OMNI TELEVISION

'OMNI Television' is a Canadian television brand owned and operated by Rogers Communications. It is used for the company's conventional television stations, which are licensed either as multicultural or religious stations. "OMNI" is not an acronym, however the name is generally written all in capital letters.
OMNI.1 (CFMT), Canada's first free over-the-air multilingual/multicultural television system, was licensed in 1979 as Channel 47 in Toronto. Rogers Communications acquired controlling interest of OMNI.1 (CFMT) in 1986.
The two OMNI-branded multicultural TV stations are CFMT (OMNI.1, Channel 47 in Toronto, Ontario) and CJMT (OMNI.2, Channel 69 in Toronto). CFMT airs programming targeted to Toronto's European and Caribbean language communities, while CJMT airs programming in Asian and African languages. Five nights a week, news is aired in Cantonese, Mandarin, English (for the South Asian edition), Portuguese, and Italian. On weekends, magazine programs air in at least 20 additional languages. The news programming consists of both Canadian news translated into the language, and news feeds from countries in which the language is natively spoken. Both stations also air considerable English language commercial programming, including the nightly soap opera ''Metropia''.
Rogers also owns two religious TV stations: CHNU (OMNI.10, Channel 66 in Vancouver, British Columbia) and CIIT (OMNI.11, Channel 35 in Winnipeg, Manitoba). Both are religious stations that were acquired in 2005 from Trinity Television, which used the NOWTV brand. CIIT was launched on February 6, 2006, after Rogers had already bought Trinity Television.
While there is a difference in the nature of service of multicultural and religious stations, both classes of stations can air many of the same types of programs. CHNU had previously aired many of the same types of syndicated sitcoms and multicultural programs aired regularly on the OMNI stations in Toronto, and the Toronto stations carry some religious teaching programs. The common brand has allowed cost savings for promotions and for the acquisition of the general-entertainment programs all of the OMNI stations have used to generate most of their revenues. However, due in particular to Vancouver multicultural station CHNM and Toronto religious station CITS, which both opposed Rogers's acquisition of the NOWTV stations, the OMNI stations' core formats have remained intact.
At least one OMNI-produced program, the interview series ''The Standard'', produced and aired nightly by CHNU, is available in all three areas served by OMNI stations.

Contents

2007 realignment

OMNI Television stations

See also

Footnotes

External link

2007 realignment

Several proposed changes to the OMNI system were announced, either by Rogers or by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), during a one-month span in June/July 2007. First, on June 8, the CRTC licensed Rogers to operated new multicultural stations in Calgary and Edmonton, beating out a competing proposal from CHNM's owner Multivan.
On June 28, Rogers made public its offer to sell the religious-licensed OMNI stations in Winnipeg and Vancouver as part of its contemporaneous purchase of Citytv. Rogers indicated, however, that it viewed retaining the multilingual licences in Toronto, Calgary and Edmonton as compatible with CRTC policy, since they are licensed to serve a different programming niche than the general interest Citytv stations.^[1]
On July 7, Rogers announced an agreement to purchase the aforementioned CHNM, finally securing (pending CRTC approval) a true multicultural TV licence in Vancouver after several failed attempts.^[2] The fact that Rogers had acquired the Calgary and Edmonton multicultural licences, beating out Multivan's competing applications, was cited as a major reason for the sale.
These changes will make OMNI a system of purely multicultural stations reaching most major Canadian markets, save Montreal, where CanWest-owned CJNT has the multicultural mandate.

OMNI Television stations

Call Sign	Analog Channel	Digital Channel	City/Market
CFMT	47	64	Toronto
CJMT	69	44	Toronto
CHNU	66	--	Fraser Valley Regional District/Surrey/Vancouver
CIIT	35	2	Winnipeg
CHXC[3]	38	--	Calgary
CHXE3	56	--	Edmonton

See also

★ 2007 Canada broadcast TV realignment

Footnotes

1. Rogers offers to sell two stations, Grant Robertson, ''The Globe and Mail'', June 28, 2007
2. Rogers Media to Acquire Vancouver's 'Channel M' From Multivan Broadcast Corporation, Rogers press release, July 6, 2007
3. New licence approved June 8, 2007.

External link

★ Official OMNI Television website