CTV Blows Launch of CP24.com
Today marks the launch of CP24.com. Like its broadcast companion, the site places an overwhelming emphasis on weather, stock quotes and, um, ads. A scroll below the fold reveals some local headlines, mundane celebrity gossip and seemingly random sports news.
When I first saw the site I wondered why CTV even bothered. It's almost an embarrassing carbon copy of the TV experience, but without the stuff that works well on TV like sound and video. While a prominent video takes up space on the left of the screen my efforts to get it to load went unrewarded. Perhaps just a typical first day glitch.
For those keeping score, there's also no RSS feeds, no reader comments and no social media functionality to name just three obvious misses.
In its previous life, CP24.com simply forwarded to CityNews. But in the wake of the whole Rogers takeover, CTV must have eventually come to realize it no longer made sense sending traffic to a competitor.
Comments (50)
Well, I suppose it looks like CityNews is gonna be completely severed from CP24 sooner than we thought. Probably around the launch of "A".
CTV should not have been allowed to keep CP24. They already have two 24h news channels. (CTV NewsNet and BNN.)
That top nav bar is a big mess. It looks like one long sentence of shouting. And yeah, why such a prominent banner ad? That's just embarrassing coming from a news source
I'm not sure why comments should be a good thing. Ever read the Globe or Star online comments?
Not that anyone really cares, but it would make me feel better to let everyone know that the CHUM developers who now work for CTV have nothing at all to do with this CP24 site.
We tried to get involved, we tried to help but they would not hear it so now all we can do is sit back and laugh (to keep ourselves from crying of course).
The only good thing I can say about the site and CP24 is that they hired Amber MacArthur back. But the site is just fugly!!
Absolutely hideous. If my memory serves, it might actually be worse than their old site from a couple years back. They took a huge step backwards compared to the Citynews site. Rogers must be pretty happy with their competitors choice of a late 1990's site.
@Will: I heard through the grapevine that 2 of CTV's developers quit recently. I wonder if this "masterpiece" had anything to do with it?
Could be better. Could be worse.
Nothing there for me to really form an opinion one way or another, except to say it has more content than the 680 News site that is often linked to BlogTO.
@ jacob "CTV should not have been allowed to keep CP24. They already have two 24h news channels. (CTV NewsNet and BNN.)" the problem with that is that neither of those are local news. The CRTC (and in the end the only people that really matter in this) say thatNewsNet in National and BNN is business so it doesn't violate any rules. (much to yours and many others, particularly Rogers, dismay.)
@ Will, don't worry you can tell it wasn't designed by your team.
The site is poorly designed as anything I've seen. It's navigation is terrible, and the usability is out the window. The layout is piss poor and the people running it should be removed for people who know what they are doing.
comments in the globe are actually more insightful than the actual articles, such as neverending bashing of the real estate market, canadian economy, beijing olympics, and china
I think you are all being a little too hard on CP24.com. It does what it is supposed to do, and doesn't look too bad IMHO. CTV's other Toronto news site ctvtoronto.ca is quite a bit better though in terms of content and functionality. Perhaps they just didn't want CP24 to outshine it.
Whew, well at least you can still access CityNews.ca. I have already updated my bookmark.
Talk about a disaster site, a four year old could design a better one. So much crammed into one page and with no focus. My eye doesn't know where to look.
Why are you trolls going on like citynews.ca was the Bees Knees? This site might not be perfect, but citynews.ca sucked balls. The navigation on that site was/is horrible and buries lots of important features. It's about time CP24 had it's own website, and the navigation is simple and straight forward. I'm sure the social media stuff will come soon. Give the site some time to mature why don't you?
The new cp24.com site simply blows. I've never seen such as backwards step. The site looks it's from the mid 90's. Isn't it 2008? Who ever managed that web project should be fired.
Far be it from me to defend CTVGlobeMedia in any way, but it's really starting to look like the CRTC made a horrible mistake in allowing CTVGM's purchase of CHUM to go forward but requiring it to sell of CityTV, thus splintering apart all of the internal relationships at CHUM. What should have happened is that CTVGM should have sold of A Channel (as they were originally proposing) plus a bunch of the specialty channels. Actually, better still - the CRTC should simply have denied the thing and asked CHUM to go find another buyer. Oh well, at least it's another good reason to watch less television.
