OTTAWA-GATNEAU — The CBC is being hauled before the CRTC to explain how rebranding Country Canada as bold did not violate its terms of licence.

The regulator will hold a June 2 public hearing to determine if bold, which relaunched last March, airs programming that ‘provides information, interaction and entertainment from a rural perspective.’ Country Canada, initially called Land and Sea, was licensed in 2000 under these conditions.

The CRTC’s scrutiny of the rebranding dates back to October 2007 when commission staff met with the CBC to discuss the planned revamp. At that time, and in subsequent written correspondence, the public broadcaster contended the changes could be done without amending its nature of service.

Although the CBC provided examples of specific programs that reflected rural interests, commission staff determined it had not provided ‘sufficient evidence.’ In setting the public hearing, the CRTC noted the CBC’s actions ‘appear to negatively impact the integrity of the licensing process.’

The pubcaster seemed perplexed by the commission’s fixation with its rebranding. In a November 2008 letter it referred to the commission’s interest as being ‘without precedent since there are no complaints to the CRTC that we are aware of from either the public or industry competitors.’

At issue is the channel’s new focus on music, dance and variety programming — much of which doesn’t appear to be rurally focused. According to information provided by the CBC to the CRTC, the channel’s weekly schedule was 11% music and dance programming after the relaunch, compared with 0% when it was Country Canada. Variety programming jumped from 0% to 11%. News, analysis, documentary and reporting shows dropped from 37% to 8%.

The CBC listed the following arts shows as part of the channel’s schedule: the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, the East Coast Music Awards and the Canadian Jazz Concert Series.

‘Our research tells us that rural Canadians are just as sophisticated in their programming tastes as urban Canadians and they are just as likely, sometimes more likely, to watch variety and arts programming as their urban counterparts,’ stated CBC senior director of regulatory affairs Bev Kirshenblatt in a May 2008 letter to the CRTC.

She also pointed out that the rebrand of bold was no different than the revamping of Prime to TVtropolis, of Life Channel to Slice or of talktv to MTV.

‘In our view, the CRTC should apply the same standard to bold that it has already applied to these other channels,’ wrote Kirshenblatt. ‘The nature of service condition of licence does not define a channel’s brand strategy.’

The rebrand, the CBC stated, was an effort to connect with audiences and better define the channel to boost its fortunes. The money-losing Country Canada never achieved the penetration and revenues projected — reaching only 934,344 subscribers in 2007 and generating revenues of just $3.4 million. It had an average-minute audience of only 510, according to the CBC.

The CBC contends that ‘forcing bold to adopt a narrow view of ‘rural perspective’ will not permit the channel to be ‘relevant, attract or even retain television viewers.’

The network says it may have no other option but to file an application to amend bold’s nature of service. Written comments in the process are due by April 15.