CJON-DT

Until the fall of 1992, CTV programming made up a clear majority of NTV's schedule, although acquired programming from CanWest Global and others was present. However, from 1992 on, when CTV reduced its programming to 40 hours per week, NTV suddenly became much more reliant on other broadcasters, primarily CanWest (which owned the Canadian rights to many dominant programs of the era such as The Simpsons and Seinfeld), but also Baton Broadcasting and WIC. Instead of relying on any one group, it took what it considered the best programming from all the groups, even after the Baton/CTV merger strengthened the CTV schedule considerably. NTV is the last CTV/Global station in the country.

During this period, and indeed well before, NTV consistently aired 4½ hours of prime time programming each night, a great deal of them being American imports, from 8:00 p.m. NT to 12:30 a.m. NT (11:00 p.m. ET), as opposed to the North American norm of three hours. In fact, in 1995-96, first-run prime time programming began at 7:30 p.m. and ran until 12:30 a.m. Although the net result was less than the mandated 50% Canadian content between 6:00 p.m. and midnight, this was not deemed to violate Cancon regulations as CTV National News did not feed an 11:00 p.m. AT edition until 1997, although the practice was maintained without CRTC complaint until disaffiliation in 2002.

As of fall 2002, NTV lost access to most CTV programming, but maintained rights to CTV National News, Canada AM, and other CTV news programming free of charge, on the condition that it continue to provide coverage of Newfoundland and Labrador events for CTV and CTV News Channel. Additionally, it purchased rights to additional CTV programming, such as Desperate Housewives, on an individual, per-season basis (Desperate Housewives aired on NTV in its first season but not afterward, and currently no CTV entertainment programming appears regularly on NTV; until 2006, some other CTV-owned properties such as the Academy Awards and the Juno Awards continued to air on NTV, but all have recently been dropped, although The Juno Awards have since reappeared on NTV as of 2009).

Most of NTV's entertainment programming since 2002 has been received pursuant to a program supply agreement with the Global Television Network; for example, Survivor, Family Guy, and The Young and the Restless. NTV's last public comment on the arrangement, at a CRTC hearing in 2002, was to the effect that it would expire at the end of the 2005-2006 season. However, with the addition of new Global programs to the NTV schedule during the spring and summer of 2006, all indications are that the agreement has been extended.

Since 2002, NTV's "prime time" hours have been reduced, running from 8:00 to 11:30 (followed immediately by CTV National News), with a subsequent further reduction in summer 2006 to three hours (8:30 to 11:30). This results from the recent addition of The Insider at 7:30 (replacing Frasier reruns) and Entertainment Tonight Canada at 8:00, both following the original ET at 7:00 (however, after two weeks of airing The Fishery Now from July 10 to 21, 2006, NTV started airing Star! Daily on July 24; The Insider moved to the overnight hours on July 10).

Even now, however, NTV has not restricted itself to a firm affiliation with Global. Syndicated programming such as The Oprah Winfrey Show has made its appearance (as it has on other CTV and Global stations). NTV carried a made-for-TV figure skating event for which the national rights were held by the now-defunct Craig Media. In the summer of 2005, NTV began airing three CHUM series; they were Fashion Television, the MuchMusic series Spotlight, and Star!'s entertainment news program Star! Daily, despite the longstanding relationship between CHUM and the Atlantic Satellite Network (ASN; now CTV Two Atlantic following Bell Media's 2011 rebranding of the former A system into CTV Two, which had incorporated the then-ASN as its affiliate for Atlantic Canada in 2008). Also, NTV had aired Jeopardy! until 2008, when that show and its sister program, Wheel of Fortune, moved to CBNT; CBC dropped both programs four years later. As of 2018, both Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! have returned to NTV.

Unlike most Canadian stations, which fill essentially all of their unsold commercial airtime with program promotions or public service announcements, NTV frequently uses minute-long clips of music videos, usually at the end of a commercial break, in addition to its promos and its Public Service Announcements. Video usage has recently been relaxed, at least during parts of the regular broadcast day, with the addition of high-rotation news and weather updates of up to two minutes duration. However, music videos remain common during the overnight hours.

Currently, Newfoundland and Labrador is, by far, the largest Canadian market not served by separate CTV and Global-affiliated local stations. Inevitably this means that some network programming seen elsewhere is not easily available in that province. For instance, while it may be considered the de facto Global affiliate in Newfoundland, as a result of carrying CTV National News it avoids use of the Global brand, including its editing of Global-produced promos to use the NTV logo, it was inconsistent in carrying Global's coverage of the NFL (now on CTV) aside from the Super Bowl, and it airs many Global programs out of pattern (although Global stations themselves have significant scheduling flexibility for many programs).

