[Canada] Citytv relaunches local news outside of Toronto

[ED2 144]

Rogers Media is relaunching local news operations under the "CityNews" brand in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Montreal, and Winnipeg. Edmonton and Winnipeg will see their new 6PM and 11PM newscasts this fall.

 

http://rogersmediatv.ca/pr_detail.php?id=1420

 

Currently, Citytv Vancouver, Calgary, and Montreal each have local morning shows but no other local programming. Citytv Edmonton has a 2-hour early evening current affairs program 7-days a week but no BT. Citytv Winnipeg has a morning radio simulcast of a Rogers owned rock station but nothing else.

 

Vancouver and Calgary also have all-news radio stations that rate well.

[TheRolyPoly 1847]

Rogers Media is relaunching local news operations under the "CityNews" brand in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Montreal, and Winnipeg. Edmonton and Winnipeg will see their new 6PM and 11PM newscasts this fall.

 

http://rogersmediatv.ca/pr_detail.php?id=1420

 

Currently, Citytv Vancouver, Calgary, and Montreal each have local morning shows but no other local programming. Citytv Edmonton has a 2-hour early evening current affairs program 7-days a week but no BT. Citytv Winnipeg has a morning radio simulcast of a Rogers owned rock station but nothing else.

 

Vancouver and Calgary also have all-news radio stations that rate well.

 

First time since 2008 I guess that Citytv across Canada will have their own local news, besides Toronto. Its about time. Apparently, they'll do this in two parts.

 

Edmonton and Winnipeg goes first this year with the other markets starting next year.

[Journalist 894]

A Canadian broadcaster?

 

Adding back news?

 

Is the sky falling?

[PAnderson1 27]

Rogers Media is relaunching local news operations under the "CityNews" brand in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Montreal, and Winnipeg. Edmonton and Winnipeg will see their new 6PM and 11PM newscasts this fall.

 

http://rogersmediatv.ca/pr_detail.php?id=1420

 

Currently, Citytv Vancouver, Calgary, and Montreal each have local morning shows but no other local programming. Citytv Edmonton has a 2-hour early evening current affairs program 7-days a week but no BT. Citytv Winnipeg has a morning radio simulcast of a Rogers owned rock station but nothing else.

 

Vancouver and Calgary also have all-news radio stations that rate well.

I'm actually surprised their beating CFTO in the key demo

[Journalist 894]

I believe this is now a great time to update users who are out of the loop with CityNews.

 

The flagship CityNews Toronto went through a massive transformation during the past year. A new vice president was appointed by Rogers Media to streamline CityNews to current broadcast trends, integrate its resources with its fellow Rogers Media properties (radio stations and Vice), and to demolish any last remains of the late ChumCity era.

 

During the past year, CityNews Toronto adopted a rather 'interesting' format of presenting the news.

 

 

They do not have a permanent presentation area, a permanent anchor and a permanent news music package. After decades broadcasting

crafted by Citytv's last owner, their newscasts as of late are produced outside the broadcast facilities - telecasted from various remote locations around the city from start to finish. This format, while interesting, does have its issues. Signal loss as well as spectator disruptions are major points that they have considered. In spite of that, this interesting format was a major success for Citytv and for Rogers. Unlike others like WTSP... *cough*

 

That said, I do have my comments and issues.

 

I would assume with these changes at the Toronto station, it is highly possible we will not see a return of the ChumCity-era CityNews we last saw in 2008 - with an anchor behind a newsroom backdrop. Instead, we might see the "mobile" format of the present-day CityNews across the stations. If this doesn't happen, expect a boring '80s style anchor-camera format that is currently setup for news bulletins

(i.e. Vancouver).

 

Furthermore, CityNews Toronto slowly discontinued the

, going straight to the first story on the top of the hour. Despite these adjustments, they are still using their 11 year old(!) graphics package. To add to their problems, they have dropped several cuts of their commissioned news music package from 2005. They do not have a replacement, rendering newscasts void of any music cut. The only time the package could be regularly heard nowadays is

. If Rogers were to transfer this butchered presentation style over to the rest of the network - I would be very disappointed.

 

Disappointment. A recurring narrative within our broadcast industry.

 

Oh, Canada.