Commissioners meet to discuss specialty channel applications

CRTC commissioners met Monday to consider 14 broadcasting licence applications for Category 2 specialty television channels. Parties did not appear before the commission Monday. At the non-appearance hearing, commissioners discussed the licences on the basis of the parties’ written applications. Astral Broadcasting Group Inc. has applied to operate three English-language specialty television channels called Adrenaline, Superstar and TV-Time. The three broadcasting undertakings would cover action movies, romantic programming and action-adventure shows, respectively. The CBC applied for a broadcasting licence for a French-language specialty digital television channel called Radio-Canada sports. The channel would focus on amateur sports in Canada. “It’s almost only an administrative process at this point,” Nathalie Moreau, a spokeswoman for Radio-Canada, told The Wire Report. “We can expect the CRTC will authorize most of the requests.” Moreau said the real challenge will not be obtaining the licences, but finding proper distribution for the channel in a competitive marketplace. A letter to the CRTC from Jean Brazeau, senior vice president of regulatory affairs with Shaw Communications Inc., expressed concern with the intent of the applications. It suggested some applicants may be seeking the longer-term goal of “access entitlements,” also known as Category 1 services which have a “must carry” requirement for distributors. “It is not appropriate to continue to license new Category 2/Category B services if obtaining a Category 2 licence is regarded as a first step in securing access entitlements, either by applicant or by the commission,” he wrote. “It is appropriate to license new services for carriage only on the basis of quality, value and customer demand.” The CRTC does not give Category 2 services access entitlements. Broadcasters must convince cable and satellite distributors to carry the channel. But Category 1 services have a must-carry requirement in which the broadcaster and distributor can negotiate the terms for the service—but at the end of the day it must be available to all subscribers. The most contentious application for Monday’s hearing came from Média de Novo, which had applied for a broadcasting licence to sell advertising. The company had proposed to insert up to two minutes of advertising per hour during local availability time on American cable channels broadcasting in Canada. In a 2008 public broadcasting notice to regulate commercial advertising, the commission defined “local availabilities” as “periods of time within the programming of non-Canadian services where broadcasting distribution undertakings (BDUs) may insert announcements or promotions.” On Feb. 12, 2010, the commission announced it would consider Média de Novo’s application at a later date. Critics had said it would be premature to consider the application before the CRTC issues a decision to establish a framework for selling local availability time. In a separate development Monday, the CRTC approved an application from TVA Group Inc. to air a new national French-language Category 2 specialty service called TVA Junior. The channel will air programming aimed exclusively at children aged two to six. jmigneault@thewirereport.ca

Commissioners meet to discuss specialty channel applications

Broadcast | February 22, 2010

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