1988 to 2002 Until the fall of 1992, CTV programming made up a clear majority of NTV's schedule, although acquired programming from
CanWest Global and others was present. However, from 1992 on, when CTV reduced its programming to 40 hours per week, NTV suddenly became much more reliant on other broadcasters, primarily CanWest (which owned the Canadian rights to many dominant programs of the era such as
The Simpsons and
Seinfeld), but also
Baton Broadcasting and
WIC. Instead of relying on any one group, it took what it considered the best programming from all the groups, even after the Baton/CTV merger strengthened the CTV schedule considerably. During this period, and indeed well before, NTV consistently aired hours of
prime time programming each night, a great deal of them being American imports, from 8 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. NT (11 p.m. ET), as opposed to the North American norm of three hours. In fact, in 1995–96, first-run prime time programming began at 7:30 p.m. and ran until 12:30 a.m. Although the net result was less than the mandated 50%
Canadian content between 6 p.m. and midnight, this was not deemed to violate Cancon regulations as
CTV National News did not feed an 11 p.m. AT edition until 1998, although the practice was maintained without CRTC complaint until disaffiliation in 2002.
2002 to present For almost four decades, CJON had aired the base CTV schedule essentially for free since CTV paid it for the airtime. It then bought additional CTV programming for which it sold all advertising. However, in early 2002, CTV tried to make CJON pay for the base schedule as well, with no possibility of airtime payments. It also increased the fees for additional CTV programming beyond what CJON claimed it could pay. Newfoundland Broadcasting also did not want to continue to carry CTV's national advertising during these programs. Rather than agree to these terms, CJON disaffiliated from CTV at the end of the 2001–02 season. As of fall 2002, NTV lost access to most CTV programming. However, the station maintained rights to
CTV National News,
Canada AM, and other CTV news programming free of charge, on the condition that it continue to provide coverage of Newfoundland and Labrador events for CTV and
CTV News Channel. Additionally, it purchased rights to some CTV programming, such as
Desperate Housewives, on an individual, per-season basis (
Desperate Housewives aired on NTV in its first season but not afterward, and currently no CTV entertainment programming appears regularly on NTV; until 2006, some other CTV-owned properties such as the
Academy Awards and the
Juno Awards continued to air on NTV, but all have recently been dropped, although the Juno Awards have since reappeared on NTV as of 2009). Most of NTV's entertainment programming since 2002 has been received via to a program supply agreement with the Global Television Network; for example,
Survivor,
Family Guy, and
The Young and the Restless. NTV's last public comment on the arrangement, at a CRTC hearing in 2002, was to the effect that it would expire at the end of the 2005–2006 season. However, with the addition of new Global programs to the NTV schedule during the spring and summer of 2006, all indications are that the agreement has been extended. Along with
promos, unsold commercial time on NTV has historically been filled with varying break fillers, including short-form
NTV News updates,
public service announcements, and occasionally clips from
music videos (which were previously billed as cross-promotion for its sister radio station
CHOZ-FM).
Local programming As with many local stations in North America, non-news local programming was common in the station's early days but had decreased significantly by the 1990s. Since 2002, perhaps given the recent ratings dominance of CTV over Global (NTV's chief programming supplier), NTV has attempted to distinguish itself further through additional local programming, mainly from independent local producers. It also airs repeats of programs from the NTV archives, most frequently the retrospective series
A Little Good News (later renamed
NTV.ca), news program
Canada in View (on Mondays), and speeches from
Geoff Stirling during
Captain Atlantis Late Night (on Saturdays).
Overnight programming NTV's overnight schedule (between 1 and 6 a.m.) generally consists of
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert or
Saturday Night Live followed by reruns and overflow programming unable to be accommodated in prime time. The overnight block then concludes with
Scenes of Newfoundland, a full half-hour or hour dedicated to scenes of the province with traditional music from local artists playing in the background. On Saturdays, the channel shows a two-hour block of
freeform programming under the banner of
Captain Atlantis Late Night. This block usually consists of speeches and interviews involving Stirling or longtime
Newfoundland Premier Joey Smallwood, but has also included content such as American patriotic montages, recut
Elvis Presley television specials, holiday movies and specials, and miscellanea. As of 2021,
Captain Atlantis (named after an
ancient alien astronaut character Stirling created) airs in the early Saturday graveyard slot, and on Saturday mornings. ==News operation==