Television Broadcasting Regulations, 1987 (SOR/87-49)

Programming Content

• 5 (1) A licensee shall not broadcast

  • (a) anything in contravention of the law;

  • (b) any abusive comment or abusive pictorial representation that, when taken in context, tends to or is likely to expose an individual or a group or class of individuals to hatred or contempt on the basis of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age or mental or physical disability;

  • (c) any obscene or profane language or pictorial representation; or

  • (d) any false or misleading news.

• (1.1) For the purposes of paragraph (1)(b), sexual orientation does not include the orientation towards any sexual act or activity that would constitute an offence under the Criminal Code.

• (2) For the purposes of paragraph (1)(c), material is obscene if it has as a dominant characteristic the undue exploitation of sex or the combination of sexual content with one or more of the following subjects, namely, crime, horror, cruelty and violence.

• 6 (1) A licensee may broadcast a commercial message directly or indirectly advertising an alcoholic beverage only if

  • (a) the sponsor is not prohibited from advertising the alcoholic beverage by the laws of the province in which the commercial message is broadcast;

  • (b) subject to subsection (2), the commercial message is not designed to promote the general consumption of alcoholic beverages; and

  • (c) the commercial message complies with the Code for Broadcast Advertising of Alcoholic Beverages, published by the Commission on August 1, 1996.

• (2) Paragraph (1)(b) does not apply so as to prohibit industry, public service or brand preference advertising.

• 7 (1) Before January 1, 1999, a licensee shall not broadcast a commercial message for, or an endorsement of, a device to which the Food and Drugs Act applies unless

  • (a) the script of the commercial message or endorsement has been approved by the Minister of Health to indicate, to the extent that it is possible to do so on the basis of a script, that a commercial message or an endorsement conforming to the approved script would comply with the applicable provisions, administered by that Minister, of the Food and Drugs Act, the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and regulations made pursuant to those Acts or to the Department of Health Act; and

  • (b) the script bears the script number assigned to it by that Minister.

• (2) Before January 1, 1999, when a licensee broadcasts a commercial message or an endorsement referred to in subsection (1), the licensee shall keep a record of the script for a period of one year after the date of the broadcast, which record shall contain

  • (a) the name of the device to which the script relates;

  • (b) the name of the sponsor or advertising agency that submitted the script for approval; and

  • (c) the script number referred to in paragraph (1)(b).

• (3) A licensee shall provide the record required by subsection (2) to the Commission or to an inspector designated pursuant to the Food and Drugs Act, acting on behalf of the Commission, where the Commission or the inspector so requests for the purpose of audit or examination.

• (4) The approval of the script of a commercial message or an endorsement referred to in subsection (1) does not indicate that the commercial message or endorsement complies with the applicable legislation.

Political Broadcasts

8 During an election period, a licensee shall allocate time for the broadcasting of programs, advertisements or announcements of a partisan political character on an equitable basis to all accredited political parties and rival candidates represented in the election or referendum.

Ethnic Programs

• 9 (1) On or before January 31 of each year, the licensee of an ethnic station shall submit to the Commission, for approval, a calendar that

  • (a) covers a period of 52 or 53 weeks;

  • (b) begins on the Monday of the week during which the next broadcast year begins; and

  • (c) is divided into 12 periods of four or five weeks.

• (1.1) The licensee of an ethnic station shall devote to ethnic programs not less than 60 per cent of the total number of hours devoted to broadcasting during the aggregate of the broadcast days in each of the four or five week periods in the calendar approved by the Commission and referred to in subsection (1).

• (2) Except as otherwise provided under a licensee’s condition of licence, the licensee of an ethnic station shall devote to third language programs at least 50% of the total number of hours devoted to broadcasting during the aggregate of the broadcast days in each of the four or five week periods in the calendar approved by the Commission and referred to in subsection (1).

• (3) Except as otherwise provided under a licensee’s condition of licence to devote up to 40% of a broadcast month to third language programs, the licensee of a station other than an ethnic station shall devote not more than 15% of its broadcast month to third language programs.

Non-Disclosure

• 9.1 (1) A licensee whose programming services are being distributed by a licensed distribution undertaking or that is negotiating terms of carriage with such an undertaking for its programming services, including new programming services, shall sign and provide to the licensee of the distribution undertaking an agreement that

  • (a) reproduces the non-disclosure provisions; and

  • (b) contains its consent to comply with the non-disclosure provisions for the benefit of the licensee of the distribution undertaking.

