Business News Network
Encyclopedia
Business News Network is a Canadian
English language
Category A specialty channel
. BNN broadcasts programming related to business and financial news and analysis. As of December 2010, the station is based from 299 Queen Street West in Downtown
Toronto
and is owned by Bell Media. Its day-to-day operations are run by CTV News
.
(50%), WIC
(25%), and Cancom
(25%). It began broadcasting on September 1, 1999 under the name Report on Business Television (although using the abbreviation ROBTv), borrowing the name from The Globe and Mail
s financial section "Report on Business
".
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.
That same year, the two partners became in conflict with each other: CanWest acquired the Southam newspaper chain, including the National Post
, the Globes chief rival. Around the same time, Thomson transferred the Globe and its shares of ROBTv to Bell Globemedia
, a newly formed media company which also included CTV
, in which Thomson initially held a 20% interest. Following threats of legal action on both sides, in 2001, CanWest agreed to sell its 50% to BGM, in exchange for Bell ExpressVu agreeing to carry a new CanWest-owned digital business news channel, "Financial Post
Television". The latter channel never materialized.
Shortly thereafter BGM assumed full control of ROBTv in late 2001, the channel was given a new logo and began to use only the full name of Report on Business Television, dropping "ROBTv".
BNN moved operations from 720 King Street West to a new home at 299 Queen Street West on December 6, 2010, where CTV's MuchMusic
and Toronto's 24-hour news service CP24 are based.
With the Thomson family reacquiring control of the Globe (and by implication Report on Business) in late 2010, and the pending sale of CTVglobemedia's broadcasting assets to Bell Canada
, the channel and the newspaper are no longer co-owned, although Bell will retain a 15% interest in the paper. On April 1, 2011, CTVglobemedia was officially replaced by Bell Canada's new business unit, Bell Media.
. Originally it was the Canadian broadcast partner of CNNfn
, an American
business news channel, which closed in December 2004.
BNN features a televised stock ticker with real-time data from the TSX, NYSE, NASDAQ
as well as many international exchanges. Based in Toronto
, BNN also has a news bureau located at the NASDAQ Market Site in New York City
's Times Square, as well as Calgary
.
BNN attracts approximately 5,000 regular viewers daily and has a strong viewership outside of the home (in gyms, restaurants, offices, etc.) 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 May 2008, the Network re-launched BNN.ca, featuring their first-ever 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:
Most programming aired on weekends is repeat episodes of various programming aired weekdays, along with infomercials, while during overnight hours, BNN broadcasts exclusively infomercials from Northern Response and Kingstar Media.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
Category A specialty channel
Specialty channel
A specialty channel can be a commercial broadcasting or non-commercial television channel which consists of television programming focused on a single genre, subject or targeted television market at a specific demographic....
. BNN broadcasts programming related to business and financial news and analysis. As of December 2010, the station is based from 299 Queen Street West in Downtown
Downtown Toronto
Downtown Toronto is the central business district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is approximately bounded by Bloor Street to the north, Lake Ontario to the south, the Don River to the east, and Bathurst Street to the west...
Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
and is owned by Bell Media. Its day-to-day operations are run by CTV News
CTV News
CTV News is the news division of the CTV Television Network in Canada. The name CTV News is also applied as the title of local and regional newscasts on the network's owned-and-operated stations , which are closely tied to the national news division...
.
As Report on Business Television (ROBTv)
The network was licensed in 1996 to a joint venture of Thomson CorporationThomson Corporation
The Thomson Corporation was one of the world's largest information companies.Thomson was active in financial services, healthcare sectors, law, science & technology research, and tax & accounting sectors...
(50%), WIC
Western International Communications
WIC Western International Communications Ltd.The apparent occurrence of "RAS syndrome" here was in fact part of the company's legal name. was a Canadian media company that operated from 1982 to 2000, with operations including broadcast and specialty television, radio, and satellite distribution via...
(25%), and Cancom
Canadian Satellite Communications
Shaw Satellite Services is a Canadian company responsible for providing and managing the distribution of television channels to cable companies via satellite...
(25%). It began broadcasting on September 1, 1999 under the name Report on Business Television (although using the abbreviation ROBTv), borrowing the name from The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
s financial section "Report on Business
Report on Business
Report on Business, commonly referred to as simply ROB, is the financial section of The Globe and Mail, a large Toronto-based Canadian newspaper. It is the most lengthy completion of economic news in Canada, and is considered an integral part of the newspaper...
".
In 2000, Canwest acquired WIC and its interest in ROBTv. As part of the agreement transferring WIC's interests in Cancom to Shaw Communications
Shaw Communications
Shaw Communications is Canada's largest telecommunications company that provides telephone, Canada's fastest Internet and television services as well as broadcasting and soon Wifi. Shaw is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta...
, CanWest acquired Cancom's share of the channel as well.
That same year, the two partners became in conflict with each other: CanWest acquired the Southam newspaper chain, including the National Post
National Post
The National Post is a Canadian English-language national newspaper based in Don Mills, a district of Toronto. The paper is owned by Postmedia Network Inc. and is published Mondays through Saturdays...
, the Globes chief rival. Around the same time, Thomson transferred the Globe and its shares of ROBTv to Bell Globemedia
CTVglobemedia
CTVglobemedia , was one of Canada's largest private media companies. Its operations include newspaper publishing , television broadcasting and production , radio broadcasting , and their respective Internet properties.Originally established by BCE and the Thomson family in 2001 combining CTV Inc.,...
, a newly formed media company which also included CTV
CTV television network
CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...
