 | |
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|---|---|
| Channels | |
| Branding |
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| Programming | |
| Affiliations | CTV |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Bell Media Inc. |
| History | |
First air date | December 31, 1960 (64 years ago) (1960-12-31) |
Former call signs | CFTO-TV (1960–2011) |
Former channel number(s) |
|
| Independent (1960–1961) | |
Call sign meaning | "Canada's Foremost, Toronto's Own" |
| Technical information | |
Licensing authority | CRTC |
| ERP | 10.2kW |
| HAAT | 467.0 m (1,532 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 | CTV Toronto |
CFTO-DT (channel 9) is atelevision station inToronto, Ontario, Canada, serving as theflagship station of theCTV Television Network. It isowned and operated by network parentBell Media alongsideBarrie-basedCTV 2 flagshipCKVR-DT, channel 3 (although the two stations maintain separate operations). CFTO-DT's studios are located at9 Channel Nine Court inAgincourt, and its transmitter is located atop theCN Tower inDowntown Toronto. The station shares the Agincourt studio complex with CTV's headquarters, which includes studios for the network's news programming (CTV National News and theCTV News Channel), along with most of Bell Media's specialty channels.
The station first signed on the air at 10 p.m. onDecember 31, 1960; its first official day of programming was onJanuary 1, 1961. The inaugural program broadcast on CFTO was atelethon for theOntario Association for Community Living, hosted by broadcaster Joel Aldred,[1] complete with afireworks ceremony.
The station was founded by Baton Aldred Rogers Broadcasting, ajoint venture betweenTelegram Corporation (owned by theBassett andEaton families), Aldred-Rogers Broadcasting (owned by Joel Aldred andTed Rogers), andFoster Hewitt Broadcasting, which owned radio station CKFH (1430 AM, nowCJCL on 590 AM). The 'Baton' portion of the name was pronounced/ˌbætən/, rather than theconducting tool's traditional pronunciation.
The station's first children's show, shown on weekday afternoons, wasThe Professor's Hideaway, starring Stan Francis.[2][3][4]American television networkABC held a minority share in the partnership, which it sold to each of the partners shortly before CFTO-TV went on the air. Ted Rogers' uncle J. Elsworth Rogers was a minority (and originally primary) owner of Western Ontario Broadcasting, Ltd., owners of CKLW-TV (nowCBET) inWindsor, Ontario (which was mostly owned byRKO General). The station's original studio and transmitter facilities were located at 1550 McCowan Road, later renamed 9 Channel Nine Court.
In March 1961, Aldred sold his interest in the station, and on October 1 of that year, CFTO became a charter affiliate of CTV, as well as the network's flagship station. In 1970, Ted Rogers sold his interest in CFTO and the Bassett-Eaton group sold their interest inRogers Cable in an exchange of assets. On May 31, 1976, CFTO began transmitting its signal from theCN Tower, while its studios remained inAgincourt. CFTO began broadcasting instereo in 1985. In 1991, the station joined with several other Ontario stations to form Ontario Network Television, which evolved into theBaton Broadcast System, a subsystem within the CTV network. In 1995, CFTO began operating rebroadcast stations atOrillia (on UHF channel 21) andBobcaygeon (nearPeterborough, on UHF channel 54).
When CTV's stations proposed to buy the network and run it as acooperative in 1966, theBoard of Broadcast Governors initially balked at the proposal. CFTO was by far the largest, richest and most profitable station (it was more than double the size of the next-largest station,CFCF-TV inMontreal). This led to fears that CFTO would dominate a station-owned network. The BBG was only appeased when the station owners promised that each owner would have an equal vote, regardless of how large it was. As it turned out, though, Baton gradually grew powerful enough that it was able to buy controlling interest in CTV in 1997, changing its name to CTV Inc. in 1998.
On January 27, 1998, theEaton family sold its 41% interest in CTV. On that same day, the Baton Broadcast System merged into CTV. With rumours of an impending takeover,Bell Canada proposed to buy CTV Inc. for $2.3 billion; this was approved by the CTV board in March 2000. The deal still required approval from theCanadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), but with the promise of the largest benefits package ever presented to the regulators, the deal was approved on December 7 that year. By February2005, the station stopped using its call letters in its on-air branding (opting to use the "CTV" name), a branding convention that became official on several CTV stations throughout the country in October 2005. BCE later sold most of its interest in CTV, with the parent company being renamedCTVglobemedia. BCE Inc. later reacquired 100% control of CTVglobemedia's assets for $1.3 billion in 2011, with the parent company being renamed once again toBell Media.
As CFTO serves as CTV's flagship station, its schedule is virtually identical to the CTV network schedule. A largely identical schedule is used on the other CTV stations inSouthern Ontario,CJOH inOttawa andCKCO inKitchener, as CFTO acts asmaster control for these stations. Any discrepancies with other stations would generally be limited to localinfomercials and religious programming on Sunday mornings.
