The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) issued several broadcasting licence renewals this week, including to public broadcasters Knowledge Network and TFO.

In its renewal decision for TFO, the CRTC granted the Ontario-based French-language pubcaster’s request to be under the standard requirements for a discretionary service, rather than a television station, as the Commission determined that TFO does not broadcast local programming or operate over-the-air transmitters.

TFO’s Canadian content requirements during the licence period – which expires on Aug. 31, 2030 – includes at least 60% of daytime broadcast programming, and 50% of evening programming.

Meanwhile, the CRTC has maintained B.C.-based Knowledge Network’s Cancon requirements for its new licence period (expiring Aug. 31, 2028), which includes 55% of daytime broadcasting and 50% of evening.

The Commission said Knowledge Network was in non-compliance of its Cancon requirements for the 2020-21 broadcast year, noting that Cancon consisted of 46.9% of its evening broadcast programming in that period.

The pubcaster had previously informed the CRTC that it anticipated it would fall short of Cancon requirements due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that it “has continued to invest in the development and production of Canadian programming, allowing it to return to compliance.” The CRTC said it would not impose any additional conditions as a result of the non-compliance.

The CRTC also renewed the broadcast licences of discretionary service New Tang Dynasty Television and conventional commercial television station CHEK-DT Victoria, both of which are now set to expire on Aug. 31, 2028.

The Commission found that New Tang Dynasty was in non-compliance of its Canadian programming expenditure (CPE) requirements, for which it must devote at least 45% of the previous year’s gross annual revenues to the acquisition of or investment in Cancon.

The CRTC said the discretionary service fell short by 8.2% in the 2018-19 broadcast year, which the channel attributed to production delays and said was made up in the following year. The Commission said that no additional measures were required to ensure compliance in the future.

New Tang Dynasty was also deemed in non-compliance of its requirement to report its use of closed captioning for English- and French-language programs, with the CRTC adding a condition of licence to file an annual report on how it will comply with closed captioning requirements moving forward.

The CRTC also ordered that both Knowledge Network and TFO must provide a minimum of four hours of described video per broadcast week, adding that Knowledge Network must increase the minimum by three hours for each subsequent year of its licence term.

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