Broadcasting Distribution Regulations

51 (1) Except as otherwise provided under a condition of its licence, if a licensee receives, at least four days before the date on which the programming service is to be broadcast, a written request for substitution or deletion from the operator of a licensed Canadian television programming undertaking, the licensee shall

• (a) delete a non-Canadian programming service and substitute it with the comparable and simultaneously broadcast programming service of the Canadian television programming undertaking whose signal is distributed by the licensee; and

• (b) delete, in respect of subscribers located within the Grade B official contour or noise-limited bounding official contour of the Canadian television programming undertaking, a programming service that is comparable to that of the Canadian television programming undertaking and that would otherwise be received simultaneously by those subscribers.

(2) A licensee may delete and substitute a programming service under subsection (1) even if the licensee receives the request from the operator less than four days before the date on which the programming service is to be broadcast.

(3) A licensee shall not delete a programming service if the Commission notifies the licensee that the deletion is not in the public interest because the programming service to be deleted contains subsidiary signals that are designed to inform or entertain and the simultaneously broadcast programming service does not contain similar signals.

(4) A licensee may discontinue a deletion — and substitution, if any — if the programming services in question are not, or are no longer, comparable and broadcast simultaneously.

(5) For the purposes of this section, the programming service to be substituted shall be of the same format as, or a higher format than, the programming service to be deleted.