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Public hearings into the application
for a proposed all-news channel, by Quebecor Media, will be held in
November, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
has announced.
According to its application to the CRTC, Quebecor Media wants the
regulator to make it mandatory that cable and satellite providers carry
the channel "for a maximum period of three years to effectively expose and
promote its programming to viewers across Canada."
"Canadian TV news today is narrow, complacent, and politically correct,"
Kory Teneycke, Vice President, Development of Quebecor Media, and former
communications advisor to the Prime Minister's office, said when
announcing the application. "Sun TV News will be different."
The CRTC had announced in March 2010 it would not consider new Category 1
Licences until October 2011 - at a time following the completion of the
digital transition - thus delaying decisions on both existing and new
specialty services.
Quebecor revised its original application for first-tier designation for
the new channel, to seek licence to broadcast as a Category 2 specialty
television channel, but with exemptions to the usual policy.
Competitor services such as CBC News Network and CTV's News Channel have
said they would ask for similar treatment should exemptions be granted.
Deadline for submissions to the hearing is October 1, 2010.
Source: Broadcaster, 09/07/2010 |