CBC Parliamentary Television Network was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

specialty channel A specialty channel (also known in the United States as a cable channel or cable network) can be a commercial broadcasting or non-commercial television channel which consists of television programming focused on a single genre, subject or targeted ...

that broadcast the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada (french: Chambre des communes du Canada) is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The House of Commo ...

proceedings In academia and librarianship, conference proceedings is a collection of academic papers published in the context of an academic conference or workshop. Conference proceedings typically contain the contributions made by researchers at the confer ...

via Anik

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioiso ...

to Canadian

headends between September 1979 and 1992.

History

The House of Commons Broadcast Service was established in October 1977 to maintain the video and audio equipment for broadcasting House of Commons proceedings. CBC had applied for the license in June 1979 to broadcast the House of Commons video feed with additional commentary. A competitive bid, by Canadian cable tv consortium, Cable Satellite Network (CSN) did not get a license for this service. The responsibility to distribute the signal was assigned to the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the governmen ...

. CBC used the Anik satellites to distribute the proceedings to Canadian cable companies. For most of the network's history, John Warren hosted a preview

monologue In theatre, a monologue (from el, μονόλογος, from μόνος ''mónos'', "alone, solitary" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes a ...

before the beginning of daily proceedings and provided a short summary afterward. In 1989, the CBC and a consortium of cable television providers made a joint proposal for the creation of a new entity, the Canadian Parliamentary Channel (CPaC) that would carry the proceedings of the House of Commons and committees, along with proceedings of royal commissions, enquiries, court hearings and provincial legislatures, and public affairs programming. A review of parliamentary broadcasting resulted but the CPaC proposal was not acted upon. In December 1990, the CBC announced that as a result of budget cuts the CBC "is no longer able to bear the cost of operating the English- and French-language parliamentary channels. The government will seek the views of the Speaker of the House and consider means of maintaining the service." The CBC announced that it was discontinuing its role as the parliamentary broadcaster effective April 1, 1991. As an interim measure, the House of Commons' Board of Internal Economy negotiated a temporary contract with the CBC to provide parliamentary coverage for an additional year while the Board considered proposals to take over the service. In 1992, the Board came to an agreement with Canadian Parliamentary Channel, Inc., a consortium of 25 cable companies, to take over the CBC's role. The Cable Public Affairs Channel, owned by a consortium of Canadian cable companies, took over responsibility for broadcasting the

proceedings in 1992.

Hours of operation

Other uses

At times of special occasions, the network was used to carry coverage of

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; french: Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes, links=) is a public organization in Canada with mandate as a regulatory agency for broadcast ...

(CRTC) hearings, as happened in the fall of 1981 to license Canada's first

pay television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, b ...

services. During the summer of 1984,

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

toured

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

. The network was used to carry live coverage as he visited several cities. In October 1984,

NASA TV The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding th ...

coverage of mission

STS-41-G STS-41-G (formerly STS-17) was the 13th flight of NASA's Space Shuttle program and the sixth flight of Space Shuttle ''Challenger''. ''Challenger'' launched on October 5, 1984, and conducted the second shuttle landing at Kennedy Space Center o ...

was

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simul ...

, as Canada's first astronaut in space,

Marc Garneau Joseph Jean-Pierre Marc Garneau (born February 23, 1949) is a Canadian politician, retired Royal Canadian Navy officer and former astronaut who served as a Cabinet minister from 2015 to 2021. A member of the Liberal Party, Garneau was the m ...

, served aboard the Space Shuttle ''Challenger''. In 1986, it was used to air CBC's '' The National'' and '' The Journal'' at 10 p.m. Eastern when it was preempted on the main CBC network by the

Stanley Cup playoffs The Stanley Cup playoffs (french: Les séries éliminatoires de la Coupe Stanley) is an elimination tournament in the National Hockey League (NHL) consisting of four rounds of best-of-seven series to determine the league champion and the winner ...

."Hockey or news? In fact, CBC could have it both ways", by Bronwyn Drainie, The Globe and Mail, 26 May 1990 This prompted complaints from the cable services and the CBC's privately owned affiliates and the network was rebuked by the CRTC for not having first asked for the authorization from the CRTC. Commission chairman Andre Bureau commented "We're not against the CBC using the parliamentary channel for special events if they are authorized to do so by the CRTC, but they should respect the regulations and come to us first.""CRTC boss expects CBC to follow rules" by Christopher Hume, ''Toronto Star'', 19 May 1986 The experiment was not repeated.

CBC-2

For a while during the 1980s, CBC suggested that its broadcast day could be expanded into a second CBC network,

CBC-2 CBC Television 2 and Télé-2 were proposed second television services to be operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)/Société Radio-Canada (SRC). These were to have been the Canadian equivalents to BBC Two in the United Kingdom ...

. However, when they applied to the CRTC for this network, they denied it for that purpose.

References

External links

CBC Archive - Parliament On the Air (October 1977)

''Canadian Parliamentary Review'', Vol. 8 No. 3 (1985) Pierre Ménard

''Canadian Parliamentary Review'', Vol. 8 No. 3 (1985) Robert Anderson

Notes

* The CBC Parliamentary Television Network. Communications Services. CBC Head Office. October 1982. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cbc Parliamentary Television Network Former Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television networks Defunct television networks in Canada Legislature broadcasters in Canada Television channels and stations established in 1979 Television channels and stations disestablished in 1992 House of Commons of Canada