At recent licence renewal hearings in Ottawa, the CRTC slapped nine of 22 specialty services up for review with higher Canadian programming expenditure requirements.

Among the services hit with the largest 7% increases were History Television and Teletoon, now required to contribute 41% and 47%, respectively, of the previous year’s gross revenues to Canadian programming.

The CRTC ruled in January that specialty services, including History, Teletoon, Canadian Learning Television, Canal Vie, The Comedy Network, Outdoor Life Network, Prime TV, Star TV and Treehouse TV, must each contribute between 3% and 7% more toward Canadian programming expenditures. The percentage amount depends on the previous year’s gross revenues.

The incremental increases were announced as the specialty services, initially licensed in 1996, underwent their first CRTC licensing review.

A new equation for determining Canadian programming expenditure requirements – based on historical average profitability – was set by the CRTC in an effort to improve fairness, and to balance healthy profit margins and a strong national broadcasting system. Each specialty must pay incremental increases of 3% to 7% for each year of their seven-year licence term based upon profit margins, unless that margin is below 20%.

Not hit with increases were The Score, SportsNet, Odyssey, HGTV, Space, South Asian Television, Report on Business and Talk TV.

CTV NewsNet and Le Canal Nouvelles are not required to adhere to Canadian programming expenditure requirements because they have 100% Canadian-content requirements. CablePulse is also exempt because it has a 90% Cancon requirement.

MusiMax and MuchMoreMusic, which were previously exempt from Canadian programming expenditure requirements, must now each contribute 31% of the previous year’s gross revenues toward the investment or purchase of Canadian programs.

The 22 specialty services are now licensed to continue operating until Aug. 31, 2010.

-www.crtc.gc.ca