The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ( CRTC, French: Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes ) is a public organisation in Canada with mandate as a regulatory agency for broadcasting and telecommunications.

The CRTC regulates all Canadian broadcasting and telecommunications activities and enforces rules it creates to carry out the policies assigned to it ; the best-known of these is probably the Canadian content rules.

The CRTC reports to the Parliament of Canada through the Minister of Canadian Heritage, which is responsible for the Broadcasting Act, and has an informal relationship with Industry Canada, which is responsible for the Telecommunications Act.

In many cases, such as the cabinet-directed prohibition on foreign ownership for broadcasters and the legislated principle of the predominance of Canadian content, these acts and orders often leave the CRTC less room to change policy than critics sometimes suggest, and the result is that the commission is often the lightning rod for policy criticism that could arguably be better directed at the government itself.

However, the CRTC is also sometimes erroneously criticized for CBSC decisions — for example, the CRTC was erroneously criticized for the CBSC's decisions pertaining to the airing of Howard Stern's terrestrial radio show in Canada in the late 1990s, as well as the CBSC's controversial ruling on the Dire Straits song " Money for Nothing ".

In a major May 1999 decision on " New Media ", the CRTC held that under the Broadcasting Act the CRTC had jurisdiction over certain content communicated over the internet including audio and video, but excluding content that is primarily alphanumeric such as emails and most webpages.

In May 2011, in response to the increase presence of Over-the-Top ( OTT ) programming, the CRTC put a call out to the public to provide input on the impact OTT programming is having on Canadian content and existing broadcasting subscriptions through satellite and cable.

The evidence was inconclusive, suggesting that an increased availability of OTT options is not having a negative impact on the availability or diversity of Canadian content, one of the key policy mandates of the CRTC, nor are there signs that there has been a significant decline of televisions subscriptions through cable or satellite.

The CRTC is sometimes blamed for the current state of the mobile phone industry in Canada, in which there are only three national mobile network operators – Bell Mobility, Telus Mobility, and Rogers Wireless – as well as a handful of MVNOs operating on these networks.

While landline and mobile telephone providers must also be majority-owned by Canadians under the federal Telecommunications Act, the CRTC is not responsible for enforcement of this provision.

In fact, the commission does not require licences at all for telephone companies, and CRTC approval is therefore not generally required for the sale of a telephone company, unless said company also owns a broadcast licence.

Despite popular perception that the CRTC banned Sirius Canada from broadcasting Howard Stern's program, this is not the case.

a state regulatory body called Krajowa Rada Radiofonii i Telewizji ( The National Radio and Television Committee ), which is similar to CRTC in Canada.

Under the Broadcasting Act, a network is defined as " any operation where control over all or any part of the programs or program schedules of one or more broadcasting undertakings is delegated to another undertaking or person " and must be licensed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ( CRTC ).

Only CBC / Radio-Canada, TVA and APTN are officially considered national networks by the CRTC, while V is a provincial network in Quebec.

While Canadian TV stations are technically required to identify themselves over the air by their call letters, the rule is rarely enforced by the CRTC.

This significant decline from over 2000 just a few years ago is attributable both to major cable companies acquiring smaller distributors and to a recent change in CRTC rules by which independent cable operators with fewer than 2, 000 subscribers are no longer required to operate under full CRTC licences.

This is an exemption granted by the CRTC to previously licensed companies that continue to meet certain conditions, and does not mean that anybody can simply set up their own small cable company without CRTC approval.

This was done primarily as a tactic to comply with Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ( CRTC ) restrictions on advertising in children's programming: popular imported programming would run a few minutes short due to fewer ads being permitted compared to US stations.

Also that year, the CRTC granted Radio-Québec permission to show commercials during some of its programming, initially for a two-year trial run.

In 1976, jurisdiction over telecommunications services, most of which were then delivered by monopoly common carriers ( for example, telephone companies ), was transferred to it from the Canadian Transport Commission although the abbreviation CRTC remained the same.

Complaints against broadcasters, such as concerns around offensive programming, are dealt with by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council ( CBSC ), an independent broadcast industry association, rather than by the CRTC, although CBSC decisions can be appealed to the CRTC if necessary.

