Until 2011, CBUT-DT Vancouver was the only CBC O&O to produce weekend newscasts, with half-hour programs on Saturday nights at 10:30 p.m. (after Hockey Night in Canada) and Sundays at 11:00 p.m. On October 15, 2011, CBLT added a half-hour 6 p.m. newscast on Saturdays, and a ten-minute news bulletin on Sundays at 10:55 p.m.;[2] CBRT-DT Calgary would also join CBUT and CBLT in carrying weekend local news programming during the fall of 2011, and CBNT-DT St. John's launched a local weekend newscast in the spring of 2012, as part of a five-year strategy by the CBC to improve its services to six million Canadian homes unserved or underserved by CBC's radio, television and internet services.
In early 2000, the CBC (under president Robert Rabinovitch) announced a plan to eliminate local newscasts except in Northern Canada, believing that the dominance of private competitors had made these programs redundant.
[7] This plan, and particularly the fact that exceptions would not be made for the CBC's highly rated newscasts in Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island, led to protests across the country, and most strongly in those two markets.
[8] By 2005, the CBC had decided to rethink this strategy and began to expand local news again at certain stations, beginning with CBNT,[8] where an hour-long Here & Now newscast resumed on November 7.
Montreal's anchor, Dennis Trudeau retired shortly before the launch of CBC News at Six, having hosted the local bulletins for many years.
On November 10, 2006, it was revealed that Janet Stewart would host CBC Winnipeg's edition of News at Six starting in January 2007.
Stewart was a popular anchor at top-rated rival CKY-TV and her move to News at Six surprised many in the local media.
On September 17, 2012, CBC's late local newscasts were expanded to a full half-hour in major markets, including Calgary, Edmonton, the Maritimes, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver.
The Gazette media writer Steve Faguy noted that the CBC's situation was unusual, as CTV and Global also employed centralization, and did not have any similar interruptions to its news programming.
[19][22] In November 2024, the CBC announced new local 11 p.m./11:30 p.m. NT newscasts on its Charlottetown, Fredericton, Halifax, and St. John's stations.
[1] Times for the majority of CBC regional news programs are 5:59 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. or 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. - 11:10 p.m. or 11:30 p.m., and titles follow the standard naming conventions described above, unless otherwise specified.