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| CICA (Independent) | ||
|---|---|---|
| TVOntario | ||
| Slogan: "Television that matters." | ||
| Toronto, Ontario | ||
| Channel 19 / Cable 2 | ||
| Owner | OECA | |
| Founded | 1970 | |
| Signal Radius | 98.5% of Ontario | |
| Callsign Meaning | C I Communications Authority | |
| OECA-owned stations | ||
| CICA (Toronto) | CHLF (Hawkesbury) | |
CICA is a public educational television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada better known as TVOntario (TVO). It is owned directly by the provincial government of Ontario but, unlike the federally owned CBC, TVO is largely funded by donations from the public (particularly from viewer pledge drive contributions), much like the American PBS.
TVOntario 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.
All TVOntario rebroadcast transmitters have the same first three letters in their callsigns (CIC), although not all "CIC" callsigns belong to TVOntario.
CICA's history dates back to 1970, when its parent organization, the Ontario Educational Communications Authority, was created by former Education Minister Bill Davis. At that time, the OECA produced children's and educational programming which was aired on commercial television stations.
The OECA eventually applied for and won a license for its own 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.
CICA 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. The station's broadcast name was OECA, sharing the name of its parent organization. In the mid-1970s, however, the station started to become unofficially known as TVOntario. The name change 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, Ontario on October 25, 1975, under the callsign CICO. All of the network's current rebroadcast transmitters carry the call letters CICA, CICO or CICE, followed by a distinct number between 1 and 99.
In 1995, the Mike Harris government promised to privatize TVO. Although they never carried through on this threat, they did severely cut its budget.
Today, TVO serves 98.5 per cent of Ontario households, on 216 transmitters throughout the province.
TVO shows a mixture of original shows, children's programming, British imports such as Masterpiece Theatre, and movies from around the world. TVOntario'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, TVOntario 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.
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.
TVOntario also runs TFO (callsign: CHLF), a French-language public educational network for Franco-Ontarian audiences. TFO is available only on cable in most areas of the province, although the network does also broadcast over the air in some communities in Eastern and Northern Ontario with significant francophone populations.
TFO launched in 1987 as La Chaîne Française, and was rebranded as TFO in 1994. Prior to the launch of La Chaîne, TVO broadcast in French on Sundays from noon until sign-off. For the first several years of La Chaîne's operations, this continued and La Chaîne broadcast in English during the same time block, because TFO was only available on cable and the government wanted to ensure that franco-ontarian viewers without cable still had access to a block of French-language programming. As transmitters were added in a variety of francophone communities, the practice was eventually discontinued.
The network's first broadcast transmitter was added in Sudbury in 1989. However, for CRTC purposes the transmitter in Hawkesbury is listed as the station's primary broadcast transmitter (possibly because this transmitter reaches into the Montreal television market.)
TFO is also available to cable viewers in New Brunswick, as the government of New Brunswick does not have the financial resources to offer its own francophone public television network.
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