The CP24.com site is useless in terms of providing a good summary of news content at a glance. I can't imagine I'll use it.
Just like with citynews.ca, the TV people called the shots on site design and usability with no clue about either. The good folks in the web department are allowed little or no input.
Sad.
Mainstream traditional media is just about as dead as the remaining bluehairs it still manages to entertain.
I wanted to stay out of the fray but I'll wade head first into this one.
As the former web designer / interactive producer for CTV.ca (from 2005 to late 2007), I designed many sites, including the current CTV affiliates sites - CTVtoronto.ca, etc.
no, I didn't design the CP24 site.
The "TV People" do not call the shots on the design. they're responsible for the content and have heavy input into the layout.
knowing how things operate, my informed guess is that the current design is merely a placeholder until they figure out what they want to do with the site. it's uglier than a crocodile's ass but it'll change either very quickly or at a glacial pace.
they may also be changing the pub tool from whatever Chum was using to the Globe and Mail created pub tool that runs the majority of the web properties. that takes time and until the pieces are all in place then the site will look like it does. is it the best approach? not really. I believe that users are loathe to come back to a site once they've been turned off. will they come back again if it gets better? yes.
citynews.ca always sucked. the best thing they ever did was copy the traffic map design and functionality that I created for CTV Toronto.
compare for yourself:
http://toronto.ctv.ca/traffic/
"And yeah, why such a prominent banner ad? That's just embarrassing coming from a news source"
How is this any different than the big box ad featured prominently at the top of this page?
Websites and the content on them can't all be created for free, just like the tv shows and newspapers these things are based on can't be created for free either. Those ads help pay for the infrastructure and employees needed to create and maintain the site.
If you have a better idea about how a website is suppose to generate revenue there are millions of web developers and designers around the world who would love to rip the ads off their websites.
two things that ruin good design are logos and ads.
two things that are necessary for successful commercial design are logos and ads.
it'll drive you to drink.
"Talk about a disaster site, a four year old could design a better one"
Yes, that would be awesome, I can see it now:
-Movies Review: Ghost & The Darkness: "Scary movie boring, mean man hurts pretty kitty"
-Travel Section, by Dora The Explorer, and her friend Boots, who is super cool explor-a-lora.
-Community Section: The Wonder Pets: Heroes, or Nosey Nestors?
-Reminder to tune into nightly news, with your anchors, The Backyardigans.
Wow , i guess people with big salaries proved they have small brains . When an interactive person tells you how things should go , take them at their word next time cause they KNOW what they are talking about ...
this site is utter garbage , im taking it off my common daily visit sites ... what a bunch of douche bags , the old site was 10000000000 x better
there are people who make stuff, and people who manage stuff, and CTV are just a bunch of managers thinking they can show up down on Queen Street and reinvent themselves as creative types. The old CHUM company I knew going back might have been full of nepotistic slackers but they are nowhere near the arrogant axis of agincourt, full of themselves for having done nothing more than buying other peoples work and slapping their logo on it.
hopefully after this time they wont let the suits out from behind the desks and let the real developers do their job.
nah bananafish, you got it wrong. there are plenty of highly creative people at CTV. and some of them are even in charge.
you can't buy something that isn't for sale, and the powers that used to be at Chum put the empire up for grabs.
to their credit, CTV has largely only done two things so far: slap their logo on existing shows and cross-pollinated channels with shows they should've had but couldn't get before - So You Think You Can Dance on MuchMusic is a perfect example.
and while I think that efforts have been sometimes ham fisted - eTalk at 299 gives me that "old guy in the club" vibe. I don't know if any other major player could keep the Chum spirit as much as CTV.
yeah, CP24 could have been better - it's clearly running on a CMS that is creaking and not extensible by any true means ... I will say this though, it's leagues superior to that mclovin' awful train wreck of a usability disaster they called a "video player" that they shat onto world a few months back. The CP24 redesign is Apple-elegant compared to that hot mess bile.
That so-called video player made me want to go back to watching analogue with my rabbit ears.
The CP24 site is HORIBLE! They are trying hard to distance themselves from Citytv. They didn't show any CityNews footage during the westend explosion/evacuation. Global and that always depressed looking Alex Pierson only spent 9 mins covering the story.
