CP24

CablePulse 24 (CP24) is a Canadian English language Category A specialty cable and satellite television channel that is owned by the Bell Media subsidiary of BCE, Inc. Based in Toronto, the channel focuses on local news from the Greater Toronto Area and Southern Ontario, and also covers national and international news. It is distributed through cable in Southern Ontario and direct broadcast satellite nationally.

History

Old version of the CP24 logo, used from 1998 to 2003

CHUM era

The channel was licensed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in 1996 as Pulse 24,^[1] and launched on March 30, 1998 as CablePulse 24, under the ownership of CHUM Limited and minority partner Sun Media, owner of the Toronto Sun daily newspaper. The channel was named as an extension of CITY-TV's newscasts, which were then known as CityPulse. For the first 10 years after its inception, CP24's programming was anchored and featured reports from Citytv personalities, live CityPulse news broadcasts were immediately repeated on CP24 after their initial broadcast on CITY-TV (except for breaking news coverage), and special coverage was simulcast between the channel and the television station. Select programming from other CHUM stations would also be featured on the channel including The NewMusic and Fashion Television.

On December 1, 2004, CHUM Limited acquired the remaining interest in CP24 (giving it 100% of its shares), when the Sun's owners sold their 29.9% share in CP24 after acquiring its independent broadcast station CKXT-TV, the same day that CHUM Limited took control of Craig Media and its assets.

CTV era

On July 12, 2006, Bell Globemedia (the latter which became CTVglobemedia in 2007) announced a friendly bid to take over CHUM Limited for an estimated $1.7 billion. One year later on June 8, 2007, the CRTC approved the CTV takeover of CHUM. However, the CRTC made the deal conditional on CTV selling the Citytv stations. On June 12, 2007, Rogers announced that it had agreed to buy the Citytv stations (including Citytv Toronto) for $375 million. The deal was finalized later that year, with a stipulation that CTV maintain ownership of CHUM's 299 Queen Street West headquarters and studios. CTV chose to keep CP24, and the rest of CHUM assets (including the A-Channel stations) it had said it would sell.

As a result of the ownership changes, CP24 began to separate its operations from those of CITY-TV. This process began in 2008, with the introduction of new CP24-only personalities (which meant they were no longer seen anchoring/reporting on the CityNews side), new live eye trucks (also known as Breaking News Vehicles) which were outfitted with white and black design bearing the CP24 and red "Breaking News" decals, the establishment of a new studio and newsroom on the second floor of the 299 Queen Street West building in November of that year,^[2] and the removal of nearly all Citytv's news simulcasts from its schedule few weeks later on December 10 of that year, (excluding Breakfast Television), and replacing the 6 p.m. CityNews simulcast with CFTO's CTV News at Six. Critics had speculated that the latter change was likely as a response to the announcement of the CRTC granting approval to an application by Rogers Media for its own regional news channel focusing on the Greater Toronto Area, the CityNews Channel.^[3][4][5][6]

On March 26, 2009, Breakfast Television was replaced with the launch of its own new morning show, CP24 Breakfast, which marked the completion of CP24's separation from Citytv. Also coinciding with the launch, included the rebranding of its oldies music radio station 1050 CHUM (another station which was acquired in the CTV/CHUM acquisition) to a news talk radio format which operated as an audio simulcast of CP24 called "CP24 Radio 1050". The move was intended to broaden the network's reach as a multi-platform news source, but did not prove successful; Toronto Sun columnist Ted Woloshyn in particular pointed out that the station was simply airing a straight simulcast of CP24 television content that was not properly formatted for radio.^[7] This arrangement ended on April 13, 2011, with the launch of a new TSN-branded sports talk format, "TSN Radio 1050", (which became the first station of the new national TSN Radio network) few weeks after Bell Canada took control of CTVglobemedia's assets including CP24, with the latter company becoming known as Bell Media.^[8][9]

Following the layoffs and cost-cutting measures that took place at the Citytv stations across Canada (including the cancellation of Citytv Toronto's CityNews at Five announced on January 19, 2010), CP24 immediately expanded its Live at 5 newscast (which had been airing for 15 minutes since its launch in 2008) to 30 minutes along with the launch of another half-hour newscast, Live at 5:30.^[10][11] As a result, CP24's late-afternoon talk shows, such as Animal House Calls and Hot Property, which had been seen weekdays at 5:15 p.m. were moved to a new 7:15 p.m. time slot on January 26, 2010.^[12]

Bell era

On September 10, 2010, BCE (a minority shareholder in CTVglobemedia) announced that it planned to acquire 100% interest in CTVglobemedia for a total debt and equity transaction cost of $3.2 billion CAD.^[13] The deal which required CRTC approval, was approved on March 7, 2011^[14] and closed on April 1 of that year, on which CTVglobemedia was rebranded Bell Media.^[15]

On March 19, 2011, CP24 introduced a weekend edition of CP24 Breakfast, hosted by Pooja Handa and Gurdeep Ahluwalia, George Lagogianes is the remote host and Nneka Elliott (who resigned on May 2, 2011, and was replaced by Jamie Gutfreund) delivers the weather forecasts. The show runs from 7:00-10:15 a.m.^[16]

Location and format

CP24's Jamie Gutfreund reports live at TTC's new streetcar mock-up open house at TTC's Hillcrest Complex.

