In Canada, community television channels are provided by Licencees to people who live in Licence Areas. Most Licencees provide Community television programs on a dedicated community TV channel as a requirement of a licence to provide Cable TV to communities in Canada. Such Licencees are subject to CRTC Regulations regarding the provision of community television programs.
This study, “Community TV – An Assessment of Regulatory Compliance by Licencee and Licence Area” examines compliance by Licencees of two requirements of the CRTC regulations: i) the proportion of programs that qualify as Access Programs and ii) the proportion of programs that qualify as Local Programs. In addition, the study will examine the proportion of repeat programs shown in the sample week and the proportion of programs shown in the sample week that were produced in previous years.
There are many Licence Areas and there are many Licencees that provide Community Television channels. Some communities are segmented into more than one Licence Area, and some Licence Areas encompass more than one community. Also, more than one Licencee may possess a licence to provide a community television service in a Licence area.
For that reason, our Assessment of Regulatory Compliance will give a unique name to each community television service provided by a Licencee to a Licence Area. For example, BC01 is our name for Shaw's community television service provided in the greater Vancouver area. BC09 is our name for the service provided by Novus Communications to the greater Vancouver area. There are 66 “clearly” designated licence areas and about 50 that are “confusingly” designated. The study examines all 66 clearly designated Licence Areas and as many “confusingly” designated areas as is possible. This study does not examine the many “exempt” Licence Areas that are not required to provide Community television programming.