Business News Network is Canada's only television service devoted exclusively to business news with continuing coverage of global market activity. The Network features the only televised stock ticker with real-time data from the TSX, NYSE and NASDAQ, providing Canadian investors with the latest business news, interviews and stock market analysis.
To mark our 10th anniversary, we're looking back at the top business stories of the decade through a series of vignettes, displayed in the clip carousel below. And don't miss BNN Flashback, a special 30-minute, 10th anniversary program, featuring a countdown of the stories that have shaped business this decade and a distinguished panel of Canadian business experts.
READ founding anchor Howard Green's take on BNN's early days.
Milestones
1999
- Report on Business Television (ROBTv) launches as Canada’s only all-business news network.
2000
- ROBTv leaves its original Jarvis Street studio and moves to its present location at 720 King Street West -- about 2 kilometres from the Toronto Stock Exchange.
- BNN closes out its first year capturing on average 1,500 viewers a minute.
2001
- CTVglobemedia purchases ROBTv from CanWest Global.
2007
- BNN launches its first series of long-form programs called BNN Special Presentations -- a series of documentaries bringing investors in-depth analysis and access to CEOs of leading Canadian companies.
- ROBTv re-brands to BNN – Business News Network.
2008
- BNN awards $25,000 to grand prize winner Jim Pudas for the BNN.ca $25,000 Challenge
- The Radio-Television News Directors Association presents the first BNN / Jim O’Connell Scholarship to a student registered full-time in a recognized broadcast journalism program in Canada. The second award is handed out in 2009. Click HERE to find out more.
2009 Winner Russell Courtney
2008 Winner Elyse Skura
- The Radio-Television News Directors Association honours BNN with the Best Use of New Media Award 2008 in the network category.
2009
- In its 10th year, BNN’s audience grows 90% as markets face their most challenging decline in 50 years. BNN’s audience is now five times larger than it was in 1999.
Fun Facts
- 1.2 million Canadians tune to BNN for their business news every week.
- BNN is available in 5.8 million households.
- 95% of BNN programming is live, with approximately 25 interviews each day.
- BNN conducts approximately 3,800 remote interviews per year featuring guests from across Canada and around the world; in 10 years BNN has brought in approximately 60,000 video feeds to get these interviews to air.
- SqueezePlay, alone, has conducted over 6,000 interviews since the show's inception in 2003.
- Guest interviews on BNN are approximately six minutes each. Our hosts spend more time with guests, conducting more in-depth interviews, than our counterparts.
- BNN has broadcast approximately 2.6 million commercials since 1999.
- BNN has more viewers with an annual household income of $100,000+ than any other network in Canada.
- Howard Green was one of 10 recipients internationally, awarded the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in business and economic journalism at Columbia University in 2006.
- Kim Parlee and Frances Horodelski have both climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro.
- BNN makeup artists go through 60-90 sponges per day; 120 wash cloths per week; and, one-and-half packs of baby wipes per day.
- None of our female guests or on-air talent can wear frosty eye shadow because studio lighting will make it shine like a pair of headlights!
- Michael Hainsworth can ride a unicycle.
- Pat Bolland does not wear socks to work in the summer.
- The weirdest thing in the newsroom on someone’s desk is a jar of pickled eggs. Define weird?
- The Jarvis Street studio, used during BNN’s first year of broadcasting, was originally the studio where the Eaton's catalogue was shot.
