Aboriginal Peoples Television Network

APTN building on Portage Avenue in Winnipeg, Manitoba

Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN, stylized aptn) is a Canadian broadcast and Category A cable television network. APTN airs and produces programs made by, for and about aboriginal peoples in Canada or the United States.. It is described as the first of its kind in the world by and is based in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

History

Establishment

Logo while under the name Television Northern Canada (TVNC)

The creation of APTN can be traced back as far as 1980 when the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) issued the Therrien committee report. In that report, the committee drew the conclusion that there was a growing interest of northern Aboriginal peoples in developing their own media services and that the government has a responsibility to ensure that broadcasting landscape supports Aboriginal languages and cultures. They also noted that measures be taken to enable northern native people to use broadcasting to support their languages and cultures.

The implications of this report led to the creation the Northern Broadcasting Policy on March 10, 1983 by the Canadian government. It was a policy which laid out the principles for the development of Northern native-produced programming. Within this policy also came the Northern Native Broadcast Access Program, a funded program used to produced radio and/or television programs in First Peoples' languages to reflect their cultural perspectives.

One of the main problems identified soon after the programs creation was program distribution via satellite. Thus, in January 1987, Canadian aboriginal and Northern broadcasters met in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories to form a non-profit consortium with the goal of establishing a Pan-Northern television distribution service. In 1988, the Canadian government gave the organizers $10 million to establish the network. The application for the new service, initially known as Television Northern Canada (TVNC), was approved by the CRTC in 1991, and the network officially launched on over-the-air signals to the Canadian territories and far northern provinces on January 21, 1992.

National expansion and re-launch

After several years broadcasting in the territories, TVNC began lobbying the CRTC to amend their licence to allow TVNC to be broadcast nationally, showcasing the "uniqueness" and "significance" of a national Aboriginal service. On February 22, 1999, the CRTC granted TVNC a licence for a national broadcast network, On September 1, 1999; the network also re-branded as the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) and was added to all specialty television services across Canada.^[1] APTN was the first national public television network for indigenous peoples.^[2]

Budget

In 2009, APTN had an annual budget of C$42 million.

Distribution

APTN's service consists of five different feeds: two terrestrial feeds, separate national cable feeds for Eastern (Manitoba and east) and Western Canada (Saskatchewan and west), as well as a national HD feed.

The terrestrial feed, the successor to the original TVNC, is available over-the-air in Canada's far northern areas. It consists of flagship station CHTY-TV^[3] in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, semi-satellite CHWT-TV^[4] in Whitehorse, Yukon and numerous low-powered rebroadcasters across the Northwest Territories, Yukon, Nunavut, Alberta, Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador.

On August 31, 2011, APTN shut down 39 low-power television repeaters across the Northwest Territories and Yukon,^[5] representing nearly half of its over-the-air transmitters. Although this happened to be on the same day as Canada's over-the-air digital conversion deadline in certain mandatory markets, these transmitters were not subject to this deadline as none of the mandatory markets were located the Northwest Territories and Yukon.

The Eastern Canada cable feed operated as the national feed until the Western Canada feed began service on October 2, 2006.

APTN is licensed as a national network by the CRTC, thus putting it on par with CBC Television, Radio-Canada and TVA. Since APTN's relaunch as a national network in 1999, all Canadian cable and satellite television providers have been required to include it in their basic service. However, many cable companies outside the Arctic place it above channel 60 on their systems, rendering it inaccessible to older cable-ready television sets that do not go above channel 60. The CRTC has considered requiring cable companies to move APTN to a lower dial position, but decided in 2005 that it would not do so.^[8]

Programming

APTN offers a variety of programming related to Aboriginal peoples, including documentaries, news magazines, dramas, entertainment specials, children's series, movies, sports events, educational programs and more. APTN's network programming is approximately 56% English, 16% French, and 28% Aboriginal languages.

Programs which have aired on the network include:

Adult programs

• APTN National News
• APTN Contact
• Arbor Live!
• Bingo and a Movie
• Blackstone
• Bro'Town
• The Candy Show
• CAUTION: May Contain Nuts
• Cooking With the Wolfman
• First Talk With Tamara Bull
• Friday Night Flick
• Guides and Gurus
• Hard Rock Medical
• La piqure
• Medicine Woman
• Mixed Blessings
• Moccasin Flats
• Mohawk Girls
• My TV
• Native New Yorker
• North of 60
• Northern Exposure
• One With Nature
• Rabbit Fall
• Rez Bluez
• The Sharing Circle
• Storytellers in Motion
• Warriors: TKO
• Wentworth

APTN Kids

This is programming which APTN has indicated is targeted towards children. Some of them currently air on weekends under the "kids" label which has its own logo.^[9]

• Adventures of Little Jake & Many Skies aka Little Jake Many Skies aka The Adventures of Little Jake + Many Skies^[10]
• Amy's Mythic Mornings^[11]
• Anash and the Legacy of the Sun-Rock
• Animism: The Gods' Lake^[12][13]
• Artie the Ant^[14] aka The Adventures of Artie the Ant^[15]
• Bizou^[16][11]
• By The Rapids^[17]
• CG Kids^[18]
• Chic Choc^[19]
• The Deerskins^[20]
• Doggy Day School^[11]
• Fire Quest^[21]
• Garderie Waf Waf^[13]
• Guardians Evolution^[11]
• Inuk^[11]
• Kagagi: The Raven^[11]
• La Crosse Goals^[18]
• The Link (TV series)^[18]
• Little Bear^[13]
• Louis Says^[11]
• Monster Math Squad^[22]
• Mouki^[23][11]
• Nehiyawetan^[19][13]
• The New Adventures of Lucky Luke^[18]
• Planet Echo^[24]
• The Raccoons
• Raven Tales^[25]
• renegadepress.com^[21]
• Road Scholars^[21]
• Takuginai^[11][19]
• Tamanevugut^[11]
• Tiga Talk^[26][11]
• Tipi Tales^[27]
• Total Drama: Pahkitew Island^[11]
• Wapos Bay^[11]
• Wataway Kids^[21]
• Wumpa's World
• Yvon of the Yukon^[27]

APTN HD

In March 2008, APTN launched a high definition simulcast of APTN's cable feed called APTN HD. Unlike the standard definition feed that has eastern, western and northern feeds, APTN HD is a national feed operating from the Eastern Time Zone. It is available on both satellite providers, Bell TV and Shaw Direct.

It is currently available on Bell TV, Bell Fibe TV, Cogeco, EastLink, MTS, Optik TV, Rogers Cable, SaskTel, Shaw Cable, Vmedia and Vidéotron.

See also

• World Indigenous Television Broadcasters Network
• Notable Aboriginal people of Canada

References

External links

• APTN
• Museum of Broadcast Communications -- TVNC History

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