CP24 is based at 299 Queen Street West, at the corner of John Street and Queen Street West. It used to share the newsroom with CITY-TV on the ground floor (which uses the facilities of Bell Media's 24-hour business news channel, Business News Network). In November 2008, CP24 moved its operations to a new studio and newsroom on the second floor of the complex. Coinciding with the new studio, CP24 also adopted an updated on-air appearance, replacing the previous blue and gold colour scheme with a red, white and black design.^[2][17]

CP24 van.

CP24's screen format uses a window in the top-left of the screen to show the current program, which is surrounded with a sidebar with weather and traffic reports, scrolling news headlines and local entertainment/event information, and tickers for stocks and sports. This format has been described as more closely resembling a website than a conventional television channel, and has been replicated with a similar look of CP24's enriched screen on its website.

On September 27, 2012, CP24 again updated its on-air appearance as the channel began broadcasting in high definition. The relaunched enriched screen includes several changes such as:

• the entertainment and concert listings were reallocated from the bottom screen to the right-hand corner between the weather and traffic boxes,
• the weather scroll was expanded to a "five-day" contrast (which previously only displayed in "four-day" contrast) on which the scroll displays the forecast breakdown for the next 24-hours (e.g., "MORN" for both the current morning and the next morning, "AFT", for afternoon, "EVE" for evening and "NITE" for overnight), and
• a larger sports headline news scroll was added at the bottom, in which business news from Canada's Toronto Stock Exchange and the American New York Stock Exchange takes over the sports headline scroll Monday-Friday between 9:30 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.^[18]

Other affiliations

CP24 shares news resources with other Bell Media-owned outlets, including the news/talk radio affiliate CFRB "Newstalk 1010", sports updates with TSN (and CHUM "TSN Radio 1050"), business news updates with the Business News Network, MTV News with MTV Canada and entertainment news updates with eTalk. Before its acquisition by CTV, CP24 was closely integrated with CITY-DT's newsroom, which had shared programming, anchors and hosts at the time.

Carriage and expansion plans

CP24 is seen on cable channel 24 on most cable providers that carry the channel. It is not carried on any analogue cable system outside of Central or Southern Ontario, although it is available on direct broadcast satellite and IPTV television providers in some markets. The channel is available across Canada on Bell TV, on which the station is part of the service's "News" package. It is also available in the "FYI" package provided to Shaw Direct customers.

Remote camera use

In addition to the Freeway Management System - COMPASS and RESCU cameras, CP24 operates EYES cameras located at:

• CN Tower
• Highway 401
• Toronto Pearson International Airport
• Rogers Centre
• Toronto City Hall
• Don Valley Parkway
• 299 Queen Street West

Chopper 24

Since 2008, CP24 has leased a Bell 206L-4 Long Ranger (C-FCTV) news helicopter which can broadcast live at 1500 feet above land; nicknamed Chopper 24, which is supplied by its sister station, CTV Toronto and is painted with CTV's colouring and logo.

Remote truck use

CP24 operates a fleet of remote transmission trucks that use digital microwave and satellite uplink systems to do live news reports throughout the region. Known as "Breaking News Vehicles" the custom-built 2008 Chevrolet Suburbans were outfitted by Frontline Communications of Clearwater, Florida, USA. The vehicles use a red, white and black paint scheme with the channel's logo and the "Breaking News!" slogan also included in the design.

Beat The Traffic

In 2009, CP24 became the first station in Canada to introduce a new Beat The Traffic system showing a three-dimensional animated map displaying traffic flow, roadwork, accidents and current highway travel times.^[19]

CP24 HD

The CRTC approved an application by then-owners CHUM Limited in June 2007 to launch an high-definition simulcast of CP24. On September 27, 2012, CP24 began broadcasting in HD (with the SD feed letterboxed) initially on Bell Fibe TV coinciding with it, a new enhanced on-air appearance. The HD feed was also added on the Bell TV service in December 2012. On June 25, 2013, CP24 began broadcasting in HD on Rogers Cable, shortly after the competing Rogers-owned CityNews Channel, which had been available in HD on Rogers Cable since launch, announced it would be shutting down.

CP24 GO

In December 2013, CP24 (along with several other Bell Media television channels) launched a TV Everywhere service known as CP24 GO, which is offered for free to Bell TV customers. It can be accessed from a computer or on a mobile app such as a tablet or smartphone. However, CP24 continues to offer its occasional free live streaming of some major news events on its website.

Notable on–air staff

Current

Sporadic appearance

• Lindsey Deluce – anchor of Before Breakfast and CP24 Breakfast (takes maternity leaves)
• Devon Soltendieck – former Evening News anchor and Autoshop host, occasionally host guests CP24 Breakfast

Former

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to CP24.

• Official website

Coordinates: 43°38′59″N 79°23′25″W / 43.649701°N 79.390233°W / 43.649701; -79.390233