, in which Thomson initially held a 20% interest. Following threats of legal action on both sides, in 2001, CanWest agreed to sell its 50% to BGM, in exchange for Bell ExpressVu agreeing to carry a new CanWest-owned digital business news channel, "Financial Post
Financial Post
The Financial Post was an English Canadian business newspaper, which published from 1907 to 1998. In 1998, the publication was folded into the new National Post, although the name Financial Post has been retained as the banner for that paper's business section and also lives on in the Post’s...
Television". The latter channel never materialized.
Shortly thereafter BGM assumed full control of ROBTv in late 2001, the channel was given a new logo and began to use only the full name of Report on Business Television, dropping "ROBTv".
As Business News Network (BNN)
On March 12, 2007 Report on Business Television was renamed "Business News Network", although no channel format or schedule change occurred. The name change occurred to give exclusive rights to the "Report on Business" name to the Globe and Mail and for the channel to have its own identity. Network executives also stated that they were unhappy that viewers would sometimes pronounce the acronym ROBTv as "Rob" TV rather than "R-O-B" TV.BNN moved operations from 720 King Street West to a new home at 299 Queen Street West on December 6, 2010, where CTV's MuchMusic
MuchMusic
MuchMusic is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel owned by Bell Media. MuchMusic is dedicated to music-related programs, pop and youth culture.-History:...
and Toronto's 24-hour news service CP24 are based.
With the Thomson family reacquiring control of the Globe (and by implication Report on Business) in late 2010, and the pending sale of CTVglobemedia's broadcasting assets to Bell Canada
Bell Canada
Bell Canada is a major Canadian telecommunications company. Including its subsidiaries such as Bell Aliant, Northwestel, Télébec, and NorthernTel, it is the incumbent local exchange carrier for telephone and DSL Internet services in most of Canada east of Manitoba and in the northern territories,...
, the channel and the newspaper are no longer co-owned, although Bell will retain a 15% interest in the paper. On April 1, 2011, CTVglobemedia was officially replaced by Bell Canada's new business unit, Bell Media.
Programming
A large majority of the programming found on BNN is produced in-house, although it also carries content from other sources including Bloomberg TelevisionBloomberg Television
Bloomberg Television is a 24-hour global network broadcasting business and financial news. It is distributed globally, reaching over 200 million homes worldwide. It is owned and operated by Bloomberg L.P...
. Originally it was the Canadian broadcast partner of CNNfn
CNNfn
CNNfn was a U.S. cable television news network operated by the CNN subsidiary of the media comglomerate Time Warner from December 29, 1995 and of AOL-Time Warner until December 15, 2004. The network was dedicated to covering financial markets and business news.It was available in a number of...
, an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
business news channel, which closed in December 2004.
BNN features a televised stock ticker with real-time data from the TSX, NYSE, NASDAQ
NASDAQ
The NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...
as well as many international exchanges. Based in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, BNN also has a news bureau located at the NASDAQ Market Site in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's Times Square, as well as Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
.
BNN attracts approximately 5,000 regular viewers daily and has a strong viewership outside of the home (in gyms, restaurants, offices, etc.) 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
CNBC
CNBC is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers...
.
Special programming
The network hosts a series of special presentations throughout the year, including valued specials for tax and RSP seasons. In Fall 2006, Report on Business Television hosted its first "Live On Location" event in Toronto where a studio audience was featured during two of the broadcaster's most popular shows, Market Call with Jim O'Connell and SqueezePlay with Kim Parlee and Andrew Bell. This marked the first time viewers had the opportunity to go live in person with the station during regular programming of Market Call.In May 2008, the Network re-launched BNN.ca, featuring their first-ever 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:
- Blogs
- Market Monitor
- Feature Video on the Home Page
- Online Stock Ticker
- Hot Stocks
- Guest Picks
- Indices
- Latest/Popular News tracking
Noted series
- Berman's Call
- Commodities
- Headline
- Market Call
- Market Call Tonight
- Market Morning
- SqueezePlay
- The Business News
- The Close
- Trading Day
- The Pitch
- Note: series list is current as of September 2010.
Most programming aired on weekends is repeat episodes of various programming aired weekdays, along with infomercials, while during overnight hours, BNN broadcasts exclusively infomercials from Northern Response and Kingstar Media.
On-air hosts and contributors
- Martin Baccardax
- Paul Bagnell
- Andrew Bell
- Larry Berman
- Pat BollandPat BollandPat Bolland is a television personality, media consultant, and lacrosse coach. On March 24, 2011, the Sun News Network announced that Bolland would be joining their network, as one of the hosts of The Roundtable – the network's morning show – along with Alex Pierson and Andrea Slobodian.Bolland is...
- Mark BuntingMark Bunting (Journalist)Mark Bunting is a Canadian journalist and currently the London Bureau Chief for the BNN reporting on European and Asian financial markets. He appears weekdays on Canada AM. He was previously a business editor at CTV News Channel, he hosted Investors Online, worked as the business editor at CFRB,...
- Martin Cej
- Howard Green
- Brett Harris
- Michael HainsworthMichael HainsworthMichael Hainsworth is a business reporter for CTV Toronto and CTV affiliates across the country. He anchors The Close on Canada's financial news network, Business News Network . He also files business reports for Toronto all-news channel CablePulse24 and national cable news network CTV News Channel...
- Frances Horodelski
- Michael Kane
- Patricia Lovett-Reid
- Niall McGee
- Jacquie McNish
- Linda Nazareth
- Kim ParleeKim ParleeKim Parlee is an anchor and host of SqueezePlay at BNN: Business News Network and formerly anchor of Stars and Dogs, After Hours and Talking Tax. Since starting with the channel in 2001, she has worked in a number of capacities including anchor, markets editor and technology reporter...
- Paul Waldie
- Andy Willis
- Rubina Ahmed-Haq
Logos
| 1999–2002 | 2002–2007 | 2007–present |
|---|