Community channel (Canada)

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A community channel, in Canadian broadcasting, is a television channel produced and aired by a local cable television company, airing programming of local community interest.

A community channel is a form of Citizen media, much like public access television in the United States and other forms of citizen produced content. The provision of a community channel is required by CRTC regulations governing the licensing of cable companies.

1 History
2 Programming and branding
3 Notable community channel systems
4 See also

[edit] History

Nanook of the North

In Canada, citizen media has roots going back to 1922 when filmmaker Robert Flaherty brought in an Inuit hunter to participate in Nanook of the North. In the 1960s this film was cited as an inspiration by a group of Canadian filmmakers called The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) whose Challenge for Change project was part of Canada's War on Poverty. In 1967 Challenge for Change contributed to a prototype studio where people were free to help shape communuity media. More public access experiments followed. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission required cable companies to provide public access on July 16, 1971.

[edit] Programming and branding

Community channels commonly broadcast a mix of public access and community service programming such as city council meetings, sports broadcasts or local talk shows. Some community channels produce full programs, while others predominantly adopt the format of a local news channel with a constant rotation of news reports. When not broadcasting live programming, a community channel typically displays a bulletin board of community event listings.

More rarely, a cable company may offer more than one community channel. For instance, in Ottawa and some communities in New Brunswick, distinct channels serve the anglophone and francophone communities.

Large companies may brand all of their community channels similarly — for example, all community channels operated by Rogers Cable are branded as Rogers Television. Such systems may also share some of their more general interest programming. For example, Canadian film critic Geoff Pevere hosts a movie review series, Reel to Real, which airs on all Rogers Television channels regardless of location.

A notable community channel success story is Tom Green, whose guerilla gross-out comedy first appeared on Rogers Television in Ottawa. Some other personalities currently associated with community channel programming include Catherine Clark, Jacqueline Hennessy and Dale Goldhawk.

The term community channel may, on occasion, also refer to a conventional broadcast station — for example, CFTV in Leamington, Ontario, or CHCT in St. Andrews, New Brunswick — owned and operated by a local non-profit organization to serve a similar function.