In the early 2000s, NTV had claimed that, if the station dropped CTV's newscasts in favour of Global's, the former would immediately apply for a station in Newfoundland. In turn, it says, any program supply agreement with Global would automatically become void, as that network would also apply for its own station in the CRTC's ensuing call for applications. Most likely, one new station (if any) would be approved, and NTV would have to negotiate a new agreement with the remaining network(s). Since July 2009, NTV has aired both CTV National News and Global National.

In much of the province, Global's Edmonton owned-and-operated station CITV-DT has been widely available on analog cable since at least 1991, which assists viewers in the event NTV chooses not to carry a particular Global program. In contrast, no CTV network station is widely available on analog cable in Newfoundland. Many viewers, however, are able to receive out-of-market CTV stations via satellite and digital cable; CTV Two Atlantic, which has simulcast some CTV programming including the 2010 Winter Olympics; and CTV-owned specialty channels such as The Comedy Network, which airs repeats of some of CTV's domestic series, in addition to the American networks which originate many series aired by CTV. Still, some programs, including current-season episodes of Canadian dramas such as Flashpoint, are not always as easily available. Certain CTV programs are made available Canada-wide on the network's website and via its streaming app.

Neither CTV nor Global have indicated any immediate plans to enter the Newfoundland market themselves. However, a 2006 intervention by Global in support of NTV suggests that that company may have been continuing to pursue the station as a possible future acquisition, although the Stirlings have long denied any desire to sell.

Newfoundland and Labrador is the last province to get owned and operated CTV and Global affiliates separately.

Since 2006, on the rare occasions that NTV has carried special non-news events from CTV (such as the Juno Awards, Olympic Games, and the Super Bowl), some commercials and promos normally seen on full-time CTV affiliates are seen during the broadcasts.

As with many local stations in North America, non-news local programming was common in the station's early days but had decreased significantly by the 1990s. Since 2002, perhaps given the recent ratings dominance of CTV over Global (NTV's chief programming supplier), NTV has attempted to distinguish itself further through additional local programming, mainly from independent local producers. Examples include local wrestling promotion Legend City Wrestling on Saturday afternoons and fishing shows The Dimestore Fishermen and Newfoundland Sportsman. It also airs repeats of programs from the NTV archives, most frequently the retrospective series A Little Good News (later renamed NTV.ca), news program Canada in View (on Mondays), and speeches from Geoff Stirling during Captain Atlantis Late Night (on Saturdays).

NTV claims to have been the first television station in Canada to broadcast its programming 24 hours a day. While this is now the norm for most stations in North America, NTV is unique—particularly among Canadian stations—in that it rarely if ever sells overnight timeslots for paid programming. However, the eclectic alternatives to traditional broadcast fare that have resulted have garnered considerable attention.

NTV's overnight schedule (between 1:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m.) generally consists of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, A Little Late with Lilly Singh or Saturday Night Live followed by reruns and overflow programming unable to be accommodated in prime time. The overnight block then concludes with Scenes of Newfoundland, a full half-hour or hour dedicated to scenes of the province with traditional music from local artists playing in the background.

While, in fact, this schedule is followed more often than not, over the years there have been numerous instances where scheduled programming has been preempted, presumably at the behest of station owner Geoff Stirling. In its earliest days, a viewer might have seen a constant shot of a fish tank in the overnight hours. Over the years, the overnight hours have been filled by content featuring, among other things:

• Stirling's metaphysical thoughts and home movies with his visits with gurus;
• his interviews with the likes of Newfoundland premier Joey Smallwood and conspiracy theorist David Icke;
• "computer animated art festivals;"
• various features or animations starring Stirling-created superheroes such as Captain Atlantis (a.k.a. Captain Newfoundland) and Captain Canada;
• a strung-together edit of two of Elvis Presley's three television specials, the '68 Comeback Special and Aloha from Hawaii, typically aired annually on the Friday nearest the anniversary of Presley's death;
• Stirling's 1975 The Assassination of J.F.K., which promotes conspiracy theories surrounding the John F. Kennedy assassination, aired on the anniversary of Kennedy's death and repeatedly showing black-and-white footage of Kennedy being shot in full view as Stirling analyzes and Tom Clay's medley of "What the World Needs Now Is Love/Abraham, Martin and John" loops in the background;
• The Unfolding American Spirit, a late-2000s montage of American historical speeches stretching up to and into the presidency of Barack Obama, typically aired on weekends nearest American patriotic holidays Independence Day and Memorial Day;
• recordings of Stirling's speeches at various ceremonies;
• an adaptation of Ted Russell's radio play "The Holdin' Ground;"
• Newfoundland cultural songs, and other programs that are truly miscellanea.

