, officially the '''Ontario Educational Communications Authority''', is an educational
Public Television broadcaster in the
Canadian province of
Ontario . It is owned directly by the provincial government of
Ontario . Instead of following the model of the federally-owned
CBC , which shows commercials, TVOntario is instead, like
PBS in the
United States , funded by donations from the public, particularly from viewer contributions made during on-air pledge drives. However, the vast majority of TVOntario's funding is provided by the Government of Ontario, which contributed $58.8 million in 2005-06.
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TVOntario, currently branded , is Canada's oldest educational TV service, and the country's second oldest UHF TV channel. 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 ExpressVu satellite service on Channel 265, and on the StarChoice satellite service on Channel 353.
All TVO rebroadcast transmitters have the call letters , '''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.
TVOntario also formerly operated
TFO , a separate 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 TVOntario and incorporated as an independent agency in 2007.
As well, TVOntario is also responsible for over-the-air broadcasts of the
Ontario Legislative Assembly in some remote
Northern Ontario communities that don't have
Cable Television access to the
Ontario Parliament Network .
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.
The
CBC , acting on behalf of the Ontario Ministry of Education's TV branch, eventually applied for and won a license for the ministry's television station in Toronto, Ontario, CICA, with the mandate of '
{Link without Title} 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 would be in charge of programming; OECA would assume 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 began broadcasting on
September 27 ,
1970 with 423,000
Watt s 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. 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.
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.
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.
1
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.
2 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.”
3
''See:
List Of TVOntario Programs ''
TVO shows a mixture of original shows, children's programming,
British imports, and movies from around the world. TVO's daytime schedule is mostly children's programming. One of the network's most famous children's series is ''
Polka Dot Door ''. 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. Much of TVO's instructional programming also airs on
Public Television stations in the United States, such as the
Wisconsin Public Television network.
Initially, all dramatic programming was required to have some educational content. Actors, journalists or writers were hired to provide commentary on shows. ''
Doctor Who '', for example, was hosted by
Science Fiction author
Judith Merril . ''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. When La Chaîne française 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.
