On August 20th 2008, the CRTC granted the CBC a licence for a new speciality channel, CBC Sports Plus, which would offer programming “dedicated primarily to the coverage and celebration of Canadian athletes, with a particular emphasis on amateur athletes”. The licence specified that a minimum of 30% of the programming should be devoted to amateur sports, and that no more than 30% would be devoted to professional sports. Also, no more than 10% of all programming broadcast could be devoted to “professional stick and or ball sports, including hockey, baseball, football, basketball, golf, soccer and tennis”. In addition, a minimum of 80% of the programming would be Canadian content. The CBC had problems persuading major cable operators to carry the proposed new channel. The CRTC subsequently announced a more liberal policy governing the awarding of such licences (The Accessibility Policy), and on October 20th 2009 the CBC filed an application to amend the terms of the original licence, to allow for carriage of a broader range of professional sports programming. This was approved by the CRTC on February 16th 2010, but no launch date was set for the launch of the new channel.
Ownership: CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)
Start Year: 2008