CityNews.ca has always had a good design. CP24.com does seem rather rushed. Well, maybe CTV has other plans in place yet that won't be revealed until Citytv moves to the Olympic Torch/Lakeshore buildings.
on a side note, not too thrilled with Citytv.com but I do like CTV.ca (nice reversal there, eh?)
on a further side note, great of CTV to develop websites for CP24 when they still have like 10 broadcast properties in the Citytv buildings in Calgary/Edmonton. Okay, they did move two channels out last week but, it's been a year of new ownership for those properties...just sayin.
Way to air the dirty laundry CTV and CHUM, any hard feelings folks?
Of course, I'm sure everything CHUM did was 10 fold better than pre-merger...just look at all of the cookie-cutter and shallow Web sites they rolled out pre-CTV: www.bravo.ca, www.spacecast.com, www.star-tv.com and www.fashiontelevision.com, for example...
As somebody who does site designs for a living, I appreciate that www.cp24.com is new and different, it is very functional (news, weather, traffic, stocks all above the fold) and replicates many of the aspects that people tune into the channel for (where about 99% of their audience will be referred from).
I can also say from experience that people tend to expose themselves as 'resistant to change' when any site redesigns, anyone remember last year's cbc.ca redesign? TheStar.com? Do you really want all of your favourite '90s Web sites back or are we trying to move forward as a medium?
Granted cp24.com is not perfect but they have introduced some new elements to a site that I haven't seen before -- something CHUM hasn't done in a long time.
Bri
This revamp is horrible. Poor information and layout. Give me back the old version of 2 months ago! I LOVE THAT OLD VERSION! FUCK THIS CTV VS. Rogers BULLSHIT ALREADY!
I am just wondering why Citynews is still broadcasted on CP24 since CP24 is owned by CTV Globemedia and Citynews is now owned by Rogers. It just makes it a bit confusing as to who owns who...
When will CP24 and Citynews become 2 separate entities. It really makes no sense that that the are rivals and are CP24 is still carrying Citynews broadcasts like BT and Citynews at noon. Am I th eonly one that think that this is stupid...
CTV and Global both blow goats. All they do is hijack American programming. I wish they would both go off the airwaves and leave NBC, CBS, FOX and ABC alone.
Why didn't they leave cp24 the way it was? I HATE this new format, and the two dweebs who are "star's" need some tv manners lessons. CP wasn't perfect, but they gave my morning a good start. My day WILL NOT start with this new crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I totally agree the show is a bunch of CRAP They should have left it alone They will loose alot of viewers and more I've been ill , ND MISSED What happened to Kevin,Dina and Frankie ?I will never watch this again and my family and friends agree. I HAVE WATCHED IT SINCE IT STARTED and like it the way it was. I am very dissapointed It Sucks
I am praying that CityNews Channel will be available on Bell Tv! It should work out though right? After all..Rogers Sportsnet is on right? Theres bo reason for bell not to add the new channel when it launches.
Leave it to CP24 to send out two reporters to do a story on the sunny weather!!! They say they HAVE breaking news more than they DO breaking news
BREAKING NEWS:
CP24 has just announced that it's a cool 12c.
"15c-16c is normal for this time of year. Yes, it's the first full weekend of May!"
These people are definitely representing the LTTE (which is banned in Canada} since they are carrying the LTTE flag and yelling " our leader Prabhakaran".They are pretty used to employing children as soldiers so they are not worried about their own childrens safety.
If something is not done soon, they will ask a part of Canada to form a separate government for the Tamil community here.
Tamil protestors shutting down....
These people are definetely representing the LTTe ( which is banned in Canada) since they are carrying the LTTE flag & yelling " our leader Prabhakaran". The LTTe is pretty much used to employing children as soldiers so they are not worried about their own childrens safety.
If something is not done soon , to stop these idiotic protestors they will ask a part of Canada to form a separate government for the Tamil community here.
Was watching television and heard the announcer on CP24 say listen live on CP24.com. Well tried that and guess what? Not live in the slightest. In fact announcer even gives the time a full 45 minutes earlier.
Tell it like it is or stop telling it.
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