• (2) A licensee whose programs are being broadcast by a licensed video-on-demand undertaking or that is negotiating terms of carriage with such an undertaking for its programs shall sign and provide to the licensee of the video-on-demand undertaking an agreement that

  • (a) reproduces the non-disclosure provisions; and

  • (b) contains its consent to comply with the non-disclosure provisions for the benefit of the licensee of the video-on-demand undertaking.

• (3) For the purposes of subsections (1) and (2), the non-disclosure provisions are those provisions set out in the Appendix to Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2013-578, dated October 31, 2013 and entitled Standard clauses for non-disclosure agreements.

Logs and Records

• 10 (1) Subject to any condition of licence, a licensee shall

  • (a) keep, in a form acceptable to the Commission, a program log or a machine readable record of its programming;

  • (b) retain the log or record for a period of one year after the date when the programming was broadcast; and

  • (c) cause to be entered in the log or record each day the following information:

    • (i) the date,

    • (ii) the call letters, location and channel of the licensee’s station,

    • (iii) the time at which each station identification announcement is made,

    • (iv) the time of commencement of advertising material, its duration and, in the case of a commercial message, the name of the person selling or promoting goods, services, natural resources or activities, and

    • (v) in relation to each program broadcast,

      • (A) its title and any additional information that is to be included by the appropriate subitem of Schedule I,

      • (B) subject to subsection (4), the key figure set out in Schedule I describing the program,

      • (C) the time at which the program begins and ends,

      • (D) the code set out in Schedule II indicating the language, type or group, as applicable, and

      • (E) where applicable, the code set out in Schedule II indicating an accessible program, and

      • (F) where applicable, the code set out in Schedule II indicating programming that is locally relevant.

• (2) The times required to be entered pursuant to subparagraphs (1)(c)(iii) and (iv) and clause (1)(c)(v)(C) are local times.

• (3) Except as otherwise provided under a condition of its licence, a licensee shall furnish to the Commission, within 30 days after the end of each month, the program log or machine-readable record of the licensee for that month, together with a certificate signed by or on behalf of the licensee attesting to the accuracy of the contents of the log or record.

• (4) Where more than one subitem of Schedule I applies to a program, a licensee may, in respect of that program, cause to be entered in its program log or machine readable record

  • (a) the key figures indicating the subitems that apply to each segment of the program, in the order in which the segments are broadcast; and

  • (b) the start time and duration of each segment of the program.

• (5) A licensee shall retain a clear and intelligible audio-visual recording of all of its programming

  • (a) for four weeks from the date of broadcast; or

  • (b) where the Commission receives a complaint from any person regarding programming or for any other reason wishes to investigate it and so notifies the licensee before the expiration of the period referred to in paragraph (a), for eight weeks from the date of the broadcast.

• (6) Where, before the expiry of the applicable period referred to in subsection (5), the Commission requests from a licensee a clear and intelligible audio or audiovisual recording of its programming, the licensee shall furnish it to the Commission forthwith.

• (7) Where a program is broadcast during reserved time by a station operator who operates as part of a television network, subsection (5) applies only to the network operator.

• (8) This section does not apply to the licensee of a remote station where logging or record-keeping requirements are set out in a condition of licence.

Commercial Messages

11 Except as otherwise provided under a condition of its licence, a licensee shall ensure that every commercial message that it broadcasts complies with the technical requirements set out in ATSC Recommended Practice A/85: Techniques for Establishing and Maintaining Audio Loudness for Digital Television, published by the Advanced Television Systems Committee Inc., as amended from time to time.

Submission of Information

• 12 (1) On or before November 30 of each year, a licensee shall submit to the Commission a statement of accounts, on the annual return of broadcasting licensee form, for the 12 month period ending on the previous August 31.

• (2) On or before September 1 of each year, a licensee shall submit to the Commission a program schedule for the 12 month period ending on August 31 of the following year.

• (3) At the request of the Commission, a licensee shall respond to

  • (a) any complaint or request for resolution of a dispute filed by any person or any request for information regarding the programming originated or distributed by the licensee or regarding the licensee’s technical operations, subscribership, financial affairs or ownership; and

  • (b) any request for information regarding the licensee’s adherence to the conditions of its licence, the Act, these Regulations, industry standards, practices or codes or any other self-regulatory mechanism of the industry.

Affiliation

13 A licensee shall not enter into an affiliation agreement with a person falling within a class described in section 3 of the Direction to the CRTC (Eligible Canadian Corporations).

Ownership of Equipment and Facilities

13.1 Except as otherwise provided pursuant to a condition of its licence, a licensee shall own and operate its transmitter.