ARCHIVED -  Decision CRTC 96-279

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Decision

Ottawa, 15 July 1996
Decision CRTC 96-279
The Battlefords Community Cablevision Co-operative
North Battleford, Saskatchewan - 950210500
Application to add CITY-TV - Approved
Following Public Notice CRTC 1995-69 dated 28 April 1995, the Commission approves the application by The Battlefords Community Cablevision Co-operative (Battlefords) for authority to distribute CITY-TV Toronto, received via satellite from CANCOM, on a discretionary tier of the cable distribution undertaking serving North Battleford.
In approving this application, the Commission has determined that the distribution of CITY-TV is consistent with the guidelines on the cable distribution of distant Canadian television signals first set out in Public Notice CRTC 1985-61 and reiterated in Public Notice CRTC 1993-74.
On 14 March 1996, the Commission issued Public Notice CRTC 1996-36 outlining its policy on violence in television programming. In this policy statement, the Commission encouraged programming undertakings whose signals are distributed
over various time zones to be sensitive to viewers in western time zones when scheduling programs.
The Commission notes that there is a one-hour time difference between Toronto and Saskatchewan. This means that programs with scenes of violence intended for adults that are broadcast on CITY-TV after the "watershed" hour of 9:00 p.m., as required by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters' "Voluntary Code Regarding Violence in Television Programming", could be distributed on the North Battleford undertaking before 9:00 p.m.
Accordingly, and consistent with the approach taken in Decision CRTC 96-278 also published today, the Commission expects CITY-TV to be sensitive to the one-hour time difference between Toronto and Saskatchewan in scheduling programs containing scenes of violence intended for adults.
The CBC submitted an intervention requesting that, if Battlefords is to be permitted to distribute CITY-TV, it should first be required to distribute Newsworld and the Réseau de l'information (RDI).
In reply, the licensee noted that it already distributes four CBC signals in North Battleford: CBKST Saskatoon, CBKFT-12 North Battleford, CKBI-TV Prince Albert and the CBC Northern Television Service.
The Commission has reviewed the intervener's concerns, as well as the licensee's reply, in the context of the circumstances prevailing in North Battleford. Although the Commission encourages the licensee to provide comparable access to that required of the larger distribution undertakings, it notes that, as licensee of a Class 2 cable distribution undertaking, Battlefords is not subject to the distribution requirements regarding licensed specialty services such as CBC Newsworld and RDI, as set out in Public Notice CRTC 1996-60 entitled "Access Rules for Broadcasting Distribution Undertakings".
This decision is to be appended to the licence.
Allan J. Darling
Secretary General

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