OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC has approved an application for a new English-language digital channel providing described video programming for the blind and visually impaired.
The commission will grant a licence to the National Reading Service Inc. to operate The Accessible Channel, which will also be subject to mandatory carriage on digital basic by DTH and Class 1 and 2 BDUs (excluding MDS services, given their limited capacity).
The Accessible Channel will offer a 24-hour service providing news, information, drama, entertainment, and other programming to blind and visually impaired Canadians. The Canadian content levels will be a minimum of 60% during the broadcast day, and 50% from midnight to 6 p.m. It has an agreement to access some programming from CTV, but a condition of licence is that no more than one-third of its programming can come from any one supplier.
The channel will charge a wholesale rate of 20 cents per sub in anglophone markets, and nothing in francophone markets, since only four hours per week would be devoted to French-language programming. The commission said that rate would make the service viable.
The CRTC said there is a lack of described video programming in Canada, and the channel “would be of exceptional importance” to fulfill the Broadcasting Act’s accessibility goals.
The commission turned down applications by Diversity Television Inc. for a Cat 1 digital specialty called Canada One TV, which would have focused on popular dramas showcasing multiculturalism. The commission said that existing broadcasters have made strides in better representing various ethnicities on air, and there was no demonstrated need for such a channel.
The CRTC also denied an application for a national English-language digital channel to be called Métis Michif Television Network, saying the applicant, Kenneth R. Schaffer on behalf of a corporation to be incorporated, did not do any needs studies showing a need for such programming. Schaffer had asked for mandatory carriage on digital basic.
The full decision is here.
