After a year of deliberating, the crtc has given headline news service CTV News 1 permission to air long and live broadcasts.

In a decision March 2, the crtc says News 1 ‘must maintain at all times a headline news format’ which ‘should be distinctly different from that of CBC Newsworld,’ but it qualifies the statement by allowing live special events broadcasts.

‘The live broadcast of special events such as press conferences and speeches is not necessarily prohibited as long as other headline news items are presented in every 15-minute block.’

Henry Kowolski, senior vp of news, stops short of calling it a win for the network but says the decision gives News 1 ‘flexibility’ in the length of its broadcast segments.

‘It sounds like we’ve been given some latitude. We aren’t going to do Rough Cuts or Pamela Wallin but we’d be less than the news service the public expects if we didn’t go live sometimes to break news.’

The decision comes with the caveat that any live special events coverage must be broken up with a news update on other stories every 15 minutes.

‘The Commission considers that the use of voiced-over or graphic/textual headlines introduced briefly at the end of 15-minute blocks is not sufficient to satisfy CTV N1’s condition of license,’ says the letter from John Keogh.

‘. . . there must be a full interruption of the event in any given 15-minute block in order to broadcast other news items as described in the application.’

In a dissenting opinion filed by Andrew Cardozo, the commissioner challenges the decision.

‘I would have preferred that we underline that the intention was for N1 not to be a long form news service. . . In keeping with the original licensing decision, such live broadcasts should be discouraged.’

Cardozo also claims it denotes a change in licence conditions without due process.

‘To date the commission has deliberately not licensed competing services. If either service wants to change its format and compete with the other on the basis of similarity or format, it should apply to the Commission for a change to its license and the matter would be dealt with in an open and transparent process, at the end of which the Commission would rule on whether a change in license format was warranted.’

The issue dates back to a January 1998 letter of complaint from cbc which alleged that News 1 had provided extended coverage of the Papal visit to Cuba. In its response, ctv claimed live and long coverage of news events is central to relevant news delivery. It added that special events coverage is unpredictable and must extend beyond the 15-minute format on occasion in response to important historic events of national interest.

‘[The decision] acknowledges we were following our conditions of licence and asks us to continue doing so,’ says Kowolski.

‘I think it’s time to get on with it. There’s room for both [N1 and Newsworld] to serve the public well.’

cbc’s Lanny Morry, director of regulatory affairs, was unavailable for comment at press time.