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Decision
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Ottawa, 6 April 1989
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Decision CRTC 89-99
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Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
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Windsor, Ontario -881127500
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Following a Public Hearing in Toronto on 3 October 1988, the Commission renews the broadcasting licence for CBET Windsor from 1 September 1989 to 31 August 1994, subject to the conditions specified in the appendix to this decision and in the licence to be issued.
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CBET Windsor is owned and operated by the CBC and, for the most part, broadcasts the Canadian programming of the CBC English-language television network. CBET offers station-acquired Canadian and foreign programs to replace the CBC-acquired U.S. programs that are protected by U.S. broadcast rights and may not be aired on CBET because Detroit, Michigan is located within its coverage area.
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The CBC has committed to broadcast during the new licence term, 11 hours per week of locally-produced news and information programming on CBET. In this regard, the Commission notes that the station's current program schedule includes two weekday newscasts, the weekly half-hour series "This Week in Ontario" and occasional news specials. The Commission expects CBET to broadcast, at a minimum throughout the new licence term, the amount of original local productions set out in its Promise of Performance.
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According to the financial projections provided with its renewal application, CBC will spend $4,813,000 on Canadian programming for CBET in the first year of the new licence term. The Commission notes that this amount will be allocated for CBET's local productions.
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An intervention was received from the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (Local 75, Windsor), stating that the level of news coverage and locally-produced programming offered by CBET does not meet the needs of the community. Specifically, the intervention cited the loss of locally-produced weekend news and other programs following budget cuts in 1985. In response, the CBC spoke of the particular challenge of serving the Windsor market and noted that CBET "does remain unique among our stations with a 90-minute early evening local news package" on weekdays. It acknowledged that while the late-evening weekend newscast now originates out of CBLT Toronto as is the case with CBOT Ottawa, the Windsor station has retained "reporters and crews to provide coverage of weekend happenings".
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The Commission encourages the CBC to explore various means of increasing the level of local productions on CBET in the context of the resources currently available to the Corporation.
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In renewing this licence, the Commission also authorizes the CBC to make use of the Vertical Blanking Interval. The Commission expects the CBC to adhere to the guidelines set out in Appendix A to Public Notice CRTC 1989-23 dated 23 March 1989 entitled "Services Using the Vertical Blanking Interval (Television) or Subsidiary Communications Multiplex Operation (FM)".
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An intervention was also received from the Canadian Association of the Deaf encouraging television stations to increase their accessibility to deaf and impaired-hearing persons. While the renewal application made no specific commitments to close caption local productions, the Commission encourages CBET, as a minimum, to provide its deaf and hearing-impaired viewers with access to local news headlines through captions (open or closed) or signing during the new licence term.
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The Commission also expects CBET, during the first year of the new licence term, to acquire a telephone device for the deaf (TDD) and install it wherever is most appropriate, such as in the master control room, to ensure access to the station by deaf and hearing-impaired viewers over the entire broadcast day.
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Fernand Bélisle
Secretary General
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APPENDIX
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Conditions of licence for CBET Windsor
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1. The licensee shall adhere to the CBC guidelines on sex-role stereotyping, as amended from time to time and approved by the Commission. Until such time as the Commission has approved the revised CBC guidelines, the CBC shall adhere to its current guidelines on sex-role stereotyping (as set out in Part C of Appendix A to Public Notice CRTC 1986-351 dated 22 December 1986) and, as a minimum, to the CAB's guidelines on sex-role stereotyping, as amended from time to time and approved by the Commission.
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2. The licensee shall adhere to the standards for children's advertising set out in the Corporation's Advertising Standards Policy C-5 dated 4 June 1986 and entitled "Advertising Directed to Children Under 12 Years of Age", as amended from time to time and approved by the Commission, provided that the policy meets, as a minimum, the standards set out in the CAB's The Broadcast Code for Advertising to Children, revised in January 1988, as amended from time to time and approved by the Commission.
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Further, the licensee shall not broadcast any commercial message during any child-directed programming or any child-directed commercial message between programs directed to children of pre-school age. For the purpose of this condition, programs directed to children and scheduled before 12:00 noon during school-day morning hours will be deemed to be programs directed to children of pre-school age.
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