Under CTV's original cooperative structure, CFTO, through Baton's in-house production company Glen-Warren Productions, was one of the network's main contributors of Canadian programming, such asThe Littlest Hobo,Circus andThe Uncle Bobby Show. Indeed, the amount of programming originating at CFTO was often a source of tension with the network's other major-market affiliates. However, as with most local stations inNorth America, such locally produced non-news programming has become increasingly rare.
For much of its history, CFTO's Channel Nine Court studios have also served as the home for network-produced programs such asCTV National News,Canada AM andW5. The studios are now also used by a number of CTV'sspecialty channels, for productions such as the cable news channelCTV News Channel,TSN'sSportsCentre, andDiscovery Channel'sDaily Planet.
Over the years, the studio complex has also been rented out for third-party productions, such as the studio scenes in the 1976 filmNetwork.[5] TheLotto 6/49 andLotto Super 7 (nowLotto Max) drawings were also held at the CFTO studios until 2008. Since 2010, CFTO andCP24 have been the television broadcasters for theToronto Santa Claus Parade.
CFTO-DT presently broadcasts15+1⁄2 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with2+1⁄2 hours each weekday and1+1⁄2 hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). With the exception of its CP24 simulcasts, the station brands its newscasts asCTV News Toronto, in line with all of CTV's other owned-and-operated stations as well as the CTV 2 stations, using generic CTV News graphics. The station's flagship 6 p.m. newscast is the highest-rated local newscast in Canada.[6] Known beginning in the 1970s asWorld Beat News (for its early evening newscast),Noon Beat News (for its lunch hour newscast) andNight Beat News (for its late evening newscast), the station's newscasts were rebranded asCFTO News in early 1998, and asCTV News in 2005.
In December 2008, CP24, a 24-hour news channel which primarily focuses on Toronto, began airing a simulcast ofCTV News at Six, displacing its simulcast of the 6 p.m. edition ofCityNews. This change occurred because the long-standing association betweenCITY-TV (channel 57) and CP24 (which were previously both owned byCHUM Limited) abruptly came to an end after the CRTC announced the approval of their application byRogers Media, owners ofCitytv, to launch its own 24-hour local news channel which would be focusing on theGreater Toronto Area,CityNews Channel;[7][8] like CFTO, CP24 is operated by Bell Media, although the operations between the two remain otherwise separate. The station's late evening newscast,CTV News at 11:30, was later added to the CP24 schedule in May 2009. On May 12, 2009, CFTO began broadcasting its local newscasts inhigh definition; with the change, the station introduced a renovated studio.
Starting in July 2017, CFTO began simulcasting CP24'sLive at 5 andLive at 5:30 as part of an expansion of local news programming across Bell Media stations. Unlike CP24, these newscasts are broadcast in full screen without any information sidebars.
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | CFTO | CTV |
The station began providing a digital signal on satellite on November 17, 2003, and on January 30, 2004, CFTO was granted an over-the-air digital television signal, transmitting on UHF channel 40 at aneffective radiated power of 17,400 watts. In mid-2005, CFTO upgraded its digital signal to transmit programming in high definition. CFTO shut down its analogue signal, overVHF channel 9, on August 31, 2011, the official date on which Canadian television stations in CRTC-designated mandatorymarketstransitioned from analogue to digital broadcasts. The station's digital signal was relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 40 to its analogue-era VHF channel 9 for post-transition operations.[10] On April 29, 2019, CTV updated broadcast channels for stations in Toronto, Victoria, and Windsor. CFTO moved to VHF channel 8, but retained virtual channel 9.[11]
Download coordinates as:
| Station | City of licence | Channel (RF /VC) | ERP | HAAT | Transmitter coordinates |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CFTO-DT-21 | Orillia | 21 (UHF) 21 | 207.6 kW[12] | 171.3 m (562 ft) | 44°52′4″N79°35′41″W / 44.86778°N 79.59472°W /44.86778; -79.59472 (CFTO-TV-21) |
| CFTO-DT-54 | Peterborough | 35 (UHF) 54 | 38 kW | 176.3 m (578 ft) | 44°26′44″N78°31′59″W / 44.44556°N 78.53306°W /44.44556; -78.53306 (CFTO-TV-54) |
CFTO-TV-21 and a long list of CTVrebroadcasters nationwide were to shut down on or before August 31, 2009, as part of a political dispute with Canadian authorities on paidfee-for-carriage requirements forcable television operators.[13] A subsequent change in ownership assigned full control of CTVglobemedia to Bell Media; as of 2011, these transmitters continue to be licensed and remain in operation.[14] Just after midnight on June 23, 2019, the Orillia transmitter was converted to digital.