OMNI Television
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| Type | Broadcast television system |
|---|---|
| Country | Canada |
| Availability | Semi-national (Greater Montreal, Southern Ontario, Southwestern B.C./Lower Mainland, Alberta) |
| Slogan | Diversity Television |
| Owner | Rogers Media |
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Launch date
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September 3, 1979 (independent Toronto station) September 16, 2002 (launch of the Omni system) |
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Former names
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CFMT International / Channel 47/Cable 4 (1979–2002, independent) |
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Sister channels
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Conventional: City Specialty: Sportsnet G4 OLN FX Canada FXX The Biography Channel The Shopping Channel WWE Network |
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Official website
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www |
Omni Television (corporately styled as OMNI Television) is a Canadian television system that is owned by the Rogers Media subsidiary of Rogers Communications. It currently consists of all six of Canada's conventional multicultural television stations, which are located in Ontario (two stations), British Columbia, Alberta (two stations) and Quebec (as a secondary affiliate). In addition, Rogers also briefly operated religious television stations in the Vancouver and Winnipeg television markets under the "Omni" brand before divesting them in 2008.
Derived from the Latin word "omnis" meaning "all", "Omni" is not an acronym, although the name is written all in capital letters.
Toronto's CFMT launched in 1979 as Canada's first free, over-the-air multilingual/multicultural television station, owned by Multilingual Television (Toronto) Ltd. As its initial format was 100% ethnic, the station experienced financial difficulties, and was on the verge of bankruptcy when Rogers stepped in and purchased it in 1986. Rogers then attempted to launch a similar multicultural station in Vancouver in 1996, 1999 and 2002, but all three attempts were rejected by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). It was, however, given a second multicultural licence in Toronto to provide room for additional multicultural programing, and launched CJMT as a sister station to CFMT in fall 2002. It was at this point that the "OMNI Television" brand was introduced, with CFMT and CJMT branded as "OMNI.1" and "OMNI.2" respectively.
The Omni brand was expanded in 2005, when Rogers acquired two religious TV stations, CHNU in the Vancouver market and CIIT in Winnipeg, from Trinity Television. CHNU was rebranded from "NOWTV" to "OMNI.10" in September 2005, while CIIT went on air as "OMNI.11" on February 6, 2006.
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