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BNN Bloomberg is a Canadian English language discretionary specialty channel owned by Bell Media with the name licensed from Bloomberg L.P. It broadcasts programming related to business and financial news and analysis. The channel is headquartered at 299 Queen Street West in Downtown Toronto.
BNN was established on September 1, 1999 as Report on Business Television ( RoBTV) under a joint venture of Thomson Corporation, the owners of The Globe and Mail newspaper, Western International Communications and Cancom. Canwest, the owners of Global Television Network, acquired WIC in 2000 while Thomson transferred the shares of its channel to Bell Globemedia where it has been solely owned since 2001. The channel was rebranded to Business News Network in 2007 which allowed The Globe and Mail to regain exclusive rights to the Report on Business brand. After the Thomsons reacquired the Globe paper and Bell Canada regained control of CTVglobemedia (the former Bell Globemedia) in 2011 where it became Bell Media, the channel was relaunched on April 30, 2018 under its current name, under a partnership with U.S. business channel Bloomberg Television.
In addition to BNN producing a large portion of its business day programming in-house, much of the channel's programming was also simulcasted on radio, branded as BNN Bloomberg Radio, formerly by CKOC in Hamilton and CFTE in Vancouver.
As a former Category A service, BNN Bloomberg was required to be carried on the basic service of all digital cable providers across Canada. The channel was, and still is, typically offered optionally at the discretion of providers.
In 2000, Canwest acquired WIC and its interest in ROBTv. As part of the agreement transferring WIC's interests in Cancom to Shaw Communications, Canwest acquired Cancom's share of the channel as well.
The same year, the owners came into conflict with each other: Canwest acquired the Southam newspaper chain, including the National Post, the Globes chief rival, while Thomson transferred the Globe and its shares of ROBTv to Bell Globemedia, a newly formed media company which also included CTV, in which Thomson held a 20% interest.
Following threats of legal action from both sides, in 2001 CanWest agreed to sell its 50% interest to Bell Globemedia, in exchange for carriage of a proposed competitor aligned with the Financial Post on Bell Expressvu.Samantha Yaffe, " Global, CTV: unite and conquer", Playback, April 30, 2001
Bell Globemedia assumed full control of ROBTv in late 2001; the channel was then rebranded as Report on Business Television, discontinuing use of the abbreviated "ROBTv" brand.
BNN relocated its operations from 720 King Street West to 299 Queen Street West on December 6, 2010, in the building in which was previously occupied by CITY-DT's CityNews department was located as well as CTV's Much and Toronto's 24-hour news service CP24 are based; all were formerly owned by CHUM Limited. BNN Wakes Up To Opening Bell Today In Brand New Toronto Studio at CTV's Iconic Queen Street Headquarters
The Thomson family reacquired control of the Globe (and therefore Report on Business) in late 2010, and CTVglobemedia's broadcasting assets were sold to Bell Canada; as a result, the channel and the newspaper are no longer co-owned, although Bell retains a 15% interest in the paper. Following the merger with Bell Canada, on April 1, 2011, Bell Canada renamed its new business unit from CTVglobemedia to Bell Media.
Bloomberg had previously partnered with Channel Zero on Bloomberg TV Canada, which was the U.S. service supplanted with programs covering Canadian financial news; that channel shut down in October 2017. BNN's existing domestic programming was largely maintained upon the rebranding, although the network does carry Bloomberg's business day programs for Asia and Europe outside of the North American business day. In addition, the 1:00 p.m. ET hour of Bloomberg Markets: Americas became a co-production with BNN, with Amanda Lang co-hosting from Toronto. As a result of the partnership, the U.S. Bloomberg Television was once again pulled from Canadian television providers, but the network, as well as BNN Bloomberg itself, can be streamed online by TV Everywhere.
On June 20, 2024, Bell Media announced that BNN Bloomberg (along with sister channel CP24) would move to Bell Media's 9 Channel Nine Court building in Scarborough in the third quarter of 2025.
On September 3, 2024, BNN Bloomberg celebrated its 25th anniversary with a highlight reel featuring memorable moments from the station's history. Former hosts Frances Horodelski, Marty Cej, Kim Parlee, Bruce Sellery, Pat Kiernan and Ali Velshi also returned to celebrate the milestone.
BNN attracts approximately 5,000 regular viewers daily and has a strong viewership outside of the home (such as in gyms, restaurants and offices) which is not reflected in its ratings. This is a situation also faced by networks with high out-of-home viewing patterns such as CNBC. In March 2016, ratings data from Numeris showed BNN had an average weekly reach of more than 1 million viewers since December 2015.
In May 2008, the network relaunched BNN.ca, featuring its first online contest called "The BNN.ca $25,000 Challenge". The updated BNN.ca showcased a new video player allowing investors to search, sort and personalize BNN video; and the new player increased availability of past BNN video by allowing viewers to access content for an unlimited period of time online. Other added features on the site included blogs, a "Market Monitor", feature video clips on the homepage, an online stock ticker, features such as "Hot Stocks" and "Guest Picks", stock indices, and tracking of the latest and popular news stories on the site.
BNN's weekend programming consists mainly of repeats of some of the programs aired on BNN's weekday schedule, as well as other Bloomberg Television series.
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