ARCHIVED -  Decision CRTC 95-22

Decision

Ottawa, 20 January 1995

Decision CRTC 95-22

Cable Parliamentary Channel Inc./La Chaîne parlementaire par câble Inc.

Across Canada - 940668700- 940677800

Licence renewals

Following a Public Hearing in Toronto beginning on 3 October 1994, the Commission renews the broadcasting licences issued to Cable Parliamentary Channel Inc./La Chaîne parlementaire par câble Inc. (CPAC) to carry on English- and French-
language satellite to cable programming undertakings, from 1 September 1995 to 31 August 2002, subject to the conditions specified in this decision and in the licences to be issued.

Ownership

CPAC is a federally incorporated company, operated on a non-profit basis as a public service and funded by member companies from the cable television industry. The CPAC service is distributed free to cable subscribers.

Nature of service

CPAC was licensed in 1993, on an experimental basis, as set out in Decision CRTC 93-635 dated 29 September 1993, to distribute public affairs programming in addition to the coverage of the proceedings of the House of Commons which had been distributed to cable distribution undertakings across Canada since 1992, pursuant to an agreement with the Speaker of the House of Commons.

The Commission is satisfied that during the term of its experimental licence, CPAC has met all the conditions and expectations set out in Decision CRTC 93-635 and it has therefore granted CPAC a full-term renewal.

In assessing these applications, the Commission also took into consideration the numerous interventions received from public and private institutions, broadcasters and individuals. The interventions emphasized CPAC's contribution to the diversity of the Canadian broadcasting system by providing Canadians with access to a wide variety of non-editorial, long form coverage programming which would not otherwise be available, and by complementing the journalistic public affairs programming provided by other broadcasters.

As described by the applicant and as set out as a condition of licence in the appendix to this decision, 100% of CPAC's schedule shall consist of programming from categories 3 (Reporting and actualities) or 12 (Filler programming) as set out in item 6 of Schedule I of the Specialty Services Regulations, 1990.

Over the course of the new licence term, CPAC proposes to increase the amount and variety of that programming, as well as to introduce new types of programmming, such as phone-in programs and factual interstitial programming.

The Commission notes that the nature of CPAC's service does not provide for the distribution of entertainment programming such as the broadcast of Canada Day festivities from Parliament Hill.

The Commission expects CPAC to adhere to its policy on balance established in accordance with subsection 3(i) of the Broadcasting Act, by adhering to the six following programming principles:

 CPAC must respect the letter and the spirit of its agreement with the House of Commons;

 CPAC will not present its own editorial position in any of the programming which it distributes;

 CPAC will present a balance of diverse points of view and, in particular, represent the various views held by Canadians in the different regions of the country;

 programming must reflect Canada's dual linguistic nature;

 programming will complement public affairs programming provided by other Canadian programming services; and

 programming will not contain any commercial content.

Expenditures on Canadian programs

The Commission notes that, over the course of the new licence term, CPAC proposes to spend over $12 million on the production and acquisition of Canadian programming.

Distribution of Canadian programming

It is a condition of each licence that not less than 90% of the total programming distributed by the licensee per broadcast day for each semester of the licence term shall be
Canadian.

It is also a condition of each licence that not less than 90% of the programming distributed during the evening broadcast period for each semester of the licence term shall be Canadian.

Services to the hearing-impaired

As part of its renewal applications, CPAC indicated that it will spend annually from $30,000 in the first year to $53,600 in the last year of the new licence term for services to the hearing impaired. CPAC will use line 21 of the Vertical Blanking Interval for closed captions and a text channel to support both captioned programs and program schedules. CPAC stated that the text channel will be operational by the end of the second year of the new licence term. A second audio program channel will be used for translation audio. CPAC also expects to have a full-time captioner on staff by the end of the first year of its new licence term. CPAC thus plans to increase its annual level of captioned programming to 632 hours by the end of its licence term. In addition, CPAC has indicated that it will endeavour to obtain captioned programming from other sources whenever possible. A telecommunication device for the deaf (TDD) phone line will be installed during the first year of the new licence term, to be operational during regular business hours.

The Commission acknowledges the opposing intervention submitted by the Canadian Association of the Deaf with respect to access for deaf and hard-of-hearing persons to CPAC programming. The Commission is satisfied with the licensee's reply to this intervention. The Commission notes, however, that CPAC is not precluded by its agreement with the Speaker of the House of Commons from close-captioning the programming which CPAC receives from the House pursuant to the agreement. Therefore, in view of the importance the Commission attaches to the issue of services to the hearing-impaired, it encourages the licensee to increase significantly the close-captioning of programming which CPAC receives from the House of Commons.

Other matters

The Commission notes that the licensee has indicated that it will become a member of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council and work actively to support the objectives of the Council. It shall be a condition of licence that the licensee adhere to the industry codes as set out in the appendix to this decision.

In Public Notice CRTC 1992-59 dated 1 September 1992 and entitled "Implementation of an Employment Equity Policy", the Commission announced that the employment equity practices of broadcasters would be subject to examination by the Commission. It encourages the licensee to consider employment equity issues in its hiring practices and in all other aspects of its management of human resources.

Interventions

The Commission also acknowledges the the concerns expressed in an intervention to this application. It is satisfied with the licensee's reply to the issues raised by the intervener.

Allan J. Darling
Secretary General

APPENDIX

Conditions of licence for CPAC

Nature of the service

1. 100% of the programming broadcast by CPAC shall be from categories 3 (Reporting and actualities) or 12 (Filler programming) as set out in item 6 of Schedule I of the Specialty Services Regulations, 1990.

Canadian programming

2. a) Not less than 90% of the total programming distributed by the licensee per broadcast day for each semester of the licence term shall be Canadian; and

 b) not less than 90% of the programming distributed during the evening broadcast period for each semester of the licence term shall be Canadian.

Industry codes

3. The licensee shall adhere to the guidelines on gender portrayal set out in the Canadian Association of Broadcasters' (CAB) "Sex-Role Portrayal Code for Television and Radio Programming", as amended from time to time and approved by the Commission.

4. The licensee shall adhere to the guidelines on the depiction of violence in television programming set out in the CAB's "Voluntary Code Regarding Violence in Television Programming", as amended from time to time and approved by the Commission.

Logging and recording

5. The licensee shall retain in a form acceptable to the Commission, a program log or machine-readable record and audiovisual recording of all programming distributed other than the "gavel to gavel" coverage of the proceedings of the House of Commons and its various committees, in accordance with provisions set out in section 10 of the Television Broadcasting Regulations, 1987.

Definitions

"broadcast day" means the period from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m.;

"evening broadcast period" means the period from 6:00 p.m. to midnight;

"semester" means the six-month period beginning 1 March and 1 September of each year.