CHOT-DT
CHOT-DT, branded italic=no, is a television station in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada, serving the National Capital Region as an affiliate of the French-language network TVA. It is owned by RNC Media alongside Noovo affiliate CFGS-DT. The two stations share studios on Rue Jean-Proulx and Rue Buteau in the former city of Hull; CHOT-DT's transmitter is located at Camp Fortune in Chelsea, Quebec.
CHOT-DT is the largest TVA station that is not owned and operated by the network. It is also the largest network affiliate in Canada in a media market that is not owned by its associated network.
History
From 1974 to 1977, the Ottawa–Hull area received TVA programming from CFVO-TV, which was the first French-language commercial station in the National Capital Region. CFVO was cooperatively owned and constantly struggled financially. After its March 1977 closure, Radio-Québec bought the channel 30 physical plant directly from CFVO's creditors. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission then invited bids for a new French-language commercial station to be affiliated with TVA and operate on channel 40. Though as many as four bids were rumoured to be incoming for the TVA affiliate, the CRTC only received two, from Télé-Métropole and Radio-Nord. The CRTC selected the application from Radio-Nord in December; CHOT, known as "Télé-Outaouais", began operations on October 27, 1978. Pierre Thibault, who had been a temporary manager for CFVO late in the station's life, served as its first general manager.For a time until the late 1990s, CHOT was branded as "CHOT 40", referring to the station's channel number over the air. CHOT was one of the last television stations in Canada to use its over-the-air channel number in station branding. It is currently branded as "italic=no".
Cable distribution
The station is carried on channel 4 by Vidéotron in Gatineau and on channel 10 by Rogers Cable in Ottawa.CHOT is also carried by most of EastLink's cable systems in Northeastern Ontario, one of the only regions in English Canada that carries an affiliate station instead of the national feed of CFTM-DT. It has been available on cable in this region since the early 1980s, long before TVA carriage was mandated nationwide. Predecessor companies Northern Cable and Persona picked up CHOT due to the area's large Franco-Ontarian population, and continued to carry CHOT rather than switching providers.
News operation
[Image:CHOT.svg|thumb|right|200px|Former logo, used from the early 2000s until November 2012]TVA Nouvelles broadcasts a 30-minute local newscast every weekday at 6 p.m. and, as of 2019, a 17-minute local newscast at 12:13 p.m. In the past, CHOT had local news on weekends and a 15-minute noon newscast on weekdays, but recent cuts made by RNC Media had these newscasts replaced with Montreal-based TVA network news programs.