CHCH's history is emblematic of this. Today we are the number one news organization in Hamilton, Halton and Niagara, and the number two-rated television station for local news in the entire greater Toronto-Hamilton area. We air more local news and information programming than virtually any other local broadcaster in Canada, with well over 30 hours weekly. We are available on every platform, including CHCH.com and through our social channels on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. We reach our citizenry wherever they are and on whatever platform they use, wherever they are looking for news and even when they don't know they need news.
Our resources, talent and devotion allow us to be on top of things in our area like no others. Just last month, we had a tragic live shooting incident spread across our region. It was national news—a shooting in Mississauga, followed by another in Milton and a final one in Hamilton. Only CHCH News was live at all three scenes that evening, telling our viewers what had happened and what was happening in real time.
Rewind 13 years, and it was a very different story. CHCH, then owned by Canwest Global, was on the brink of extinction. The old model of cross-subsidy from top U.S. network programming was failing. Channel Zero stepped in with a recommitment to local news and information programming and crucial support from what was then the CRTC's local programming improvement fund, or LPIF.
Fast-forward to today, and it is the CRTC's independent local news fund, ILNF, which was introduced in 2017, that provides us with vital support for the production of locally reflective news.