COC Questions The CBC's Plans For All-Sports Channel

The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) is "raising questions about the CBC's plans to launch an all-sports television channel," according to William Houston of the GLOBE & MAIL. COC CEO Chris Rudge, in a letter to the Canadian Radio-television & Telecommunications Commission, noted that the COC "applied for a licence to start its own amateur sports channel 'a full two months' before the CBC filed its application." Yet, the CBC's proposal "will be heard first, in early July." The COC "wants the two applications heard at the same time." The COC's proposed channel would be "devoted exclusively to amateur sport and would allocate funds from the must-carry service to amateur athletes," while the CBC would "commit only 25[%] of its programming to amateur sport and the channel would not include a French-language companion service, which is part of the COC's proposal." Although the COC "offers 'qualified' support for the proposed CBC channel," Rudge in his letter said the channel "does not comprehensively address the needs of amateur sport in Canada" (GLOBE & MAIL, 6/10).