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Public Notice
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Ottawa, 29 April 1988
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Public Notice CRTC 1988-72
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Amendments to the Cable Television Regulations, 1986
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Related Documents: Public Notices CRTC 1986-182 dated 1 August 1986, CRTC 1987-177 dated 28 July 1987, CRTC 1988-12 dated 28 January 1988 and CRTC 1988-57 dated 13 April 1988.
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In Public Notice CRTC 1988-12, the Commission proposed, for public comment, amendments to the Cable Television Regulations, 1986 (the regulations).
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The Commission received ten responses to this notice which were largely supportive of the proposed amendments, except as noted below. Several interveners also suggested additional amendments, also noted below.
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With respect to the proposed amendment to the definition of an alphanumeric service, the Alberta Educational Communications Authority opposed the use of an educational radio service as background for an alphanumeric service. It was of the view that it is important to maintain the distinction between an educational service and other programming and non-programming services. It noted that subsection 13(2) of the regulations does not permit the carriage of an educational radio programming service as background on the community channel, and requested that a similar exclusion in the case of an educational radio service be included in the definition of an alphanumeric service. The Commission is in agreement with this suggestion and has modified the definition of an alphanumeric service accordingly.
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Baton Broadcasting Incorporated and CKVR Television both opposed the proposed amendment to paragraph 9(1)(e) of the regulations which would provide that a licensee is only required to distribute the programming service of a regional CBC affiliate where no other CBC service (affiliate or Corporation owned-and-operated), in the same official language, is already being distributed as a mandatory service. Baton Broadcasting Incorporated was of the view that the existing regulations with respect to the priority distribution of privately owned affiliates of the CBC are fair and practical.
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CKVR Television, the licensee of a privately-owned CBC affiliated station, expressed concern that the amendment proposed to paragraph 9(1)(e) would result in its programming services not being required to be carried as part of the basic ser vice of many southern Ontario cable television licensees. It stated that, although it expected most cable television licensees to continue to distribute the services of CKVR because the station offers over 100 hours per week of unique programming, it was conceivable that the proposed amendment could result in its services not being carried as pressure for cable channel space becomes more acute.
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Although Westman Media Cooperative Limited supported the proposed amendment to paragraph 9(1)(e), it was of the opinion that it did not go far enough in addressing the priority carriage of duplicate CBC signals. After considering all of the comments received, the Commission is of the view that the amendment to paragraph 9(1)(e) should be approved as proposed and notes that, with the amendment in place, the provision for the distribution of regional CBC affiliates corresponds to that which existed prior to the regulations coming into effect.
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With respect to the proposed amendment relating to the distribution of alphanumeric services on the community channel, the Canadian Cable Television Association recommended that locally-originated community service alphanumeric services should be allowed to draw on sponsorship revenues. This intervener further recommended that the Commission's policy permitting non-programming services, including services such as Broadcast News, on the community channel for Class 2 cable systems should be extended to all cable licensees. The Commission considers that these recommendations are out side the scope of the changes to the regulations upon which public comment was sought in this proceeding.
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With respect to the proposed amendment relating to the manner in which notices of proposed rate increases are sent to subscribers, Westman Media Cooperative Limited expressed the view that the cost of sending written notices to subscribers of proposed rate increases is prohibitive and recommended that licensees be allowed to provide notice by way of an alphanumeric message on the community channel or a special programming channel. The Commission is of the view that these recommendations go beyond the scope of the changes upon which public comment was sought in this proceeding.
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Accordingly, on the recommendation of the Executive Committee, on 22 April 1988 the Commission approved the amendments to the regulations as they appeared in the schedule attached to Public Notice CRTC 1988-12, except for a modification to the definition of alphanumeric service, as discussed above, so as to preclude educational radio programming services from being used as background audio to alphanumeric services.
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The amendments, which are included in the schedule attached to this notice, were registered on 26 April 1988 (SOR/88-251) and came into force on that date.
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Fernand Bélisle Secretary General
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