News Operation
CFTO-DT currently produces a total of 15½ hours of local newscasts each week (with 2½ hours on weekdays and 1½ hours on weekends); CFTO's news programming is aired at noon on weekdays, as well as at 6 and 11:30 p.m. seven days a week. The station's 6:00 p.m. newscast is the highest rated local newscast in Toronto, drawing approximately 500,000 viewers each night. Known beginning in the 1970s as World Beat News (early evening), Noon Beat News (lunch hour) and Night Beat News (late evening), the station's newscasts were rebranded as CFTO News in early 1998, and as CTV News in 2005.
CTV News has the most advanced weather technology compared to other Canadian stations which incorporates WSI's TrueView technology and real time doppler radar with zoom and pan capabilities. Moreover, CFTO has bureaus at Toronto City Hall, Queen's Park, and Downtown Toronto (299 Queen Street West). Finally, as the network's flagship station, CFTO is able to take advantage of live remotes from other CTV stations and bureaus nationwide and internationally.
In December 2008, CP24, a 24-hour news channel which primarily focuses on Toronto, began airing a simulcast of CTV News at Six, displacing its simulcast of CityNews at Six. This change occurred because the long-standing affiliation between CITY-TV and CP24 (which were previously both owned by CHUM Limited) abruptly came to an end after the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced the approval of their application by Rogers Media, owners of Citytv to launch its own 24-hour local news channel which would be focusing on the Greater Toronto Area, CityNews Channel., like CFTO, CP24 is a division of Bell Media, and the station's operations between the two remain otherwise separate.
On May 12, 2009, CFTO began broadcasting local news in High-definition and introduced a renovated studio. CTV News at 11:30 was later added to the CP24 schedule in May 2009. CFTO-TV is the only station that airs morning news updates during Canada AM, since all others cancelled in March 2009.
CTV Toronto operates a large fleet of vehicles for reporters and camera men as well as three microwave trucks ("Cypress", "Dart" and "Bullet") for live broadcasts, and two satellite trucks ("Chaos" and "Bird") for broadcasts from locations in Southern Ontario. CFTO is one of the few stations in Canada to lease a news helicopter (Bell 206L-4 Long Ranger (C-FCTV)) which can broadcast live at 1500 feet above land; the only other CTV station currently making use of such a helicopter is CIVT Vancouver. CTV's helicopter is painted with their colours and logo, however it moonlights under the name "Chopper 24" when feed is used on CTV Toronto's all news station CP24.
The station brands its newscasts as CTV News, in line with all of CTV's other owned and operated stations as well as the CTV Two stations, using generic CTV News graphics.
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