CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein, shown Feb. 3, says all Canadians should have access to local TV.CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein, shown Feb. 3, says all Canadians should have access to local TV. Pawel Dwulit/Canadian Press

The federal broadcast regulator has ordered satellite services Bell TV and Shaw Direct to carry more local television stations.

"Canadians in all markets should have access to their local television stations, regardless of how they receive their programming," Konrad von Finckenstein, chair of the Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, said in a statement Wednesday.

As of Sept.1, each satellite service must offer:

  • A local affiliate of each national television network.
  • Five English- and five French-language CBC stations, or as many CBC stations as are distributed from a private broadcasting group in either official language.
  • One television station per province from each major Canadian broadcasting group.
  • Two stations from each of the other Canadian broadcasting ownership groups.

The old rules required satellite television providers to carry only one station per time zone, and that left hundreds of thousands of Canadians without access to their community station. Satellite television subscribers account for about one-third of viewers across Canada.

Quebec communities under-served

Canadian content rules changed

The federal broadcast regulator is reducing the amount of time each network must devote to Canadian programming to 55 per cent of the broadcast year.

On Tuesday, the CRTC quietly issued an amendment of its Television Broadcast Regulations dropping the Canadian content requirement from 60 per cent to 55 per cent.

At the same time, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission signalled it would impose spending requirements for Canadian programming on large broadcast groups when their licences are renewed later this year.

In its decision, the CRTC signalled "a shift in regulatory focus from program exhibition to program creation by means of a Canadian program expenditure requirement on large broadcast groups."

The problem is particularly acute in Quebec, where Shaw Direct carries only one of Radio-Canada's six local stations, and Bell TV only three, so many communities outside Montreal do not have access to a local TV signal.

At a CRTC hearing in 2010, the CBC had argued for a restructuring of the rules regarding satellite services.

The regulator noted that satellite carriers have much more capacity than they did in the 1990s and more technological improvements are coming, making it possible to carry local services.

Bell TV will have to carry at least 43 additional television services, including local and regional stations and independent community stations, by Aug. 31, 2012.

By Jan. 1, 2013, Shaw will have to distribute the 80 stations that receive funding from the Local Programming Improvement Fund. That fund goes to community stations to boost local programming, including news coverage.