Toronto's
CFMT-TV launched in 1979 as Canada's first multilingual/multicultural television station, owned by Multilingual Television (Toronto) Ltd. The station was originally referred to as "MTV" before using its call letters to identify on-air in 1983 due to confusion with the
American music video channel. 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-TV 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-TV in the Vancouver market and
CIIT-TV 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.
2007 realignment Several proposed changes to the Omni system were announced, either by Rogers or by the CRTC, during a one-month span from June to July 2007. First, on June 8, the CRTC granted Rogers licences to operate new multicultural stations in
Calgary and
Edmonton, beating out a competing proposal from Multivan Broadcast Corporation (which won the bid for the Vancouver multicultural licence in 2002 against Rogers and launched CHNM-TV). On June 28, 2007, Rogers made public its offer to sell the religious-licensed Omni stations in Winnipeg and Vancouver as part of its contemporaneous purchase of
Citytv (which the CRTC ordered
CTVglobemedia to sell them off as part of the
CHUM Limited takeover deal). Rogers indicated, however, that it viewed retaining the multilingual licences in Toronto, Calgary and Edmonton (effectively creating
twinsticks in those three markets) as compatible with CRTC policy, since they are licensed to serve a different programming niche than the general interest Citytv stations. On July 7, Rogers announced an agreement to purchase the aforementioned CHNM, finally securing a true multicultural television licence in Vancouver. The fact that Rogers had acquired the Calgary and Edmonton multicultural licences, beating out Multivan's competing applications, was cited as a major reason for the sale. On September 28, the CRTC approved Rogers' takeover of the Citytv stations, giving the company one year to divest itself of the religious Omni stations. A tentative deal to sell the stations to
S-VOX, owner of
VisionTV, was announced on November 6. On March 31, 2008, the CRTC approved both Rogers' acquisition of CHNM and its sale of CIIT and CHNU to S-VOX. CHNU was rebranded as "CHNU 10" on October 31, 2007, a year before the Omni brand was transferred to CHNM. CIIT was rebranded "CIIT11" in July 2008, after S-VOX took control of the station. Both stations rebranded as
Joytv on September 1, 2008; CHNM rebranded as "Omni BC" on the same date. The two new stations in Calgary and Edmonton launched on September 15, 2008 under the call letters
CJCO and
CJEO.
Partnership with ICI Montreal, cutbacks , which houses operations for the Toronto Omni stations until 2025. Rogers announced an agreement to acquire the one Canadian multicultural television station it did not already own,
CJNT-DT Montreal on May 3, 2012, from
Channel Zero, after having passed on the opportunity when the station was previously put up for sale in 2009 by
Canwest during its financial difficulties. While intending to relaunch it as a Citytv station, Rogers did not rule out the possibility of requesting that CJNT be re-licensed as an English-language station, but in the meantime CJNT aired Omni programs (including
Omni News) to fulfill much of its ethnic programming requirements after it became affiliated with Citytv prior to the sale. As part of the sale, Rogers requested that the CRTC convert CJNT to an English-language station, on the condition that both Channel Zero and Rogers provide services and resources to
CFHD-DT, International Channel/Canal International (ICI), a newly proposed, locally owned multicultural station. Both were approved by the CRTC on December 20, 2012. ICI officially launched on December 11, 2013. In the mid-2010's, the Omni stations struggled financially; Rogers Media president
Keith Pelley explained that between 2011 and 2014, advertising revenue had fallen from to . On May 30, 2013, Rogers announced the shutdown of production facilities at CJCO and CJEO, ending the production of local programming and news content from the Omni Alberta stations, and as a result, the discontinuation of the South Asian newscasts. On May 7, 2015, Rogers announced further cuts affecting Omni, including the re-structuring of the
Omni News programs, the cancellation of
V-Mix and
Bollywood Boulevard, and the elimination of redundancy in technical staff between the Omni and Citytv stations.
Licensing as a must-carry specialty channel On June 14, 2016, Rogers announced that it had submitted an application to the CRTC for a new, national
specialty channel known as
Omni Regional. The service would consist of four feeds; "Pacific", "Prairies", "East", and "ICI Quebec", which mirror the programming of the corresponding Omni Television O&O and affiliate stations in their respective regions (
Vancouver,
Calgary,
Toronto, and
Montreal). Rogers also sought
9(1)(h) must-carry status for the service. With reservations, CRTC approved Rogers' application for Omni Regional on May 15, 2017, and granted it must-carry status under a provisional three-year term. In May 2019, the CRTC approved Rogers' application, granting Omni Regional a three-year license renewal taking effect September 1, 2020. Changes included that at least 70% of the broadcast day and 70% of primetime must be devoted to Canadian productions, and at least 12 hours of programming per-week must be acquired from independent producers (including at least two hours per-week of programming reflecting the Atlantic provinces, and two hours reflecting Manitoba and Saskatchewan). The number of daily national newscasts expanded to six, and there will be six hours per-week of local news programming for Calgary/Edmonton, Toronto, and Vancouver. Programming must be governed by advisory panels for each region, and Rogers must maintain the Omni broadcast stations during the services' license terms. The service must also be operated on a
break-even basis, with all additional profit re-invested into its operations. Rogers is only allowed to solicit advertising in the regions of the existing Omni broadcast stations. Independent Community Television Montreal (ICTV)—who had proposed a service known as Tele1—also requested an appeal, accusing CRTC commissioners Ian Scott and Caroline J. Simard of having "
communicated independently with representatives of Rogers and Bell on multiple occasions and without notice to ICTV", resulting in an unfair process. In August 2019, the Federal Court of Appeal dismissed the case, and the CRTC's decision was upheld by the
Department of Canadian Heritage. ==Programming==