TVOntario, often referred to
only as TVO, (call signs:
CICA, CICE,
CICO) is a publicly-funded, educational English language television station and media organization
in the Canadian
province of
Ontario
. It is a
crown
corporation owned by the
Government of Ontario.
Governance, funding and other responsibilities
TVO is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors, and supported by
a network of Regional Councillors from across the province. TVO
also reports to the Ontario legislature through the Minister of
Education, in accordance with the Ontario Educational
Communications Authority Act.
Instead of
following the model of the federally-owned Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation (CBC), which shows commercials, TVO is instead,
like fellow provincial counterpart in Knowledge in British
Columbia
and PBS in the United States
, funded by donations from the public through
various avenues including online contributions and on-air pledge
drives. Despite viewer donations, the majority of TVO's
funding is provided by the Government of Ontario through the
Ministry of Education, which provides $30 million annually.
As well, TVO is also responsible for over-the-air broadcasts of the
Ontario Legislative
Assembly in some remote
Northern
Ontario communities that don't receive
cable television access to the
Ontario Parliament Network.
In 2002, the Ministry of Education transferred responsibility to
TVO for the
Independent
Learning Centre which provides
distance education at the
elementary and
secondary school level.
TVO also formerly operated
TFO, a separate
similar network for
Franco-Ontarian
audiences. Before the launch of TFO, TVO aired
French language programming on Sundays. Even
after TFO's launch, TVO and TFO swapped programming on Sundays well
into the 1990s. TFO was separated from TVO and incorporated as an
independent agency in 2007.
Distribution
TVO is Canada's oldest educational television service. It
established the country's first UHF TV channel in 1970 at Toronto.
It has larger over-the-air coverage in Ontario than the CBC,
reaching 98.5% of Ontario with 216 transmitters. TVO is also
broadcast on the Bell TV satellite service on channel 265, and on
the Shaw Direct satellite service on channel 353.
All TVO rebroadcast transmitters have the call letters
CICA,
CICO or
CICE, followed by a number to denote their status
as rebroadcasters.
All TVO
transmitters are in Ontario, with one exception — its Ottawa
transmitter, CICO-TV-24, is based at the Ryan Tower
at Camp
Fortune
in Gatineau
, Quebec
, where it
shares its site with its Quebec counterpart, Télé-Québec
, as well as almost all of the region's television
and FM radio signals.
History
1970s
CICA's history dates back to 1970, when its parent organization,
the Ontario Educational Communications Authority, was created by
then Education Minister
Bill Davis in
June that year. At that time, the OECA produced children's and
educational programming which was aired on commercial television
stations.
An early OECA TV logo
The CBC, acting on behalf of the Ontario Ministry of Education's TV
branch, eventually applied for and won a licence for the ministry's
television station in Toronto, Ontario. CICA, with the mandate of
"[using] electronic and associated media to provide educational
opportunities for all people in Ontario". The 'CA' in the CICA
callsign was derived from the last two letters in the OECA
acronym. CBC initially operated the CICA transmitter
while the OECA was in charge of programming. OECA assumed all
operations of the station, independent of the CBC, when the
provincial government declared the Authority an independent
corporation in a 1973 Order-in-Council.
CICA Channel 19 began broadcasting on
September 27,
1970 with
423,000
watts video and 84,600 watts audio. Its
studios were located at 1670 Bayview Avenue and its transmitter was
located at 354 Jarvis Street on the CBC tower; the height of its
antenna was 550 feet. In 1972,
the station moved to its permanent studios at 2180 Yonge Street
where it remains today. The station's broadcast name was
OECA, sharing the name of its parent organization. In
1974, however, the station started to become unofficially known as
TVOntario, a name change that was made official in 1981.
The OECA name is still used for official purposes, such as legal
notices and copyrights.
In the latter half of the 1970s, the network began adding
rebroadcast transmitters in other Ontario communities.
Its very first
rebroadcast transmitter was added in Ottawa
on October 25, 1975, under the
callsign CICO.
