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CITY-DT (channel 57), branded as Citytv Toronto or simply Citytv, is a television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, serving as the flagship station of the Citytv network. It is owned and operated by network parent Rogers Sports & Media alongside Omni Television outlets CFMT-DT (channel 47) and CJMT-DT (channel 40). The stations share studios at the Rogers Building in downtown Toronto; CITY-DT's transmitter is located atop the CN Tower.
The station went on the air on September 28, 1972, by a consortium led by Phyllis Switzer, Moses Znaimer, Jerry Grafstein and Edgar Cowan, as CITY-TV, branded "Citytv" on Queen Street. In 1981, the station was sold to CHUM Limited, who retained Znaimer as an executive and moved to its 299 Queen Street West studios in 1987. For the majority of its early life, CITY-TV operated as an independent station, best known for its unconventional approaches to news and other locally produced programming. Under Znaimer's leadership, Citytv revolutionized Canadian local television by adopting a street-level, informal broadcasting style and creating interactive formats such as Speaker's Corner, which anticipated user-generated content platforms decades before the internet age. After having used syndication to bring its original programming to other Canadian markets, CHUM later used CITY-TV as the basis and flagship station of a television system, acquiring and establishing new stations under the Citytv name.
In 2006, CTVglobemedia announced its intent to acquire CHUM Limited, but was required to divest stations due to conflicts with CTV stations it already owned in Citytv's markets. CTV chose to keep the stations of CHUM's secondary A-Channel system, as well as CITY-TV's sister news channel CP24 and its other cable channels MuchMusic, but divested CITY-TV and its sister stations to Rogers Media. Under Rogers ownership, CITY-TV's programming became more conventional in nature.
The station lost money early on, and was in debt by 1975. Multiple Access Ltd. (the owners of CFCF-TV in Montreal) purchased a 45% interest in the station, and sold its stake to CHUM Limited three years later. CITY was purchased outright by CHUM in 1981 with the sale of Moses Znaimer's interest in the station. Znaimer remained with the station as an executive until 2003, when he retired from his management role but continued to work with the station on some production projects. Znaimer steps down as president of CHUM TV , Broadcaster Magazine, April 27, 2003.
In 1976, the station's main transmitter began broadcasting at 208 kW from the CN Tower. The station switched channel allocations on July 1, 1983, moving to UHF channel 57, the result of Industry Canada's decision to reassign frequencies corresponding to high-band UHF channels 70 to 83 to the new AMPS mobile phone systems as a result of a CCIR international convention in 1982. On September 1, 1986, a rebroadcast transmitter was put into operation in Woodstock (CITY-TV-2 on channel 31, which also served nearby London); another transmitter was set up in Ottawa in 1996 (CITY-TV-3 on channel 65).
In May 1987, CITY and the other CHUM-owned television properties moved their operations to the company's headquarters at 299 Queen Street West, which became one of the most recognizable landmarks in the city. On March 30, 1998, CHUM launched CablePulse 24 (CP24), a local cable news channel whose programming used anchors from and featured reports filed by CITY-TV's news staff, rebroadcasts of the station's CityPulse newscasts and select programming from CITY and other CHUM stations.
Despite efforts to extend the brand to other major markets, for 30 years, CITY was the only Canadian station to identify on-air as "Citytv" – with "Citytv" and "CITY" serving as interchangeable names for the station. In July 2001, however, CHUM purchased CKVU-TV in Vancouver from Canwest Global Communications; CKVU changed its branding to "Citytv" in July 2002, making Citytv a two-station system. In 2005, three more Citytv stations were added in Calgary (CKAL-TV), Edmonton (CKEM-TV) and Winnipeg (CHMI-TV) after CHUM purchased the A-Channel television stations and other assets owned by Craig Media (the existing A-Channel brand was revamped and was transferred to CHUM's former NewNet stations). When the three A-Channel stations switched to the Citytv brand on August 2, 2005, the flagship CityPulse newscast was renamed CityNews.
The Citytv system expanded into Western Canada in 2009 when the Jim Pattison Group signed a deal to carry the system's programming on its stations in Kamloops (CFJC-TV), Prince George (CKPG-TV) and Medicine Hat (CHAT-TV); Rogers signed a long-term affiliation renewal agreement for the Pattison stations in September 2012. Citytv and Pattison Group Sign Affiliate Agreement , Broadcaster Magazine, May 3, 2012. Rogers gained two more outlets in a cable-only channel in Saskatchewan (Citytv Saskatchewan) and a station in Montreal (CJNT-DT) to broaden and expand its national coverage beginning in 2013, effectively transforming City from a television system to a television network. Rogers to buy SCN, launch Citytv Saskatchewan CRTC increases the diversity of voices in the Montreal market CRTC December 20, 2012
On October 3, 2011, Rogers Media launched the CityNews Channel, a 24-hour regional news channel for the Toronto area utilizing the resources of CITY-DT's news department, and other Rogers-owned news and media properties such as all-news radio station CFTR (680 AM) and Maclean's magazine. The channel used the same news wheel format as CFTR with traffic and weather reports at the top and bottom of every hour, sports news at 15 and 45 minutes past the hour and business news at 26 and 56 minutes past the hour. In addition to rolling news programming, CityNews Channel aired simulcasts of Citytv Toronto's news programming, and an audio feed from CFTR during the overnight hours. Rogers Media announces launch of new Toronto 24-hour City News Channel, Fall 2011 Due to financial difficulties, Rogers ceased CityNews Channel's live broadcasts on May 30, 2013, with the channel permanently shutting down on June 30, 2013. CityNews channel shut down by Rogers
Citytv Toronto celebrated its 50th anniversary on September 28, 2022.
