OTTAWA – The CBC has formerly applied to amend the broadcast licence of its specialty channel ‘bold’, formerly known as ‘Country Canada’.
The pubcaster re-launched its category 1 specialty Country Canada as bold on March 27 2008, after telling the CRTC that the change could be done without amending the nature of service of Country Canada. But the Commission disagreed, and scheduled a hearing to determine whether the way that CBC re-branded the channel had negatively impacted “the integrity of the licensing process”. The CRTC suspended the hearing after CBC agreed to make a formal application.
In Broadcasting Notice of Consulation CRTC 2009-437, the CBC has asked to replace the condition of licence relating to its nature of service which reads:
The licensee shall provide a national English-language Category 1 specialty television service for rural Canadian families, with a focus on adults 25-54. The service will provide information, interaction and entertainment from a rural perspective.
with the following condition of licence:
The licensee shall provide a national English-language Category 1 specialty television service for rural Canadians. The service will provide information, interaction and entertainment.
In its rationale for the ammendment, CBC said that “bold has neither the subscriber base nor the revenues to create any significant amount of original content as contemplated in its original application and thus it must rely almost entirely on off-the-shelf programming that is from a ‘rural perspective’."
It goes on to says that there is insufficient programming from a ‘rural perspective’ to program the service, and that the channel will not be “economically viable” if its licence is not amended.
Intervention or comments are due by August 26, 2009.
