September 10, 2018
The CRTC renewed APTN‘s (CRTC Decision 2018-340) and TV5/UNIS TV‘s (CRTC Decision 2018-344) national mandatory distribution licences effective September 1, 2018 through August 31, 2023. APTN was successful in obtaining a 4% increase in its subscription rate while its Canadian exhibition requirements remain at 75%. It must allocate 80% of its programming time to independent Canadian content and invest 55% of the previous year’s revenue in independent production. TV5/UNIS TV is required to allocate 75% of its Canadian programming expenditures (CPE) to original, first-run Canadian programming for both services combined, of which at least 40% in years 1 and 2 of operation, 50% in years 3 and 4 of operation and 60% in year 5 of operation shall be devoted to the acquisition of original French-language programs that reflect French-Canadian minority communities or are produced or co-produced by independent producers located outside of Montréal; and at least 60% of these expenditures must be directed to programs produced or co-produced by independent producers based outside of Quebec. In addition, TV5/UNIS TV may access a 50% credit against its CPE for Canadian programming produced by independent Indigenous producers. You can read OSM’s intervention and more information about the decisions in the Playback and Cartt articles.