OTTAWA – The CRTC announced Monday it has renewed the broadcasting licence for SaskTel’s terrestrial on-demand service SaskTel Pay-Per-View until Aug. 31, 2028.
The licence for SaskTel’s pay-per-view service was due to expire Dec. 31, 2023, having been administratively renewed by the CRTC three times since August 2021, which is when the service’s licence was originally scheduled to expire.
The CRTC explained in its decision Monday, after SaskTel Pay-Per-View’s licence was renewed in 2014, the commission created the category of on-demand services by consolidating what were formerly known as pay-per-view and video-on-demand services.
SaskTel had agreed to adhere to the standard conditions and expectations for on-demand services, but asked to maintain its current exception to the expectation relating to employment equity, which the CRTC has approved.
SaskTel had submitted that it is a provincial Crown corporation not subject to the federal Employment Equity Act, and that it participates actively in the Employment Equity Program of the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission, the CRTC noted in its decision.
While the CRTC said it would be appropriate to maintain the exception to the commission’s standard expectation relating to employment equity, it also said it encouraged SaskTel as the licensee of SaskTel Pay-Per-View to continue considering employment equity in its hiring practices and in all other aspects of its management of human resources.
The CRTC also said in its decision it expects SaskTel Pay-Per-View to reflect the cultural diversity of Canada in its programming and employment practices.