Stirling quipped in a 2010 interview that this surreal programming was largely borne out of desperation to fill the 24-hour schedule: "Ted Turner bought up all the basketball." In another interview, he noted that much of the more eccentric programming was borne out of low budgets, as he felt the Canadian content regulations were unrealistic in expecting to be able to compete with American programs and their multimillion-dollar production budgets.

Other topics seen on the late night NTV programming schedule relate to Stirling's interests in eastern mysticism, as well as intestinal health, UFOs, crop circles, and the pyramids. Sterling was known to telephone master control from a remote location and order that a particular favourite program immediately preempt current programming, or that a particular effect be applied to the screen by the technician. Often multiple videos would be "layered" over each other, with unusual results. While things like this tend to anger viewers, Geoff Stirling's eclectic programming has its cult following. The NFB documentary Waiting for Fidel, featuring Stirling and Smallwood in Cuba awaiting an interview with Fidel Castro that never occurs, has been one of the more notable programs to air on NTV overnight.

Even if programming is not preempted, on occasion viewers may still see a message, likely from Stirling, displaying his opinions and thoughts as a "ticker" on the bottom of the screen. On one such instance, viewers of The Tonight Show (when that show was carried by NTV) claimed to see such a ticker announcement seeking the arrest and prosecution of a man who used NTV's logo on his website—generally considered to be a satirical one—without authorisation; the site has since been taken down.

NTV continues to carry a freeform content block from 2:30 a.m. to 4:30 a.m. on early Saturdays after the Friday night edition of A Little Late with Lilly Singh, billed as Captain Atlantis Special Presentation. Since spring 2019, the weekly Captain Atlantis broadcasts have been rerun on Saturday mornings. On a common night, programming will include an archival interview, speech, or presentation with Geoff Stirling and/or Joey Smallwood followed by one of assorted computer animated art festivals compiled by Stirling Communications International and/or other archival programming. This content is bookended by cartoons featuring Captain Atlantis and Captain Canada, archival music videos and cultural songs, and "The Twelve Laws of God".

The station once operated a network of retransmitters across the province. These transmitters were all analog and never converted to digital. Beginning in the 1990s, transmitters in smaller communities were shut down or spun off to community-based groups. More transmitters were shut down from 2006 to 2013.

The station's transmitters in Swift Current (CJSC-TV channel 10), Glenwood (CHSG-TV channel 7), and St. Alban's (CJST-TV channel 13) were shut down as of December 31, 2006;[4] transmitters in Bay Bulls (CJON-TV-4 channel 10) and Lawn (CJLN-TV channel 10) were shut down as of November 2011.[5]

On November 30, 2012, transmitters at Red Rocks (CJRR-TV channel 11) and Stephenville (CJSV-TV channel 4) were shut down; the station cited the age of the towers and the costs of the upkeep. The station also announced that their transmitter network would eventually close down in the coming years, due to the high cost of upkeep.[6] Deleted concurrently with CJRR and CJSV was the transmitter at Grand Bank (CJOX-TV-1 channel 2), which left the air in September 2012 following the failure of its transmitter; NTV also chose to close CJOX-1 instead of repairing it.[7]

On July 31, 2013, the remaining over-the-air retransmitters of NTV in Corner Brook, Deer Lake, Norris Arm, Bonavista, Clarenville, Argentia, and Marystown were discontinued.[8] Coupled with the closure of the CBC's analog repeater network in 2012, this left all of Newfoundland and Labrador outside of the St. John's needing a digital box for "Over-the-Air" TV.

In a rarity for a Canadian television station, CJON's digital signal is multiplexed:

In May 2011, CJON announced plans to broadcast in digital and in high definition. The analog transmitter serving the St. John's viewing area was shut off on the morning of July 11, 2011, in order to facilitate installation of the new digital HD transmitter. CJON began transmitting its digital signal on August 3, 2011, broadcasting on UHF channel 21.[10] CJON has opted to use channel 21, its actual digital channel, as its PSIP, instead of channel 6, its former analog channel. CJON's HD feed is available over-the-air in the St. John's area, on Eastlink digital cable (channel 605), Rogers Cable (channel 521), Bell Aliant Fibe TV (channel 404), and Shaw Direct (channel 54). The HD signal of NTV was also added to Bell TV in early 2019, on channel 1008.[11]

NTV streams all of its local programming live through its Web site, with no geographic restrictions. The live Internet feed previously carried some of the American syndicated programs; these were dropped in September 2018. It has never carried network programming on the online feed. During times when it is not carrying local news, the NTV online feed simulcasts sister Top 40 (CHR) station 94.7 CHOZ-FM, accompanied by webcam shots overlooking St. John's.[12]