OTTAWA — The CBC scored with the CRTC on Wednesday when it approved the public broadcaster’s bid for an all-sports channel. The Category 2 licence will allow the CBC to move forward, over the objections of incumbents such as TSN, Rogers Sportsnet and The Score.

But the channel, called CBC SportsPlus, didn’t get the mandatory carriage it was seeking, and it must devote at least 30% of its broadcast week to amateur sports, and no more than 30% to professional sports.

The CBC had tried for a licence that would allow the percentages to be counted over the broadcast year, rather than the week. This caveat would have allowed the broadcaster to accumulate a lot of amateur sports hours during marquee events such as the Olympic Games, and then decline to virtually no amateur sports coverage for months.

The regulator also decreed that no more than 10% of CBC SportsPlus’ programming in a week can be professional stick and/or ball sports, including hockey, baseball, football, basketball, golf, soccer and tennis. Score Media called for the CRTC to prohibit stick sports entirely.

These conditions were imposed to curb the amount of professional sports on CBC SportsPlus and thus ensure the new channel won’t be competitive with analog channels such as TSN.

The CBC application was also frowned upon by the Canadian Olympic Committee, which has yet to hear the fate of its proposed 24-hour amateur sports TV channel, Canada Amateur Sports Network. The COC has been adamant the TV channel won’t get off the ground without mandatory carriage at 60 cents per TV subscriber. The COC argues CASN deserves must-carry status because the TV channel is an essential service under the Broadcasting Act.

The COC filed its application for English- and French-language versions of CASN two months before the CBC’s bid.