* Milestone Radio: In two separate rounds of license hearings in the 1990s, the CRTC rejected applications by Milestone Radio to launch a radio station in Toronto which would have been Canada's first urban music station ; in both cases, the CRTC instead granted licenses to stations that duplicated formats already offered by other stations in the Toronto market.

* CHOI-FM: The CRTC announced it would not renew the licence of the popular CHOI-FM radio station in Quebec City, after having previously sanctioned the station for failing to uphold its promise of performance and then, during the years following, receiving about 50 complaints about offensive behaviour by radio jockeys which similarly contravened CRTC rules on broadcast hate speech.

* Al Jazeera: Was approved by the CRTC in 2004 as an optional cable and satellite offering, but on the condition that any carrier distributing it must edit out any instances of illegal hate speech.

On November 18, 2004, however, the CRTC approved an application by cable companies to offer Fox News on the digital cable tier.

* Satellite radio: In June 2005, the CRTC outraged some Canadian cultural nationalists ( such as the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting ) and labour unions by licencing two companies, Canadian Satellite Radio and Sirius Canada to offer satellite radio services in Canada.

* Bell Canada usage-based billing: On October 28, 2010, the CRTC handed down its final decision on how wholesale customers can be billed by large network owners.

Bell appealed both requirements, citing that the rules do not apply to cable companies and that they constituted proactive rate regulation by the CRTC, which goes against government official policy direction that the regulator only intervene in markets after a competitive problem has been proven.

According to a tweet by Industry Minister Tony Clement, unless the CRTC reverses this decision, the government will use its override power to reverse the decision.

It has also tried to protect Canadian culture by setting legal minimums on Canadian content in many media using bodies like the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ( CRTC ).< ref >

Only four national over-the-air television networks are currently licensed by the CRTC: the government-owned CBC ( English ) and Radio-Canada ( French ), French-language private network TVA, and a network focused on Canada's indigenous peoples, APTN.

The CRTC ordered that in 28 " mandatory markets ", full power over-the-air analog television transmitters had to cease transmitting by August 31, 2011.

In the mid-1980s, it tried to launch stations in the key Western markets of Calgary and Edmonton, only to be rebuffed by the CRTC.

The channel still airs the few arts-related series aired by Bravo USA ( such as Inside the Actors Studio and Work of Art ), but due to Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ( CRTC ) regulations which require the channel to still air programming related to arts, Bravo Canada does not air the vast majority of the U. S. channel's reality seriesmost of them have been picked up by other Canadian specialty channels.

On April 9, 2007, Omni Television owner Rogers Communications applied to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ( CRTC ) to purchase all of the A-Channel stations ( including CFPL ), CKX-TV and several cable channels being put up for sale in the wake of CTVglobemedia's pending acquisition of the CHUM group.

However, following a complaint filed by CTV in 2008, the CRTC has tightened up enforcement, issuing a statement that the Super Bowl XLIII standard and high definition broadcasts must be simsubbed for providers within range of CTV's OTA transmitters.

On April 9, 2007, it was announced that Rogers Communications has filed with the CRTC to purchase all of the A-Channel stations, including CFPL, CKNX, CKX-TV, Access Alberta and several cable channels being put up for sale by CHUM Limited in the wake of CTVglobemedia's pending acquisition of the CHUM group.

On April 9, 2007, it was announced that Rogers Communications filed with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ( CRTC ) to purchase all of the A-Channel stations, including CKNX, CKX-TV, Access Alberta and several cable channels being put up for sale in the wake of CTVglobemedia's pending acquisition of the CHUM group.

CRTC genre exclusivity restrictions prevented MTV from either bringing its U. S. channel directly into Canada or setting up a homegrown competitor.

Originally to be introduced in 2015, on July 20, 2011, the CRTC has moved up the introduction of the new 873 area code to September 15, 2012.

The CRTC decided to move up the date, after a report stated that the current 819 area code would be exhausted by then.

In 1982, CANCOM proposed adding four additional television stations and additional radio signals, originating in the United States, in order to bring the American " three-plus-one " package to all Canadians that the CRTC had previously accepted the principle of allowing to southern cable companies that picked up signals from nearby United States cities.

Godin wanted to improve the infrastructure of the radio station from the ground up, to prove to the CRTC that CKRG could be capable of broadcasting on the FM frequency once again.

On July 9, 2007 Blackburn Radio was given approval by the CRTC to open up a new country music radio station at FM 92. 7 MHz.