Under CHUM The channel was licensed by the
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in 1996 as
Pulse 24, described as "a 24-hour-a-day specialty television service devoted to news and information, with a focus on southern Ontario local and regional news and information", and launched on March 30, 1998, as
CablePulse 24, under the ownership of
CHUM Limited, the parent company of
CITY-TV and minority partner
Sun Media, owner of the
Toronto Sun daily newspaper with most programming broadcast out of 299 Queen Street West. For the first 10 years after its inception, CP24's programming was anchored and featured reports from Citytv personalities, live
CityPulse news broadcasts were immediately repeated on CP24 after their initial broadcast on CITY-TV (except for breaking news coverage), and special coverage was simulcast between the channel and the television station. Select programming from other CHUM stations would also be featured on the channel, including
The NewMusic and
Fashion Television; another program,
24Ontario, featured news stories from CHUM's
NewNet stations elsewhere in the province. Overnight broadcasts on CP24 featured vintage
CityPulse news broadcasts from CITY-TV during the 1970s & 1980s branded as
Rewind. The rebroadcasts were accompanied by a graphic on the top right corner of the screen that read "Rewind", supplemented with the original airdate below it. On December 1, 2004, CHUM Limited acquired the remaining interest in CP24 (giving it 100% of its shares), when the ''Sun's'' owners sold their 29.9% share in CP24 after acquiring its
independent broadcast station CKXT-TV, the same day that CHUM Limited took control of
Craig Media and its assets also. Under CHUM ownership,
Mark Dailey of CITY provided continuity voice announcements on CP24.
Under CTV As a result of the ownership changes, CP24 began to separate its operations from those of CITY-TV. This process began in 2008, with the introduction of new CP24-only personalities (which meant they were no longer seen anchoring/reporting on the CityNews side), new live eye trucks (also known as Breaking News Vehicles) which were outfitted with white and black design bearing the CP24 and red "Breaking News" decals, the establishment of a new studio and newsroom on the second floor of the 299 Queen Street West building in November of that year, Following the layoffs and cost-cutting measures that took place at the
Citytv stations across Canada (including the cancellation of
Citytv Toronto's
CityNews at Five announced on January 19, 2010), CP24 immediately expanded its
Live at 5 newscast (which had been airing for 15 minutes since its launch in 2008) to 30 minutes along with the launch of another half-hour newscast,
Live at 5:30. As a result, CP24's late-afternoon talk shows, such as
Animal House Calls and
Hot Property, which had been seen weekdays at 5:15 p.m. were moved to a new 7:15 p.m. time slot on January 26, 2010.
Under Bell On September 10, 2010,
BCE (a minority shareholder in CTVglobemedia) announced that it planned to acquire 100% interest in CTVglobemedia for a total debt and equity transaction cost of $3.2 billion CAD. The deal which required CRTC approval, was approved on March 7, 2011 and closed on April 1 of that year, on which CTVglobemedia was rebranded Bell Media. On March 19, 2011, CP24 introduced a weekend edition of
CP24 Breakfast, hosted by Pooja Handa and Gurdeep Ahluwalia, George Lagogianes is the remote host and Nneka Elliott (who resigned on May 2, 2011, and was replaced by Jamie Gutfreund) delivers the weather forecasts. The show runs from 7:00 to 10:15 a.m. On June 20, 2024, Bell announced that CP24 would move studios from 299 Queen Street West, where it was based since its inception, to Bell Media's
9 Channel Nine Court building in
Scarborough (which houses the operations of CFTO and several other Bell Media specialty networks) later in the year. The network broadcast for the first time from the Agincourt complex on November 26, 2024; 299 Queen Street West will continue to serve as a downtown bureau for CFTO and CP24. ==Location and format==