TVOntario is going digital, thanks to a $25-million boost from the province, and will refocus its programming on education as part of a major overhaul of the pubcaster and its French-language sister, TFO, announced in late June.

For children, that means 13 hours more per week of the TVOKids programming block. For grownups, that means more civic-minded programming, a ‘tweaking’ of its movie lineup, and the cancellation of Studio 2. The long-running news flagship will be replaced by the multi-platform public affairs show The Agenda with Steve Paikin.

The overhaul follows a review of TVOntario launched last year at the behest of the provincial government, which itself followed occasional criticism that the channel had strayed from its educational mandate.

But CEO Lisa de Wilde, tasked with the review upon her arrival at TVO last fall, is playing down the politics in favor of the ‘long overdue need to catch up and go digital.’

‘I think the media environment has changed so much… the need for a public organization like ours is unique,’ she tells Playback.

TVO will switch all its production equipment to digital by September 2007 and is talking about offering content on multiple platforms.

Between now and then, TVO will also roll out a new, more educational line of programming – filling its weekday slots with literacy shows for preschoolers and fun-but-informative material for older kids, all backed up by an online community for parents.

The changes mean little for producers, says de Wilde, predicting that the channel will order shows and docs in the ‘same proportion’ as before.

‘Documentaries are a very powerful tool for citizenship,’ the new theme of TVO’s programming for adults, she says.

The channel is also splitting from TFO – setting up the French outlet as a separate broadcaster with its own management and budget – and is looking for new ways to make money, possibly through advertising. It’s not an idea that’s likely to be taken quietly by some TVO viewers, even less so if the channel’s new programming is encouraging ‘public engagement.’

De Wilde answers that it’s also in the public’s interest to balance the books.

‘Télé-Québec has advertisements,’ she notes. ‘There is a way to do it that doesn’t harm the mandate.’

www.tvontario.org