1980s-1990s
A TVO logo from 1981
In 1987, TVOntario launched
La Chaîne française, which
became TFO in 1994. In 1995, the
Mike
Harris government promised to privatize TVOntario. They never
carried through on this plan, but did cut its budget.
2000s
The positions of chair and CEO were divided in 2005 with film
producer
Peter O'Brian being appointed
chair and
Lisa de Wilde becoming CEO.
On
June 29,
2006, the
provincial Ministry of Education announced a major overhaul of TVO:
its production capabilities would be upgraded to fully-digital
systems by 2009 (ministry funding would be allocated for this); and
TFO would be spun off into a separate organization.
Previous TVO logo
Moreover, programming changes were announced later that day:
thirteen hours of new weekly children's educational programming was
added,
Studio 2 was replaced by
The Agenda, and
More to Life and
Vox were
cancelled. The move to digitize services represents a transition;
The Globe and Mail
quoted TVOntario CEO Lisa de Wilde saying “While television will
remain an important medium for TVO, the days of defining ourselves
as only a broadcaster are past.”
In 2002 the
Independent
Learning Centre, which is responsible for
distance education at the elementary and
secondary school level as well as
GED testing,
was transferred from the Ministry of Education to TVOntario.
Chairs and CEOs of TVOntario
Programming
- See: List of
TVOntario programs
TVO shows
a mixture of original shows, children's programming, British
imports, and movies from around the world.
In the evenings, TVO runs a mixture of documentary, drama and
public affairs programming for adult audiences, including the
popular
Saturday Night
at the Movies, which presents classic films with
commentary and interview segments. Late at night, TVO shows
educational programming that is designed for teachers to tape and
show in school.
Initially, all dramatic programming was required to have some
educational content. Actors, journalists or writers were hired to
provide commentary on shows that would place them within an
educational context. For instance
Tom Gratton's War was bookmarked by
segments that would use scenes from the series to discuss film
making techniques. Episodes of
The
Prisoner were hosted by journalist
Warner Troyer whose segments included
interviews with the actors and a discussion of various
psychyological, philosophical or sociological themes regarding the
series. Similarly
Doctor Who was
hosted by
science fiction author
Judith Merril who would use discuss
each week's episode to explore various themes in science and
science fiction.
Saturday Night at the Movies continued to
follow this format long after the requirement was dropped because
of the popularity of its host,
Elwy
Yost.
Although French language programs were shown on TVO since its
inception and gradually increased in number since then, they
eventually moved to the French arm of TVOntario, TFO (originally
known as
La Chaîne française). When TFO started, TVO would
run its English language shows on that channel on Sundays after
noon, while the English TVO channel presented
La Chaîne
française programming at that time. This was done to give
francophones without cable some French service, and discontinued in
the 1990s after TFO began launching broadcast transmitters in some
Franco-Ontarian communities.
Programs produced by TVO have been seen outside of Ontario. In the
United States,
Polka Dot
Door and
Parlez-Moi
were carried by
PBS stations, while cable
channel
Nickelodeon aired
Today's Special during the
1980s.
TVOKids
TVOKids is TVO's kids programming block.
Digital television and high definition
As of January 2009, no TVO repeater has begun broadcasting in
digital.
After the
analog television
shutdown and digital conversion, which is tentatively scheduled
to take place on August 31, 2011 , CICA-TV in Toronto is required
to begin digital broadcasts on its current assigned and current
analog channel number, 19; should the station sign on before the
analog shutoff date, the station will broadcast on channel 51.
However, through the use of
PSIP, digital
television receivers will display CICA-TV's
virtual channel as 19.1. Currently, CICA-TV
in Toronto is the only television station in the Toronto-Hamilton
area not to have a digital signal on-air.
TVO's full-powered repeaters are also expected to convert to
digital as well, in similar fashion. Its low-powered repeaters may
be exempt from the changeover.
References
- TVO facts and figures; TVO.org;
- . See page 10.
- Canadian Communications Foundation - Fondation Des
Communications Canadiennes
- History of ILC, accessdate=2008-01-24
- Patrick McGoohan Interview
- http://www.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/oca-bc.nsf/en/ca02336e.html
External links
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