The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) won the license for the all-news network in November 1987. Private broadcasters fought this decision made by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). In particular, Allarcom Ltd., whose own bid lost to CBC, contended that the national public broadcaster received undue favoritism. After a tough challenge in a Conservative parliament sympathetic to Allarcom’s charges, the CRTC’s decision was finally accepted, although not without delaying the network’s start date for more than a year. Federal cabinet actions, however, modified the conditions of the license by insisting that CBC Newsworld involve the private sector in its operations and that it develop a similar French-language service.

The perception that CBC has a central Canadian bias, and therefore that it does not adequately reflect the diverse interests and locations of the nation as a whole, also surfaced as a criticism of the CRTC decision. In a bid to address the issue of the CBC’s centralization in Toronto, CBC Newsworld began by situating its broadcast centers in Halifax, Nova Scotia; Winnipeg, Manitoba; and Calgary, Alberta.

CBC Newsworld’s financing is entirely separate from that of the CBC. The cable channel’s revenue comes from advertising and “pass-through” cable fees. As part of basic cable service, the pass-through fee means that all cable subscribers have to pay for the service, whether they want it or not. The monthly cost to cable subscribers was 44.5 cents (Canadian) in 1989; it increased to 63 cents in 2000. Some cable operators, particularly around Montreal, initially refused to accept the service because the pass-through fee for an English-language service made no sense to their majority francophone subscribers.

Network operations are roughly one-tenth the size of CNN’s, in terms of both budget and staff. Thus, CBC Newsworld has relied on other news gatherers (e.g., local CBC reports, CBC national news, and internationally packaged programming from the BBC and CNN) as well as partnerships with independent production companies. This need for inexpensive programming led toward the news-panel and phone-in format for many of the channel’s productions (e.g., Sunday Morning Live, Petrie in Prime, On the Line with Patrick Conlon, and Coast to Coast). Current programming includes Foreign Assignment, counterSpin, Culture Shock, Fashion File, Health Matters, and The National. Rough Cuts and The Passionate Eye are prominent windows for documentary film. As of 2000, 90 percent of CBC Newsworld programming had Canadian content.

In 1994 the CBC French-language all-news service received its license. Le Reseau de l’information (RDI) went on the air in 1995, and like CBC Newsworld, it is part of the basic cable service in Canada. Received by 8.8 million households in Canada, CBC Newsworld reaches a wider audience than any other specialty channel in the country.

In association with Power Broadcasting, CBC made a repackaged version of its services, called Newsworld International, available to U.S. audiences in 1994. It is the only 24-hour channel focusing on international news in the United States and was bought by USA Networks in 2000. Despite the change in ownership, CBC Newsworld remains the content provider of this international branch. In January 2000, the CRTC renewed CBC Newsworld’s license for another seven years.