- Source: Discretionary service
A discretionary service is a Canadian specialty channel which, as defined by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, may be carried optionally by all subscription television providers. It replaces the previous category A, category B, category C (instead split into the categories of "mainstream sports" and "national news"), and premium classifications.
Discretionary services may air programming from any of the CRTC's defined categories, although no more than 10% of programming per month may be devoted to live professional sports. Discretionary services may be authorized to offer multiplex channels.
Background
= Prior classifications and genre exclusivity
=The CRTC previously licensed specialty television services into one of three categories, which determined their regulatory obligations (such as the types of programming they may offer, and whether they are allowed to compete with other specialty television services), and how they may be distributed by television providers—known legally as broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs). Prior to 2015, there were three types of specialty channel licenses
Category A services: a category established in 2011 that encompassed the legacy "analog" specialty and premium television channels licensed prior to the establishment of digital cable and satellite (such as MuchMusic), and "Category 1" digital specialty services. Digital BDUs were required to offer all Category A-licensed channels as part of their services. Category A services were licensed within specific scopes, and subject to "genre protection": no other specialty services were allowed to directly compete with a Category A service. As a consequence, Category A licenses carried more stringent obligations on their owners, such as stricter thresholds for the exhibition of specific types of programming and Canadian content. Major pay television services were designated as "premium" services; these services were prohibited from carrying commercial advertising, but were allowed to operate multiple "multiplex" channels consistent with their nature of service.
Category B services (formerly "Category 2"): digital specialty services that were licensed to carry narrower, niche formats in comparison to Category A-licensed channels. BDUs were not obligated to offer all Category B services, and negotiated with their distributors for carriage. Category B services were allowed to compete between each other, but no Category B service was allowed to directly compete with a Category A service.
Category C services encompassed "competitive Canadian specialty services operating in the genres of mainstream sports and national news", which had been given an exemption from the genre protection rules in 2009 that allowed them more flexibility in programming and formats.
= Reforms and discontinuation of genre exclusivity rules
=As part of "Let's Talk TV", a CRTC initiative to reform Canada's broadcasting industry, the Commission announced in 2015 that it would phase out its previous "genre protection" rules, which forbade services with Category B licenses from directly competing with those with Category A licenses. The Commission felt that these restrictions were "no longer needed to ensure programming diversity between services", as "[they] limited programming services to offering certain types of programming and precluded other services from offering that programming." As part of these changes, the CRTC began transitioning all pay and specialty services to standardized conditions of license.
In November 2016, per a request by DHX Media (owner of Family Channel—a network that was licensed as a premium service, but had largely been treated as a non-premium specialty service by television providers), the previous premium television designation was also removed, merging them into the discretionary services category and allowing them to, if they choose, transition to advertising-supported formats. The standard conditions of license were thus amended to allow discretionary services to offer multiplex channels if approved as a condition of license.
List of licensed discretionary services
= Former Category A services
=Category A services were those which had mandatory distribution by all licensed broadcast distribution undertakings. They consisted of the channels that were licensed before the emergence of digital cable, as well as the narrow tier of digital services which were originally licensed as "Category 1" (must-carry) when digital cable was first introduced.
English
French
addikTV
Canal D
Canal Vie
CPAC (French feed)
Elle Fictions
Évasion
Historia
Ici ARTV
Max
MétéoMédia
RDS Info
Séries+
Télétoon
TV5
Unis
Z
Third-language
ATN Channel
Fairchild TV
Odyssey
Talentvision
Telelatino
= Former Category B services
=Category B services were those which had only optional, rather than mandatory, carriage rights on BDUs, and did not have format protection.
English
French
Avis de Recherche
Casa
Frissons TV
Ici Explora
Investigation
Prise 2
QUB (Formerly Yoopa)
Télémagino
Témoin
Vivid TV Canada
Zeste
Third-language
Aaj Tak
All TV
ATN Food Food
ATN SAB TV
ATN Sony TV
ATN Times Now
ATN Zoom
Fairchild TV 2 HD
FPTV
Filmy
Mediaset Italia
Mediaset TGCOM 24
MEGA Cosmos
New Tang Dynasty Television
SSTV
Telebimbi
TeleNiños
Travelxp
Univision Canada
ZEE Bollywood
Zee Cinema
Zee TV Canada
Zing
= National news and sports discretionary services
=English
= News =
CBC News Network
CTV News Channel
The News Forum
= Sports =
Sportsnet
Sportsnet East
Sportsnet Ontario
Sportsnet Pacific
Sportsnet West
Sportsnet One
Sportsnet Flames
Sportsnet Oilers
Sportsnet Vancouver Hockey
TSN
TSN1
TSN2
TSN3
TSN4
TSN5
French
= News =
Ici RDI
LCN
= Sports =
RDS
RDS2
TVA Sports
TVA Sports 2
= Former exempted services
=Disney Channel
Disney Junior
Disney XD
Stingray Hits!
= Former premium services
=Crave (Four multiplex channels)
HBO Canada (East and west)
Family (Two multiplex channels, now mostly former analogue cable services)
Family Jr.
Super Channel (Four multiplex channels)
Super Channel Fuse
Super Channel Heart & Home
Super Channel Vault
Ginx TV Canada
Super Écran (Four Multiplex Channels)
Starz (Two multiplex channels)
Exempted discretionary services
Services with less than 200,000 subscribers that would otherwise meet the definition of a discretionary service, and services which air 90% of their programming in a "third language (a language other than English, French, or those of Canadian aboriginal peoples), are exempted from formal licensing by the CRTC. They must still comply with standard conditions of license published by the CRTC, maintain a file with the Commission, and, if this is the basis of their exemption, pursue an application for licensing if they exceed 200,000 subscribers.
= English
=AOV Adult Movie Channel
beIN Sports Canada
The Cult Movie Network
Exxxtasy TV
FEVA TV
Maleflixxx Television
MAVTV Canada
Stingray Country
Stingray Juicebox
Stingray Loud
Stingray Retro
Stingray Now 4K
Stingray Vibe
Toon-A-Vision
Vertical TV
Vintage TV
XXX Action Clips Channel
= Third-language
=References
See also
List of television stations in Canada by call sign
List of Canadian television networks
List of Canadian television channels
List of Canadian specialty channels
List of foreign television channels available in Canada
List of United States television stations available in Canada
Digital television in Canada
Multichannel television in Canada
Kata Kunci Pencarian:
- Sistem Berkas Teknologi Baru
- Windows NT
- Discretionary service
- Discretionary spending
- Category C services
- Amdavad Municipal Corporation
- Family Channel (Canadian TV channel)
- Discretionary review
- The News Forum
- TSC (TV channel)
- Le Canal Nouvelles
- Oprah Winfrey Network (Canadian TV channel)
