Source : Hollywood Reporter

OTTAWA -- Canada's broadcast regulator on Wednesday renewed the licenses of 22 domestic specialty channels for another seven years, while denying some of the services the per-subscriber rate increases they had sought.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) renewed specialty channels initially launched in 1996 for a second license term to run until Aug. 31, 2010.

Combined, the specialty channels last year earned revenue totaling about CAN$439 million ($337.6 million).

But any hope that revenue would climb higher in the coming years owing to increased subscriber rates was dashed by the CRTC, which tightly regulates the domestic TV industry.

The Score, a cable sports channel owned and operated by Headline Media Group, asked the CRTC for a rate increase of CAN$0.30 (23 cents) to CAN$0.40 a month, or 300%, while Sportsnet, another sports channel owned and operated by Rogers Media Inc., requested a 37% increase, or CAN$0.29 (22 cents) to take its monthly rate to CAN$1.07 (82 cents).

The CRTC answered criticism from domestic content distributors when it granted the Score a rate increase of only CAN$0.04 (3 cents), and denied any increase to Sportsnet.

In its decision, the CRTC noted that any wholesale rate increase that it granted must go toward incremental programming and not toward a broadcaster's profitability.

"With respect to Rogers' request to increase its wholesale rate, the commission notes that the licensee did not propose to allocate the revenues (from an increase) that would be generated by the proposed licensee to initiatives that would improve the programming offered by SportsNet," the CRTC said. "Instead the licensee's request was based primarily on making SportsNet's wholesale rate equal to that of (another sports specialty channel) TSN."

Other specialty channels renewed by the CRTC include CTV Inc.'s the Comedy Network Inc., CTV Newsnet and Report on Business Television (RoBTV); Alliance Atlantis Communications' Home and Garden Television Canada, History Television and Outdoor Life Network; Corus Entertainment's Teletoon Canada and Treehouse TV; and CHUM Ltd.'s Space: The Imagination Station, MuchMoreMusic and CablePulse24.

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