OTTAWA – The CRTC has added NASA Television to the list of foreign TV channels eligible for carriage in digital in Canada, despite objections from CTV’s Discovery Channel.
The CRTC noted in Broadcasting Decision 2007-43 that it found “the overlap between NASA TV and The Discovery Channel or Discovery HD is minimal and that NASA TV is sufficiently different in terms of target audience, service orientation, programming genres and programming to be considered neither partially or totally competitive with The Discovery Channel or Discovery HD.”
The request to bring the U.S. channel featuring documentaries, archival programming and coverage of NASA missions and events was filed back in August 2006 by Mountain Cablevision Ltd.
It received the support of Canadian distributors, including Rogers Cable Communications, Shaw Communications and Quebecor, as well as educators and individuals. The distributors argued that allowing NASA TV into Canada would expand diversity and choice in the services available to Canadians, ensure the CRTC remains responsive to Canadians’ interest in NASA programming, and that the channel did not totally or partially compete with any existing Canadian pay or specialty TV service.
The analog specialty TV service, The Discovery Channel, and the Category 2 digital channel Discovery HD opposed the request on the grounds that NASA TV was partially competitive. The Discovery Channel noted, for example, that its one-hour Daily Planet science magazine show averaged two NASA-related science segments per episode and two NASA-related interviews per week.
The CRTC, however, ruled that NASA TV is more specifically targeted than The Discovery Channel or Discovery HD, and occupies a considerably narrower programming niche.
Also, the non-Canadian English-language TV channel, CaribVision, was given CRTC approval to be carried in digital. It broadcasts a broad range of shows aimed at helping viewers stay connected to Caribbean culture.
