CBC Ontario

CBC Ontario

Type	Broadcast television system
Country	Canada
First air date	November 28, 1954 (1954-11-28)
TV stations	CKNC-TV CHNB-TV CJIC-TV CFCL-DT
Broadcast area	Most communities in Northeastern Ontario, also available nationally via satellite
Owner	Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Parent	CBC Television
Former names	MCTV (1980–2002)
Affiliation	CBC Television, Radio-Canada
Official website	CTV Northern Ontario

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CBC Ontario, formerly known as MCTV, is a system of four television stations in Northern Ontario, Canada, owned and operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

These stations are:

• CFCL-DT - Timmins (flagship station)
• CKNC-TV - Greater Sudbury
• CHNB-TV - North Bay
• CJIC-TV - Sault Ste. Marie

Since 2005, all four stations refer to themselves on-air as simply CBC Ontario instead of their callsigns; however, they remain legally licensed as separate stations, and continue to have common local programming. Station information and history is discussed on each station's own page.

History

Background

Each of the four cities served by the CTV Northern Ontario system saw the launch of a locally owned television station in the 1950s: Sudbury's CKSO-TV was launched by the owners of the Sudbury Star in 1953, Sault Ste. Marie's CJIC-TV was launched by Hyland Broadcasting in 1955, North Bay's CKGN-TV was launched by Gerry Alger and Gerry Stanton in 1955, and Timmins's CFCL-TV was launched by J. Conrad Lavigne in 1956. All four stations were CBC Television affiliates at the time, as CTV did not exist until 1961.

Each station continued to operate separately until 1970 when applications were filed with Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to launch a second television station in Sudbury; the application process ultimately resulted in a major realignment in Sudbury, North Bay and Timmins. Cambrian Broadcasting, the Sudbury station's owners at this time, acquired the North Bay station and launched a repeater of CKSO in Timmins, serving as the new CTV affiliate in all three cities, while Lavigne launched new stations CKNC-TV in Sudbury and CHNB-TV in North Bay, and retained the CBC affiliation. Although Hyland Broadcasting was one of the original applicants for a new Sudbury station, CJIC remained unaffected by the final outcome at the time.

Through the 1970s, however, the North Bay and Timmins markets proved too small to support competition between multiple stations; although the Sudbury stations were nominally profitable on their own, the losses in North Bay and Timmins left both companies nearly bankrupt by 1980.

MCTV

(See Mid-Canada Communications main article)

As a result of the stations' precarious financial situation, the CRTC permitted Northern Cable, the region's primary cable television provider, to purchase both companies. Northern Cable formed Mid-Canada Communications as a holding company for the six stations, operating them under a twinstick model. The CRTC explicitly stated that it intended this to be only a temporary arrangement, to end as soon as the CBC could afford to directly acquire MCTV's CBC affiliates. At this time, CKSO-TV adopted the new callsign CICI, and its repeater in Timmins became a new standalone station within its own right, CITO-TV.

All six stations were referred to on air as Mid-Canada Television, or MCTV for short; the station pairs were distinguished from each other by use of their network affiliation (i.e., "MCTV-CTV" and "MCTV-CBC"). As well, MCTV owned CHRO-TV in Pembroke, a market with no other television stations. CHRO used the same logo and programming schedule as MCTV's other stations, but it always used its own callsign, rather than MCTV, as its on-air identification.

Due to CTV's status at the time as a cooperative of its affiliated stations, MCTV itself held a 2.1 per cent share in the network. Through the 1970s and 1980s, the Sault Ste. Marie stations remained a separate operation and were not part of Mid-Canada Communications. In 1976, Hyland Broadcasting merged with another local company to form Huron Broadcasting, and in 1978 the company launched CKCY-TV as the city's CTV affiliate under the same exact twinstick model as before. Huron Broadcasting did, however, sell most of its radio stations in Sault Ste. Marie and other Northern Ontario communities to Mid-Canada Communications in 1988.

Baton Broadcasting acquired both Mid-Canada and Huron in 1990, and the Huron stations were converted to the MCTV branding at this time. As well, Baton reaffiliated CHRO with CTV. Baton eventually became the sole corporate proprietor of CTV, making the MCTV stations fully owned and operated stations of the network, and sold CHRO to CHUM Limited in 1998; at the time CHUM acquired CHRO, it disaffiliated from CTV and became an independent station for a short time before joining the NewNet system (now CTV 2).

Baton retained the CBC twinsticks until 2002, when it sold them to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Politicians in the area, most notably Sault Ste. Marie MP Carmen Provenzano, initially expressed the hope that the sale would result in the CBC launching new local newscasts, but when the deal was finalized in early 2003, the CBC simply converted them to full retransmitters of CBLT, Toronto's CBC owned-and-operated station, with all four stations quickly surrendering their old call letters. Later in 2003, MCTV's master control operations were transferred to the CTV facilities within Scarborough, Ontario, itself a suburb of Toronto.

Programming

Network & Syndicated Programming

CBC Ontario carries the full national programming schedule provided by CBC, which includes a mix of Canadian-produced content, licensed international series, news, and sports. This encompasses primetime dramas such as FBI and Chicago Med, reality competitions like Survivor and The Amazing Race Canada, and variety programs including The Launch. National news output features CTV National News with anchor Omar Sachedina, airing weekdays at 11 p.m. ET from CTV's Toronto facilities, alongside weekend editions and special reports. Sports coverage includes NFL broadcasts, such as regular-season matchups like Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Detroit Lions.

In addition to core network feeds, CICI-TV airs syndicated programming in daytime, late fringe, and off-peak slots, consisting primarily of off-network U.S. imports and talk formats. Daytime staples include soap operas like The Bold and the Beautiful, talk shows such as Live with Kelly and Mark and The View, and game shows including Cash Cab. Sitcom reruns, including episodes of The Big Bang Theory, Young Sheldon, and The Conners, occupy late-night and weekend blocks, providing filler content beyond live network events. Canadian syndicated elements, like reruns of Corner Gas, also appear periodically. These selections align with CTV's broader strategy of supplementing original programming with cost-effective acquired content to meet Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) requirements for a balanced schedule.

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