Corus Entertainment is proposing to launch what it describes as a ‘hyper-local’ news channel serving communities in Western Canada. The would-be service, tentatively called Local1, has applied for a regional Category 2 licence with the CRTC. It plans to air news, weather and other information on a multi-zoned screen similar to that of CP24 in Toronto – complete with news ticker, sports scores and traffic cams.

Corus plans to serve communities from Victoria as far east as Winnipeg. Prince George, Canmore and Moose Jaw are also among the 64 cities and towns on the list, though it remains unclear to what extent the channel will be able to cover so many communities over such a wide area.

The commission will hear the proposal on April 4. Local1’s planned programming would cover such categories as news, analysis and interpretation, general entertainment and human interest.