ARCHIVED -  Decision CRTC 96-778

Decision

Ottawa, 5 December 1996

Decision CRTC 96-778

Mountain Cablevision Limited

Parts of Hamilton and surrounding area, Caledonia, Cayuga, Dunnville, Hagersville, Mount Hope and Binbrook, Ontario - 951191600

Licence renewal

Following Public Notice CRTC 1996-46 dated 27 March 1996 and Decision CRTC 96-589 dated 30 August 1996, the Commission renews the Class 1 licence held by Mountain Cablevision Limited (Mountain), for the cable distribution undertaking serving the above-noted communities, from 1 January 1997 to 31 August 2003.

The operation of this undertaking is regulated pursuant to Parts I, II and IV of the Cable Television Regulations, 1986 (the regulations) and the licence will be subject to the conditions in effect under the current licence, as well as to those conditions specified in this decision and in the licence to be issued.

Consistent with Decision CRTC 91-859 dated 29 November 1991, by condition of licence, the licensee is authorized to continue to distribute, pursuant to paragraph 10(1)(l) of the regulations, the programming service of WNEQ-TV (PBS) Buffalo, New York, received over the air, as part of the basic service of the Hamilton portion of its cable system, so long as it does not distribute the signal of WQLN (PBS) Erie, Pennsylvania.

The licensee is relieved, by condition of licence, of the requirement of section 12 of the regulations to distribute the signals of CHCH-TV Hamilton, CBLT Toronto, and CKCO-TV Kitchener, on unrestricted channels. Should the quality of the signals deteriorate significantly, the Commission expects the licensee to undertake immediate corrective action including, if necessary, the distribution of these services on other channels.

Consistent with Decision CRTC 95-922 dated 21 December 1995, the licensee is authorized, by condition of licence, to insert, at its option, certain promotional material as a substitute for the "local availabilities" (i.e. non-Canadian advertising material) of non-Canadian satellite services. At least 75% of these local availabilities must be made available for use by licensed Canadian programming services for the promotion of their respective services, for the promotion of the community channel and for unpaid Canadian public service announcements. A maximum of 25% of the local availabilities may be made available for the promotion of discretionary programming services and packages, customer service information, channel realignments, cable FM service and additional cable outlets.

Consistent with Decision CRTC 95-920 dated 21 December 1995, the licensee is authorized to originate a video games service as a special programming service, offered on a discretionary basis, subject to the conditions listed in that decision.

The Commission reaffirms the particular importance it attaches to the development of community programming and has taken note of the annual budgets that will be allocated for this purpose during the new licence term. The Commission encourages the licensee to continue its efforts to develop programs that reflect community interests and concerns.

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. In this regard, the Commission encourages the licensee to consider employment equity issues in its hiring practices and in all other aspects of its management of human resources.

The Commission acknowledges the intervention submitted by CKCO Television, licensee of CKCO-TV Kitchener.

The Commission also acknowledges the interventions received from Canadian Specialty service licensees: CHUM Limited, licensee of Bravo!, Showcase Television Inc., licensee of Showcase and Lifestyle Television (1994) Limited, licensee of the programming service WTN. These specialty licensees, while not opposing the renewal of the licence, wished to address the fact that the licensee is not presently distributing their respective services. These interveners requested that the licensee be required, by condition of licence, to carry their service on a high penetration discretionary tier and that the services be launched by a specific date.

In its reply, Mountain stated that there would be no available channel capacity to carry these specialty services until the Fall of 1997 at the earliest, but that it committed to provide access to these services once channel capacity is available and once a satisfactory agreement is reached concerning terms of their carriage.

In Public Notice CRTC 1996-60 entitled "Access Rules for Broadcasting Distribution Undertakings", the Commission determined that "a broadcasting distribution undertaking to which the access rules apply should distribute, as a general rule, the services of all licensed specialty and pay television undertakings appropriate for its market, to the extent of available channel capacity." The term "available channel capacity" is defined in the notice as "any unrestricted video channel of a distribution undertaking other than a channel on which is distributed: a) the programming service of a licensed programming undertaking; b) community programming on the community channel; and, c) a programming service comprising the proceedings of the House of Commons or of the legislature of the province or territory in which the undertaking is located."

Based on this definition, and taking into account Mountain's current channel line-up, the Commission considers that Mountain has not substantiated its claim of insufficient channel capacity. Therefore, Mountain is required to make available channels for the distribution of the programming services of the above-noted licensees on a discretionary basis or, with the agreement of the service provider, as part of the basic service.

At the same time, the Commission notes that the access rules do not guarantee that a given service will necessarily be distributed on a particular tier. Accordingly, the Commission is not prepared to impose a condition of licence requiring Mountain to carry the services of the respective specialty licensees on a specific tier, nor that their services be launched by a specific date.

The Commission expects that Mountain will negotiate, within a reasonable time period, appropriate carriage arrangements with each specialty service.

In this regard, the Commission notes its statement in Public Notice CRTC 1996-60 that "in general (emphasis added), it will not be disposed to entertain dispute resolution applications that deal with matters such as channel placement and the packaging and marketing of programming services" as "these issues are essentially of a commercial nature and are best addressed without regulatory intervention."

This decision is to be appended to the licence.

Allan J. Darling
Secretary General