A Category C service is a Canadian specialty television channel which, as defined by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, provides programming in genres that are exempted from the CRTC's format protection rules (of which were formerly protected from competition) and are subject to standard conditions of licences, among other attributes. As of 2011, this category applies to all national news and mainstream sports broadcasters.
Category C services are intentionally unprotected from competition by other Category C services of the same genre, but are still protected from competition by Category B services. Category C services also share common requirements for the exhibition and funding of Canadian-produced programming.
As with Category B services, carriage of Category C services is not mandatory, and distributors must negotiate directly with their operators for carriage. However, despite still being considered Category C channels, carriage of the news channels of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is still regulated — CBC News Network must be carried on a digital basic tier in French-language markets, and likewise Réseau de l'information must be carried on a digital basic tier in English-language markets.[1]
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In a October 2008 public notice, the CRTC announced that it had considered the possibility of lifting format protection restrictions for channels of certain genres considered by the commission to be popular and diverse enough to support competition within Canada's television industry. In particular, the CRTC proposed to lift these restrictions for news and sports services, citing examples of Canadian channels which had remained popular and competitive with each other, despite the restrictions that had been forced in their licenses in order to negate such competition. CTV News Channel (formerly CTV Newsnet), because it competed with CBC News Network (formerly CBC Newsworld), was licensed to serve as a "headline news" service, and was originally required to operate on a strict 15 minute news wheel format (CTV however, successfully lobbied the CRTC in 2005 to have these conditions loosened in order to provide a more flexible service, still within its assigned scope[2]) On the other hand, TSN competes with Sportsnet and The Score — which are licensed as national, regional, and sports news services respectively. Additionally, due to its licensing, The Score is restricted in the amount of live programming it can air.[3]
Several months later, the CRTC officially announced in 2009 that it would be loosening format restrictions for all mainstream sports and national news services in the country, and would allow them to use more streamlined and flexible licensing terms.[4] As part of an overall restructuring of broadcasting regulations to prepare for the country's transition to digital terrestrial television, these channels became legally known as "category C" services beginning on September 1, 2011.[5]