The specialty channel distribution and packaging quandary will take on new dimensions this week as broadcasters and the cable companies file their requests for amendments to the lists of Eligible Satellite Services.

As the gap closes on the Dec. 4 deadline for proposals to the crtc for foreign broadcasting services Canadian cable and satellite companies are able to distribute, some are using the call to file new specialty channel applications.

Although all are keeping cards close to the chest pre-filing date, cbc, CanWest Global, WIC Western International Communications, NetStar, and Life Network are thought to be amongst those filing new pitches as a means of flagging the commission that they are prepared to launch Canadian equivalents of American additions to the list proposed by the cablecos.

The call for amendments, announced in conjunction with the September-licensed specialties, comes post last year’s failed bid by Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications to get a pack of u.s. superstations added to the lists and package them with the new Canadian specialties.

In this round, requests for additions to the lists are invited from both the distributors and the specialty and pay-per-view licensees. Filings are required to provide evidence that the foreign service being sponsored has obtained Canadian distribution rights for its programming, and reflect discussions with the distributors that substantiate a consumer demand for the service.

A public notice calling for comments on the services proposed Dec. 4 will be issued by the end of the year with a decision likely in March, six months before teletoon, The Comedy Network, The History & Entertainment Network, and N1 are scheduled to launch.

Elsewhere on the specialty channel landscape, decisions on appeals filed to federal cabinet on the licences for TreeHouse tv and Canadian Learning Television could come down before the House rises Dec. 13.

Queued in front of CanWest’s appeal of the Alberta decision are petitions filed by Quebec Culture and Communications Minister Louise Beaudoin against the chum-controlled clt and by the Canadian Independent Record Production Association and the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada against TreeHouse, owned by ytv, which is wholly owned by Shaw.

The Quebec culture minister is taking issue with the licensing of a national education network when education falls under provincial jurisdiction. The filing comes in the wake of Quebec investing some $53 million in Tele-Quebec this year following a major restructuring and the renewal of the network’s original educational mandate.

In a letter to Canadian Heritage Minister Sheila Copps, Beaudoin says the decision ‘puts in doubt the exclusive jurisdiction of the provinces in educational matters’ and requests rescinding the clt licence on behalf of the Government of Quebec.

Beaudoin g’es on to say that in licensing clt, ‘The crtc not only proceeded without the agreement of the competent authorities, but (has ignored) the opposition of Saskatchewan and Quebec,’ and that ‘this attitude is contrary even to the notion of ‘cooperative federalism’ which your government presumes to advance.’

For their part, cirpa and socan are picking up on dissensions filed by commissioners Andree Wylie and Gail Scott. Wylie dissented on the entire digital batch framework of the specialty decision, Scott specifically on the TreeHouse licence.

Quoting both dissensions extensively, the appeal says that ‘in the opinion of the petitioners, the crtc has failed to enforce its own (Access) Rules and has no effective system in place to ensure that its decisions are adhered to on an on-going basis.’

cirpa president Brian Chater makes the point that the appeal is one of principle and practice, in no way reflecting the licensee, but says the rules should be in place for a reason.

‘Besides the fact that there’s no mechanism to enforce the decision, there’s the principal issues of enforcing access. TreeHouse is owned by a cable company when the crtc just said three months before that it wasn’t allowed. In that case, what’s the point of having guidelines?’

The appeals were filed mid-October. The cabinet has 45 days to respond and can either reject the appeal, rescind the licence, and/or send it back to the crtc to reevaluate.