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| |
|---|---|
| Channels | |
| Branding | Omni Television |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations | 47.1:Omni Television |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
First air date | September 3, 1979 (1979-09-03) |
Former call signs | CFMT-TV (1979–2011) |
Former channel numbers |
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| Multicultural independent (1979–2002) | |
Call sign meaning | "Canada's First Multilingual Television" |
| Technical information | |
Licensing authority | CRTC |
| ERP | 16kW |
| HAAT | 506 m (1,660 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 43°38′33″N79°23′14″W / 43.64250°N 79.38722°W /43.64250; -79.38722 |
| Translator(s) | see§ Transmitters |
| Links | |
| Website | Omni Television Ontario |
CFMT-DT (channel 47, cable channel 4) is atelevision station inToronto, Ontario, Canada. It is one of twoflagship stations of the Canadian multilingual networkOmni Television, a division ofRogers Sports & Media, and is operated alongside sister Omni outletCJMT-DT (channel 40) andCitytv flagshipCITY-DT (channel 57). The three stations share studios at theRogers Building indowntown Toronto; CFMT-DT's transmitter is located atop theCN Tower.
The station was originally founded on September 3, 1979, by a consortium led byDan Iannuzzi,Jerry Grafstein,Raymond Moriyama,Steve Stavro,Garth Drabinsky andNat Taylor as CFMT-TV, branded "MTV" (Multilingual Television) as Canada's first multiculturalindependent station and in 1980, CFMT became Canada's first television station to air 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The station has been owned by Rogers Communications since 1986, but later used CFMT as the basis and flagship station to expand its multicultural stations under the Omni brand beginning with the launch of CJMT-TV (Omni.2) in 2002 along with the rebranding of CFMT asOmni.1 and the rest of Canada in subsequent years. The two stations are distinguished by their service of different cultural groups; CFMT caters primarily on European (particularly Western and Eastern) and Latin American cultures while CJMT focuses on Asian cultures (including programming in South Asian and Chinese languages).[2]
In December 1978,Dan Iannuzzi, founder of theItalian-languagedaily newspaperCorriere Canadese and future recipient of theOrder of Canada, received a licence to operate a multilingual television station, defeating rival applicantsJohnny Lombardi and Leon Kossar. His company, Multilingual Television (Toronto) Ltd., had been producing multilingual television programs since 1972.[3] Iannuzzi initially owned 30% of the station, and other investors includedJerry Grafstein (who was also one of the major investors that helped launchCITY-TV in September 1972),Raymond Moriyama,Steve Stavro,Garth Drabinsky andNat Taylor.[3] The call letters CFMT were derived from "Canada's First Multilingual Television", as it was the first multicultural television station in Canada. English-language programming was limited to one-third of the station's broadcast hours, with French-language programming accounting for 7% and programming in about two dozen other languages providing the remaining 60%.[3] The station was originally going to broadcast on UHF channel 45, but instead moved to channel 47 for technical reasons. The station first signed on the air on September 3, 1979, broadcasting 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as a multiculturalindependent station under the brand name "MTV" (for "Multilingual Television"); that branding was dropped in 1981 to avoid confusion with the upstart AmericanMTV cable network. (The channel even broadcast a program calledVideo Singles, as of 1983.)
In August 1980, the channel became the first in Canada to adopt a 24-hour, seven-day a week schedule, introducingThe All-Night Show three weeks later.
In the past, CFMT-TV identified itself on air as "Channel 47/Cable 4" (reflecting both its over-the-air channel number and its cable channel in theGreater Toronto Area through Rogers Cable) and later as "CFMT International". On September 16, 2002, Rogers launchedCJMT-TV (channel 40, which was branded as "OMNI.2") to provide additional multicultural programming, and rebranded CFMT as "OMNI.1". Programs airing on CFMT that were aimed atAsian andAfrican communities were moved to CJMT, while CFMT kept programs aimed atEuropean andLatin American groups.
On October 8, 2007, Rogers announced that the operations of the two Omni stations would relocate from545 Lake Shore Boulevard West to33 Dundas Street East.[4] CFMT and CJMT integrated their operations into the building – sharing with Citytv flagship CITY-DT, which had moved into the facility the previous month – on October 19, 2009.
Omni Television and Citytv moved their operations to theRogers Building at Bloor and Mount Pleasant in March 2025.[5]
The station broadcastsmulticultural programming targeting European and Latin American communities throughoutSouthern Ontario. Historically, among English-speaking television viewers in the region, CFMT was best known as home to variousEnglish-languagesyndicatedtalk shows andsitcom repeats, includingThe Simpsons,Friends andFamily Guy, airing nightly ascounterprogramming to local newscasts and first-run prime time series on owned-and-operated stations of the major networks.
Until around 1990, CFMT was the original Toronto home ofWheel of Fortune andJeopardy!. At that time, bothgame shows moved toCTV flagship stationCFTO-TV (channel 9) and remained on that station until 2004, whenWheel of Fortune moved to CJMT, then moved back to CFMT the following year;Barrie stationCKVR-TV carried the show in 2006.Jeopardy! remained on CFTO-TV for a few years until 2008, whenCBC Television acquired the Canadian television rights to the game shows, moving once again to CBC flagship stationCBLT (channel 5) until 2012, when both programs moved to independent stationCHCH-DT (channel 11) inHamilton.[6]
CFMT-DT presently broadcasts five hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with one hour each weekday). The station currently carries a local newscast aimed at Southern Ontario's Italian demographic. CFMT previously produced aCantonese newscast; that program was moved to CJMT after that station launched on September 16, 2002. The station previously carried newsbreaks produced by sister radio station CFTR in the early 1990s.
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 47.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | OMNI 1 | Omni Television |
CFMT shut down its analog signal, overUHF channel 47, on August 31, 2011, the official date on which full-power television stations in larger Canadian televisionmarketstransitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 64, which was among the high band UHF channels (52–69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to UHF channel 47 for post-transition operations.[8] CFMT's digital repeaters in London and Ottawa also relocated to new channels for the same reason behind the relocation of the main signal; these repeaters would use their former UHF analog channel numbers (69 and 60) as their virtual channel numbers.
| Station | City of licence | Channel (RF /VC) | ERP | HAAT | Transmitter coordinates |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CFMT-DT-1 | London | 29 (UHF) 69 | 17.3 kW | 201 m (659 ft) | 42°57′16″N81°21′17″W / 42.95444°N 81.35472°W /42.95444; -81.35472 (CFMT-TV-1) |
| CFMT-DT-2 | Ottawa | 27 (UHF) 60 | 15 kW | 202.3 m (664 ft) | 45°13′2″N75°33′49″W / 45.21722°N 75.56361°W /45.21722; -75.56361 (CFMT-DT-2) |