona and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

History

The founding of CITY-TV Toronto in 1972, under the leadership of broadcaster Moses Znaimer, introduced a new philosophy to Canadian television. Broadcasting from a converted nightclub, the station embodied its unconventional origins: cameras roamed the streets, presentation was informal, and programming decisions were guided by a sense of what young Toronto audiences actually wanted to watch. Through the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, the station cultivated a loyal following with local newscasts that looked and sounded different from anything else on Canadian television, alongside late-night movies and music programming that treated popular culture as central rather than marginal.

National expansion came under CHUM Limited, the Toronto-based broadcaster that owned CITY-TV. CHUM acquired CKVU-TV in Vancouver — a former Global owned-and-operated station — and converted it to the Citytv format. It then purchased Craig Media's stations and, in August 2005, rebranded its A-Channel system in Central Canada as Citytv, extending the brand across several new markets in one move. Step by step, the local Toronto experiment became a national network.

The decisive turning point arrived in 2007, when CTVglobemedia acquired CHUM Limited. Because the combined company would have exceeded the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission's ownership limits, the Citytv stations had to be separated from the deal and were sold to Rogers Media, now known as Rogers Sports & Media. The transaction redrew the map of Canadian private broadcasting: the former CHUM stations that fit CTVglobemedia's portfolio stayed with that company, while Citytv passed to Rogers, one of Canada's largest telecommunications and media conglomerates.

Under Rogers, Citytv kept growing. Three stations owned by the Jim Pattison Group affiliated with the network, Rogers acquired the cable-only Saskatchewan Communications Network to give Citytv a dedicated presence in that province, and Montreal's CJNT-DT joined the network, securing Citytv a foothold in Canada's second-largest market and its French-speaking metropolis. The international chapters of the story — Citytv in Barcelona, a Citytv service in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and the brand's use by a Bogotá station — showed how exportable the concept was, even as the Canadian network remained its centre of gravity.

Programming strategy evolved with ownership. Although patterned after the original Toronto station, Citytv since the 2000s, and particularly since the Rogers acquisition, has moved toward a series-based prime-time schedule much like its competitors', a marked change from the movie showcases and experimental lineups of the CHUM years. The through-line has been demographic: through every era, Citytv has aimed itself at younger viewers, a positioning inherited directly from the youth-oriented newscasts and music programming of the original CITY-TV.

Programming and Content

Citytv's historical signature was localism. The original Toronto station pioneered an immediate, neighbourhood-level style of newsgathering and a creative on-air presentation that stood apart from the more formal newscasts of its rivals and influenced local television production across the country. Newscasts were designed to appeal to younger viewers rather than the traditional evening-news audience, and the station treated the city itself — its streets, clubs, and neighbourhoods — as its studio.

Music and cultural programming formed a second pillar of the classic Citytv identity. The station devoted significant airtime to music video and entertainment programming at a time when such content was still finding its place on television, and its cultural coverage reinforced the brand's connection to young urban audiences. Nightly movies were the third pillar: for decades, film showcases were a staple of the Citytv schedule, giving the network a distinctive alternative to the series-dominated lineups elsewhere.

In the Rogers era, the balance has shifted. Prime time is now anchored by series programming, Canadian and acquired, placing Citytv in direct competition with the schedules of Canada's larger networks. Local stations continue to produce local newscasts and community programming for their markets, preserving a measure of the local-station character on which the brand was built, even as the national schedule has converged with industry norms.

Coverage and Audience

Citytv's six owned-and-operated stations cover the Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver metropolitan areas. That footprint puts the network on the air in the country's largest English-language markets as well as in Montreal, Canada's second-largest metropolitan area. The cable-only Saskatchewan service ensures province-wide availability there without a traditional over-the-air station, and the two independently owned affiliates extend the brand into smaller British Columbia cities. The network's broadcast coverage reaches across the country from the Pacific coast to Montreal, though it does not operate over-the-air stations in Atlantic Canada or in Northern Canada.

The audience story has been consistent for more than five decades: Citytv aims young. The original station's newscasts were explicitly designed for younger viewers, its music programming spoke to youth culture, and its informal presentation rejected the stuffiness that characterized much of Canadian television. As Canada's third English-language network, Citytv has always competed against larger rivals, and its demographic focus — serving audiences that the bigger networks sometimes underserve — has been its enduring point of differentiation.

Ownership

Citytv is owned by Rogers Sports & Media, a subsidiary of Rogers Communications. Rogers acquired the Citytv stations in 2007, when CTVglobemedia's purchase of CHUM Limited required the divestiture of the Citytv assets to satisfy CRTC ownership concentration rules. The acquisition brought Citytv into one of Canada's largest media portfolios, alongside Rogers' radio stations, publishing properties, and sports media assets including the Sportsnet networks.

The ownership structure reflects the regulatory framework that shaped it: the CRTC's limits on how many stations one company may control in a market are the reason Citytv and the former CHUM assets were split between Rogers and CTVglobemedia in the first place. Within the network itself, most stations are owned and operated directly by Rogers, while the two British Columbia affiliates remain independently owned, carrying Citytv programming under affiliation agreements.

Digital Presence

Citytv's official website is citytv.com, the network's online home. The site presents the network's programming lineup, station information, and schedule details for viewers across its markets. As viewing habits have shifted online, the website has become the central point where audiences find the network beyond the broadcast signal, complementing the on-air service with digital access to network content and local station pages.