OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC has granted a Cat 2 licence to operate a horror genre specialty channel, over the objections of The Movie Network and MPix.
The commission has granted a licence to High Fidelity HDTV Inc. to operate Horror HD, a national English-language service devoted to horror and thriller movies and other programming, such as magazine-style shows, in the genre. High Fidelity indicated it wouldn’t air more than 25% of its programming in the thriller genre.
Astral Television Networks had filed an intervention, arguing that Horror HD’s programming was too broad and would directly compete with Astral’s The Movie Network and MPix, two English-language movie channels in eastern Canada. It wanted a condition of licence to be that Horror HD would air no more than 50% of its programming as feature films.
The commission determined that limiting Horror HD’s programming to no more than 25% programs in the thriller genre would be enough to distinguish it from TMN or MPix or other existing Cat 1 services. No restrictions on the number of movies is needed, the decision stated.
