GATINEAU — The CRTC announced today it has approved an application by Stingray Group to change the broadcaster’s Stingray Hits channel into a French-language service.
When the CRTC issued a licence in March 2020 for the previously exempt Stingray Hits channel, it was designated as an English-language discretionary service by the Commission.
In January 2021, Stingray submitted an application to amend Stingray Hits’s licence (which expires August 31, 2025) so it would be designated as a French-language service. Stingray indicated its intention was always to offer Stingray Hits as a pop music video clip service for the Francophone market.
In approving the licence change in its decision today, the Commission is also imposing a new condition of licence which requires French-language video clips to make up at least 50% of all video clips broadcast by Stingray Hits each broadcast year, and all other programming elements, including advertising, station identifiers and all other content, to be in French as well.
