For most of its run, it was structured as a hybrid national-regional newscast, with each portion being 30 minutes in length.
Some of the regional portions were also seen on the CBC's digital specialty channel Country Canada.
The national half of Canada Now was also broadcast on CBC Newsworld, and was paired with a half-hour current affairs program (which shared the Canada Now title) hosted by Kathleen Petty in Calgary; the Calgary-produced segment was canceled after Petty left for CBC Ottawa.
By 2005, the corporation began taking tentative steps towards expanding local news programming, with CBNT in St. John's reinstating a full-hour newscast in November under its pre-2000 title, Here and Now.
[3] (The original Canada Now format and name continued to be used for the integrated local/national newscast aired on CBUT in Vancouver.)