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Quebecor Media Inc. received its Category 2 specialty licence from the CRTC Friday.
The CRTC held a procedural, non-appearance hearing on the application following Quebecor's decision to change its request from a controversial "mandatory access" application to one for a regular Category 2 licence.
Earlier this year, Quebecor filed an application to operate Sun TV News as a national English-language specialty television channel. But the application requested an exception for "mandatory access" to broadcasting distributors for a maximum of three years.
The request was viewed as a temporary Category 1 licence, which would require cable and satellite distributors to carry the channel and offer it to subscribers.
The controversy over the request arose in part because Category 1 licences are intended for non-competitive markets.
But the CRTC has deemed the all-news genre competitive, and news services CBC NN and CTV News Channel will lose their must-carry status next year.
Under its Category 2 licence, Quebecor will have to negotiate carriage agreements with broadcasting distributors.
The CRTC had planned a high-profile public hearing on the controversial application for the right-leaning news channel, which many observers dubbed "Fox News North."
In October, international advocacy group Avaaz delivered more than 21,000 hard copy letters to the CRTC's offices in Gatineau, Que., opposing the application.
Quebecor originally said it planned to launch the channel in January 2011, but on Friday it said it is now planned for mid-March.
In its decision, the CRTC referred to broadcasting notice 2008-4, where it noted the importance of a "plurality of editorial voices" in local and national television markets.
"The Commission is of the view that the licensing of additional competitive mainstream national news services is one means of achieving this objective," the commission said.
It issued a five-year licence for Sun TV, noting that, "given the pace of change in the broadcasting environment, the Commission has announced its intention to impose five-year rather than seven-year licence terms for licences controlled by larger broadcasting groups."
Source: The Wire Report, 11/26/2010
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