Breakfast television

Breakfast television (Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and United Kingdom) or morning show (Canada and United States), is a type of infotainment television programme, which broadcasts live in the morning (typically scheduled between 6:00 and 10:00 a.m., or if it is a local programme, as early as 4:00 a.m.). Often hosted by a small team of hosts, these types of programs are typically targeted at the combined demographic of people getting ready for work and school, and stay-at-home adults and parents.

The first – and longest-running – national breakfast/morning show on television is Today, which set the tone for the genre and premiered on 14 January 1952, on NBC in the United States. For the next 60 years, Today was the #1 morning programme in the ratings for the vast majority of its run and since its start, many other television stations and networks around the world have followed NBC's lead, copying that programme's successful format.

Format and style

Breakfast Television

Breakfast Television (BT) is the branding used for morning shows broadcast by stations of Rogers Media's television network City. As of May 2015, versions of BT are broadcast in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, and Montreal); versions used to be broadcast in Winnipeg and Edmonton as well, but have been cancelled and replaced with alternative programming. The version broadcast by the Atlantic Satellite Network (which was owned by Citytv's former parent CHUM Limited, and is now owned by competitor Bell Media) continued to use the brand under licence from Rogers until 2011, when it was re-launched as CTV Morning Live upon its re-branding as CTV Two Atlantic.

On September 5, 2011, each of the local editions of Breakfast Television across all of the City owned-and-operated stations began starting a half-hour earlier, running from 5:30–9 a.m. In April 2012, the Winnipeg edition reverted to the 6-9 a.m. runtime. The Montreal edition, which launched on August 26, 2013, also runs from 6-9 a.m.

Breakfast Television (City Toronto)

Breakfast Television, also known as BT, is a Canadian morning news and entertainment program produced by CITY-DT. The program airs from 5:30 a.m. until 9 a.m. ET each weekday, except holidays. Since October 3, 2011, it is also simulcast on cable-exclusive CityNews Channel, with a half-hour extension aired exclusively on the channel that runs from 9-9:30 a.m.

Four other City owned-and-operated stations use the name and the format (see Breakfast Television), creating content relevant to their own local audiences. When A stations were part of the apparent CHUM Limited company, each station produced their own similar morning shows under the name A Morning, although due to budget cuts, many of them have been cancelled as of 2009 (though CHRO-TV Ottawa edition of that program, along with a local version of Breakfast Television on A Atlantic, it have since been rebranded under the CTV Morning Live banner since A were bought by Bell Media and all A stations were rebranded as CTV Two in August 2011).