Citytv and Omni Television moved their operations to the Rogers Building at Bloor and Mount Pleasant in March 2025.
The station has also produced much more local programming than most other Canadian television stations, including the daily talk show CityLine (hosted first by Dini Petty, then Marilyn Denis, and now Tracy Moore); magazine series such as The NewMusic, Toronto Rocks, FashionTelevision, Life on Venus Ave. and MovieTelevision; and interactive series such as Speakers' Corner. As well, the station often pursued synergies with its sister cable networks, sharing programming with MuchMusic, Bravo!, Space and CP24. The station also produced the Citytv New Year's Eve Bash, a live concert special from Nathan Phillips Square – although it still sponsored (and aired some coverage of) the event, it was replaced on-air with Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve in simulcast with ABC for 2013–14.
Under Sportsnet's television deal with the National Hockey League beginning in the 2014–15 NHL season, the station, along with the rest of the City network, airs a Saturday night game as part of the Hockey Night In Canada package. Toronto Maple Leafs games are typically designated to CBC Television and CBLT during Hockey Night, unless otherwise simulcast. Often, City broadcasts Montreal Canadiens games. In the inaugural season, City also broadcast the Sunday-night Rogers Hometown Hockey games, before they moved exclusively to Sportsnet.
The station simulcast games 3 and 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals featuring the Toronto Raptors. The simulcast was intended to enforce simsub rights on ABC affiliates, and hence used the NBA on ESPN telecast rather than the Sportsnet-produced telecast. CITY-TV was also one of the two original regional broadcasters (alongside then co-owned CKVR) of Raptors games during the team's first three seasons in the NBA from 1995 to 1998.
On January 19, 2010, Rogers Media announced the immediate cancellation of CityNews at Noon, CityOnline, CityNews at Five, Citytv's national and international newscast CityNews International, and the station's weekend evening newscasts, as part of massive restructuring and layoffs at the Citytv stations. Among those laid off were longtime 6 p.m. co-anchor Anne Mroczkowski and six reporters (Farah Nasser, Jee Yun Lee, Laura Di Battista, Marianne Dimain, Merella Fernandez and Michael Serapio); Pam Seatle was also dismissed, but returned to the station one month later. Layoffs, Cancelled Shows At Citytv citynews.ca, published January 19, 2010 Citytv Restructures Television Operations To Improve Business and Better Serve Audiences Rogers Media press release via CNW Group, published January 19, 2010.
The weekend 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts returned to the station in March 2011, followed by the return of the weekday CityNews at Five and the half-hour expansion of Breakfast Television (with its start time moved up to 5:30 a.m., and expanding to hours as a result) on September 5, 2011. On October 3, 2011, the station began producing half-hour extensions of Breakfast Television and its nightly 11 p.m. newscast, CityNews Tonight, for exclusive broadcast on CityNews Channel (these, along with a half-hour extension of the weekend 6 p.m. newscast also began airing on CITY-DT the following year, and became exclusive to CITY-DT once CityNews Channel ceased operations).
On April 14, 2012, CITY-DT began simulcasting CityNews Channel's morning news programming from Saturdays from 7 to 8 a.m. and Sundays from 7 to 9 a.m., becoming the only television station in the Toronto market that carried news programs on weekend mornings; this ended when CityNews Channel discontinued live broadcasts in May 2013, with CITY-DT filling those time periods with a mix of infomercials and lifestyle programming. Citytv Toronto Expands News on Weekend , TVLoon.ca, April 9, 2012. On August 13, 2012, the station expanded its nightly 11 p.m. newscast, CityNews Tonight, to one hour, making the program the only hour-long late evening newscast in the Toronto market. CityNews Tonight Expands to One Hour , Broadcaster Magazine, August 13, 2012. In September 2013, the weeknight 5 p.m. newscast was reformatted as The 5.
| +Subchannel of CITY-DT ! Channel ! Res. ! Aspect ! Short name ! Programming |
| CITY-DT-2 | Woodstock | 31 (UHF) 31 | 20 kW | ||
| CITY-DT-3 | Ottawa | 17 (UHF) 65 | 5.1 kW | ||
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