Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has mandated that the big Canadian broadcasters have all Prime Time TV (7 p.m. to 11 p.m.) Described as of September 2019 with the exception of news, sports and advertisements.



Bell Media Inc., Corus Entertainment Inc. and Rogers Media Inc. (who own just about every channel in Canada) are proposing an amendment which would exclude DV for “non-Canadian programs that are received less than 72 hours prior to air. Such programs will be broadcast with described video for repeat airings scheduled in prime time greater than 72 hours from delivery.”

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If they are successful, the following percentage of material would NOT be described for it's first airing:

CTV: 30%

Global: 50%

City: 18%



Those three broadcasters posit, “The creative nature of DV combined with the sheer volume of programs is why live DV is not a viable solution \[…\]; this is particularly the case for scripted program given the complicated nature of the DV process."



Closed Captioning (CC) has been mandated for TV for many years now. Broadcasters and Captioners faced very similar challenges and now it’s a non-issue. As with Live CC, the Improvised DV will be imperfect, but it will still provide some access and allow DV users to share in the shows when everyone else gets to. The Improvised DV would be recorded, transcribed, edited and improved upon, then narrated for subsequent airings. Again, this follows along the lines of how captioning is done when it’s a live show and/ or a very tight turn around.

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Why aren’t the Broadcasters considering this for Descriptive Video? There are people who can train new describers and/ or develop improvising skills in existing ones. There are Canadians who would like the work. There are Canadian DV users who want access – even if imperfect – at the same time everyone else sees the American TV programmes that are aired with fewer than 72-hours of Broadcasters receiving them.

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**If you’re interested in weighing in:**

The CRTC is asking people for consultation. They call them, “interventions”. **The deadline to submit an intervention is May 16, 2019, 5:00 p.m. Vancouver time (8:00 p.m. Ottawa time).** Only people that file an intervention will be allowed to respond if the Broadcasters offer additional information after the initial intervention phase.

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I called to find out if people could phone in an intervention and the answer was no. At this time, people can only submit on the CRTC website. I am unclear if snail mail or fax are possibilities, but submitting via phone is definately not.

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Here is where you submit, but unfortunately the website is awful: $1

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To the best of my ability, here are some tips to navigate your way to a submission:

You will find a table.

In the column on the left called “Notice Number/Part 1”, scroll down to “2019-67” (and “2019-67-1”).

Follow that row across to the “Submit” button in the Deadlines column, below “16 May 2019”.

Or, if you find the fourth column called, “Deadlines”, scroll down and find “New Deadline 16 May 2019”. The “Submit” button is directly under that.

After clicking “submit”, you’ll be taken to a page about how and why they collect your information and ask you to check a box to ensure you understand. The page after that please find “My intervention is in” then via pull down menu choose, “Comment”, “Support” or “Opposition”. Then you can write your comments in a comment box below that.

Further down you will be asked to fill in your information via a variety of pull down menus or short answer comment boxes.