Another 24-hour news channel coming to Toronto
By THE CANADIAN PRESS
Last Updated: 11th December 2008, 10:22am
Rogers Media, a division of Rogers Communications, says it has received approval to launch a 24-hour television news channel in the Greater Toronto Area.
The channel will include news items contributed from a number of Rogers-owned media properties including The Fan 590 and 680News radio stations, Sportsnet cable television, and Toronto Blue Jays.
It will also enter a crowded market, up against CP 24 — a local cable news channel that’s now owned by CTVglobemedia — as well as CTV’s Newsnet and BNN and CBC’s Newsworld national news channels.
“We are delighted with the mandate we were given today, to deliver around the clock news,” Leslie Sole, CEO, Rogers Media Television, said in a statement.
The company has long had a presence in the local Toronto television market, including the OMNI multi-cultural conventional stations, but greatly expanded its presence with the purchase of CityTv — formerly parent of the CP24 channel.
CTVglobemedia had intended to buy and keep CityTv’s five stations when it took over Chum Ltd., including its specialty cable channels and radio stations, but was forced by Canada’s broadcast regulator to sell the CityTv conventional stations.
