Rogers 24-Hour Toronto News Channel Wins CRTC Approval

Who needs CNN when you can glue your eyeballs to a news channel dedicated to covering our center of the universe? That's exactly what Rogers is banking on, having just won CRTC approval for a 24-hour-a-day news channel that would act as a local content aggregator from the various Rogers local television and radio news stations.

"We are extremely pleased with the CRTC decision today," says Jamie Haggarty, Executive Vice President, Operations, Rogers Media Television.
"Torontonians and residents of the GTA will now be able to enjoy greater diversity when it comes to local news, weather and sports. Citytv's unique brand of news and information, complimented by our ethnically diverse OMNI stations is the perfect combination to deliver a full-time channel committed to the local perspective."

While Torontonians will not likely give up CNN, Rogers is certainly hoping they can steal some viewers from current competing news channels such as CablePulse 24 owned by CTVglobemedia and The Weather Network owned by Pelmorex Communications. Both CTVgm and Pelmorex voiced displeasure to the CRTC against Rogers' application citing overlap of content and viewership, but the CRTC rejected their arguments.

While Rogers did not specify a launch date for the new channel as yet and they are mandated by the CRTC to launch with 3 years, many expect the new channel to begin airing in 2009.

TAGS: Channel, Crtc, Local, News, Rogers, Television, Tv