Category A services

A Category A service is a Canadian specialty television channel which, as defined by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, must be carried by all digital cable and direct broadcast satellite providers that have the capability to do so. Also, no rival company may launch a channel with the same programming format.

Category A services are an amalgamation of the former analog pay and specialty services licensed prior to digital television (with the exception of general interest national news and sports specialty services which are designated as Category C services) and the former category 1 digital specialty channels. In a policy decision released on October 30, 2008, the CRTC decided that all Category 1 digital services as well as all analog pay and specialty channels would be renamed Category A services, effective September 1, 2011.

Category A services share a number of similar regulations, such as format protection, mandatory carriage, and higher Canadian content quota levels than Category B services.

The following is a list of all Category A services currently available in Canada:

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