Vancouver: Two live 30-minute weekday broadcasts will lead the new programming designed for the ACCESS Network, now going through a precedent-setting privatization.

Between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. nightly, Alberta’s educational signal will offer a news-broadcast style show about jobs and training and follow up with a live hot-line show for teens and young adults on social issues, school and other topics.

The new fall schedule kicks off Oct. 2.

As announced July 20, the crtc approved the sale of access to Learning and Skills Television of Alberta, which will operate as the licensee for the next seven years. The provincial government – as part of Premier Ralph Klein’s cost-cutting measures – has ceased direct funding of the signal, driving the need to find alternative ownership.

Ownership

lta, a division of Canadian Learning Television, is 60% owned by CHUM Ltd. Citytv boss Moses Znaimer, through Olympus Holdings, owns 20%, chief executive and tvontario veteran Ron Keast owns 16% and Jay Switzer owns 4%. Canadian Learning Television failed in its application to the crtc last year to start a national educational tv service originating from Edmonton.

Keast, acting chief executive since the sale to lta last November, hails the move as a sign of the future when other public broadcasters move into private hands. He says it also puts the focus back squarely on educational objectives. Educational broadcasters, he explains, have strayed too far into general-interest public broadcasting, and he will therefore discontinue airing programs such as British dramas and comedies.

The current annual operating budget of about $16 million will be slashed to $10 million, he claims, though the latter figure depends on the success of the new advertising allowance.

lta can run six minutes of advertising for every hour of airtime that is not produced for young children, or government-directed educational programs. Keast expects to attract traditional and educational advertisers for ad spots and sponsorships, and projects that revenues will cover 14% of the cost of running access.

Under the new arrangement, Alberta’s education ministries have committed to sponsoring 50 hours of programming each week over the next five years. The deal is worth $5.5 million per year. The ministries have also committed another $4 million to production and acquisition of programs.

Programming

From 6 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., the 19-hour broadcast day will comprise curriculum programming for preschoolers and students from kindergarten through the post-secondary levels, with some repeats of other shows. In the primetime hours of 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., access will air the live broadcasts and other programming such as productions available through National Geographic and Nova, for example. Keast concedes it is ‘a struggle’ to find suitable programming.

Post-secondary ‘telecourses,’ running between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m., will be accredited though Athabasca University or the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology.

The closing documents should be signed in August and the new owners should officially take over on Sept. 1.