APTN building on Portage Avenue in Winnipeg, Manitoba
The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN, stylized aptn) is a Canadianspecialty channel. Established in 1992 and maintained by governmental funding to broadcast in Canada's northern territories, APTN acquired a national broadcast licence in 1999. It airs and produces programs made by, for and about Indigenous peoples in Canada and the United States. Based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, it is the first network by and for North American indigenous peoples.[1]
History
Establishment
Logo while under the name Television Northern Canada (TVNC)
In 1980, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) issued the Therrien Committee Report. In that report, the committee concluded that northern Indigenous peoples had increasing interest in developing their own media services and that the government has a responsibility to ensure support in broadcasting of Indigenous cultures and languages. The committee recommended measures to enable northern native people to use broadcasting to support their languages and cultures.
The Canadian government created the Northern Broadcasting Policy, issued on March 10, 1983. It laid out principles to develop Northern native-produced programming. The policy included support for what was called the Northern Native Broadcast Access Program, a funded program to produce radio and/or television programs in First Peoples' languages to reflect their cultural perspectives.
Soon after the program's creation, problems were recognized in the planned program distribution via satellite. In January 1987, Canadian aboriginal and Northern broadcasters met in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories to form a non-profit consortium to establish a Pan-Northern television distribution service. In 1988, the Canadian government gave the organizers $10 million to establish the network. The application for the new service, initially known as Television Northern Canada (TVNC), was approved by the CRTC in 1991. The network officially launched on over-the-air signals to the Canadian territories and far northern areas of the provinces on January 21, 1992.
National expansion and re-launch
After several years broadcasting in the territories, TVNC began lobbying the CRTC to amend their licence to allow TVNC to be broadcast nationally; they promoted the "uniqueness" and "significance" of a national Aboriginal service. On February 22, 1999, the CRTC granted TVNC a licence for a national broadcast network.
On September 1, 1999, the network also re-branded as the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN). It was added to all specialty television services across Canada.[2] APTN was the first national public television network for indigenous peoples.[1]
APTN's service consists of six different feeds: two terrestrial feeds, separate national cable feeds for Eastern (Ontario and east), Western Canada (Manitoba and west), Northern Canada, as well as a national HD feed.
On August 31, 2011, APTN shut down 39 low-power television repeaters across the Northwest Territories and Yukon,[5] representing nearly half of its over-the-air transmitters. Although this discontinuation was conducted on the same day as Canada's over-the-air digital conversion deadline in certain mandatory markets, these over-the-air transmitters were not subject to this deadline. None of the mandatory conversion-to-digital markets were located the Northwest Territories or Yukon.
APTN's 2013 CRTC licence renewal featured zero over-the-air transmitters.[6]
In November 2016, CEO Jean La Rose told the Winnipeg Free Press that APTN was negotiating carriage for a U.S. service. He noted that there was a high level of interest among Native Americans for programming relevant to their communities.[7]
The Eastern Canada cable feed operated as the national feed until the Western Canada feed began service on October 2, 2006.
APTN is licensed as a national network by the CRTC, thus putting it on par with CBC Television, Radio-Canada and TVA. Since APTN's relaunch as a national network in 1999, all Canadian cable and satellite television providers have been required to include it in their basic service. However, many cable companies outside the Arctic place it above channel 60 on their systems, rendering it inaccessible to older cable-ready television sets that do not go above channel 60. The CRTC considered requiring cable companies to move APTN to a lower dial position, but decided in 2005 that it would not do so.[10]
In 2019, the channel launched APTN Lumi, a streaming service distributing APTN programming on the internet and streaming television devices.[11]
Programming
APTN offers a variety of programming related to Aboriginal peoples, including documentaries, news magazines, dramas, entertainment specials, children's series, movies, sports events, educational programs and more. APTN's network programming is c. 56% English, 16% French, and 28% Aboriginal languages.
In March 2008, APTN launched a high definition channel known as APTN HD; initially, the HD feed was a straight simulcast of APTN's Eastern cable feed, complying with the requirement that a specialty channel's HD simulcast must be 95% identical in programming and scheduling to its standard-definition feeds. In May 2017, the CRTC amended APTN's license so that APTN HD's programming would no longer necessarily have to mirror the scheduling of the SD feeds, as long as 95% of its programming had aired at some point on one of APTN's SD feeds. The network argued that this change would allow it more flexibility in scheduling programming on APTN HD to reach a broader audience.[39]
First Peoples Radio
On June 14, 2017, a subsidiary of APTN, First Peoples Radio Inc. (FPR), was granted licences by the CRTC to operate radio stations in Toronto and Ottawa aimed at urban Indigenous populations in those cities. The Ottawa station will broadcast on 95.7 FM and the Toronto station will use 106.5 FM. Both frequencies had previously been allocated to Aboriginal Voices Radio which had its licenses revoked in 2015. FPR had also applied for licenses in Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver but the CRTC granted these to other applicants.[40]
First Peoples Radio Inc had originally announced that its two radio stations, CFPT-FM in Toronto[41] and CFPO-FM in Ottawa,[42] were to go on the air by June 2018 but later delayed its soft launch until October 24, 2018. FPR will produce and share programming with the Missinipi Broadcasting Corporation in Saskatchewan and Native Communications Incorporated in Manitoba and is also in talks with the Aboriginal Multi-Media Society, which has been granted radio licenses in Edmonton and Calgary, and Northern Native Broadcasting (Terrace), which operates an Indigenous radio station in Terrace, British Columbia, and has been granted a license to operate a radio station in Vancouver, about potential programming partnerships.[43]
The stations first went on the air on October 24, 2018 at noon, branded as Elmnt FM.[44]
Expansion into the United States
APTN is working towards launching a similar outlet, tentatively titled All Nations Network, in the United States.[45] The network has already aired works produced in the United States, such as the full-length documentary film Skydancer, directed by Katja Esson, about the community of Akwesasne and its ironworkers. It was aired on both APTN and PBS in the United States in October 2012, after winning awards at film festivals.
^Government of Canada, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC); Government of Canada, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) (Jan 15, 2008). "Local Broadcast Markets - Diversity of Voices - Toronto". crtc.gc.ca. Retrieved Jan 24, 2021.
^Bredin, M., Sigurjón Baldur Hafsteinsson, & Canadian Electronic Library. (2010). Indigenous screen cultures in Canada / edited by Sigurjón Baldur Hafsteinsson and Marian Bredin. (DesLibris. Books collection). Winnipeg [Man.]: University of Manitoba Press.
