The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) — Canada’s version of the FCC — has published a notice to the owners of AOV Adult Movie Channel and its sister channels, AOV XXX Action Clips and the gay-themed AOV Maleflixxx, that their programming “may have failed to comply with its conditions of licence”.

The corporate owner, Channel Zero, also runs specialty channels including Movieola, Rewind and Silver Screen Classics, as well as Hamilton’s local station CHCH, although the most intriguing of the purported infractions concern the programming on Channel Zero’s adult movie stations.

Canada.com’s Marc Weisblott writes:

The channels, which were developed in conjunction with the Adults Only Video chain that proliferated across the country in the 1990s, are in trouble for failing to air the 35 per cent Canadian content they were expected to provide viewers.

AOV Adult Movie Channel’s website (NSFW) shows a program called “Canadian Quickies” interspersed throughout its broadcasting day, a full nine hours of programming.

Channel Zero’s programming may also have violated a CRTC rule requiring at least 90 per cent of content to be closed-captioned for the hearing impaired.

Cue the jokes about the importance of porn movie dialogue…

The CRTC is soliciting public comments until April 4 on whether Channel Zero’s licences should be renewed. A hearing (presumably a very polite one) is scheduled for April 28th.