City
Rogers Gets Its 24 Hours News Channel
In the wake of the less than well-received Bills game and the passing of its founder, Rogers finally has a reason to celebrate today. Earlier this morning the CRTC finally made a decision approving Rogers Broadcasting's application for a 24 hour Toronto news channel.
Shocking news I know given that Rogers' Citytv juggernaut can't even find anything interesting to put on Breakfast Television. Now, with 24 hours to fill, how many traffic accidents and changing weather conditions can they possible cover? Perhaps they'll continue their current strategy of recycling day old story ideas from various un-named local blogs?
Of course, the decision to let Rogers try its hand at 24 hour news is not without controversy or repercussions. There is much speculation whether the city actually needs a 24 hour news channel given that more and more of us are relying on web-based sources to get our breaking news and information.
Then there's CTV's CP24 - Toronto's other (and currently only) 24 hour local news channel. (Previous coverage of their failed web launch here) It's pretty clear now that this station isn't going anywhere. There were some rumours that CTV might sell it back to Rogers but with the news today the possibility of the CRTC letting that happen should be pretty much nil.
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(why always slamming the big media companies that you're always linking to?)
TORONTO GETS A NEW 24 HOUR NEWS CHANNEL.
Maybe we'll finally get a real 24 hours all news channel as opposed to a CP24 widget that's as indepth as having your own subway platform monitor at home (CP24) or better yet Elevator News Network.
Btw, as I have written previously, we'll be continuing to roll out new features over the next little while. For a summary of what we've done so far you can check out this link:
http://blogto.com/announcements/2008/12/weve_made_some_changes_-_find_out_whats_new/
what CFRB is to talk radio. Lots of nothing.
Whatever happened to Toronto1? Now it's Gareth Wheeler, a random and terrible gossip show and Danger Bay.
Chicago Tribune has declared bankrupcy. LA Times is up for sale. All media is being hit. Tough times.
Why such a whiner? Don't like it, change the channel. It's not tax dollars being spent on this. TorontoOne has come and gone, so what? What's your point?
The animated weather icon on the front page says of CP24.com claims that it's -6C and sunny (it's now actually 7:30pm, the sun went down long ago). Anyone else subscribed to the CP24.com "Breaking News" Newsletter? It seems to only send out _emails_ when a gun incident, school lockdown, stabbing, fire, or tragic traffic accident takes place. If I wanted a police scanner, I'd get one. Where's the breaking news? Where's the RSS?! (dare I say Twitter?)
Yesterday I had CP24 TV on in the middle of the afternoon and every half hour (for a few loops) they kept cutting to Cam Woolley on the scene of a silly bus incident. They turned what could have been a 30sec bit into a long, over exaggerated, repeated piece with interviews and the whole bit. I was stunned.
My prediction: as far as online goes, CityNews (Rogers) already has CP24 (CTVgm) well beat. I suspect that CityNews' new 24h GTA-only TV news channel, if done as well, will also steal the thunder. Looking forward to seeing how this all falls out.
I maybe one of the few bullish on both channels. While CRTC screwed Toronto by splitting up Citytv/CP24, I think both channels are finding their legs after the split.
That said, I'm waiting for Rogers to completely butcher the new Citytv studio.
it's why I broke up with my girlfriend who woke up to this stuff.
though dina is pretty hot. but it's not enough.
CP24 had its time, its good they put it out and its sat there ever since, time for something new
Ted Rogers admitted the iPhone launch rate plans were a mistake and took responsibility for it. They listened to the consumers after thousands spoke up and changed the plans after listening to the consumers. Isn't that great?
http://www.cp24.com/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20081210/081210_cp24ctv/20081210/?hub=CP24Home
Keep in mind that CP24 has it's own trucks, reporters and management team, as was said above. I haven't seen a lot of crossover (besides tonight's simulcast, or the shared use of Chopper 9/24), which does surprise me. To be honest, I fully expected CP24 to be renamed and merged with CFTO/CTV News sometime in the fall of this year. I expected a full "Farewell CP24" special before a relaunch and a handoff to Agincourt.
Of course, with this CityNews channel launching and the economy being the way it is, not to mention the recent cost-cutting at CTVgm...ya never know.
Watch them bump BBC World or something so they can carry their new channel lower on the dial.
its the only thing worth watching on cp24 when it was on there
but try finding any video of hers on the horrible http://www.cp24.com/ website
b) Citynews has been a distant fourth for many years. Perhaps your thinking of LAST year when their numbers were getting closer to Global's but in the last six months, their numbers (along with City's entire primetime schedule) has plummeted. Right now Citynews at 6 gets about 75,000 viewers a night (which in case you don't know is absolutely terrible and is roughly the kind of numbers you'd get in Saskatoon, and NOT the country's biggest market.
Anyone trying to convince themselves that Citytv is in some amazing position to "knock off" CTV is living in a dreamworld. Canwest may be hemmoraging money, but they are still by far and away number 2 and the biggest competitor, which raises the question: Why would the newsshow with the WORST ratings, get it's own news channel?
and the tv people have to be outside somewhere for hours and hours
doing live tv
now that they aren't playing on it anymore, are they even going to be able to sustain enough viewers to keep going?
and viewers don't switch over. if they wanted to watch citynews on citytv they would have watched it on citytv, they aren't retards. if they were watching cp24, they watched it for a reason. same goes for the God awful breakfast television
a) The CTV cuts affected mostly Much and StarTV, however there were cuts in the newsroom. The fact that CTV announced that "virtually all" of the 105 cuts were jobs in Toronto means that a number of people at the network and CTV Newsnet would have been laid off. Of the 100 job cuts at Rogers, 8 were CityTV staffers, more than 20 were from the Blue Jays, and almost 50 were from the publishing division.
b) The battle for 24-hour-Toronto-news-channel supremacy, if there is to be one, will have almost nothing to do with which parent network (CTV or City-TV) is better, or more successful. It's all about which parent company (CTVglobemedia or Rogers Communications Inc.) is better poised to market their product, and withstand a challenge. Rogers is in much better financial shape than CTVglobemedia.
2 people were laid off at CTV News Toronto. 1 was laid off at Newsnet.
EVERYONE else was from former CHUM stations.
CTV is short on money because of the Olympics and the CHUM purchase, not from lack of ratings or ad money. They are doing quite well even with the recession.
CityNews has been dead last for at least a decade. CHCH still beats them on a regular basis. Global is #2 95% of the time. They don't share these numbers with Citytv staff of course.
They told them they were beating Global for 3-4 weeks, Then after a month City went back to dead last. Even CBC is biting at their heals.
So at this point CityNews has laid off about 20 people over the last 6 months (Silverman's team, JoJo, both entertainment reporters and a number of behind the scenes people). Whose newsroom is in trouble again?
Thank you for giving me the biggest laugh of my day!
You've actually got it backwards: having ME as a customer is a privilege for Rogers, and not a right. They should be thankful to get MY business. Dealing with a company who has a monopoly on digital services is not something to be "thankful" for. You're either a shill for Rogers, or you've been drinking too much of Ted's Kool Aid.