ST. CATHARINES, Ont.

Canada's broadcasting regulator says it has received at least three complaints after a Hamilton, Ont., morning show was interrupted by hard-core gay porn Friday.

Viewers were left stunned after CHCH TV's News Now show was briefly taken over by the hard-core sex scene.

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission spokeswoman Patricia Valladao said the complaints will be forwarded to the cable provider, which is not yet known.

CHCH TV apologized numerous times on air, and blamed cable distribution issues for the mixup.

CHCH is owned by Channel Zero, which also broadcasts adult movie services.

But the station maintains the gay porn wasn't its gay porn.

Lincoln, Ont., resident Kevin Argue said at about 9:33 a.m., the news broadcast froze, for a moment the screen went blank, and was followed by an approximately three-minute episode of a graphic sex act.

"It was an absolute shock," said Argue.

CHCH vice-president of news Mike Katrycz said Shaw cable told him it's "doing a post-mortem" on the gaffe.

"They say they're going to get back to us in writing in a couple of days," he said.

Katrycz said Shaw picks up the station's signal off-air and supplies it to Cogeco as well.

"We know Shaw feeds Cogeco and it appeared on both," he said.

"It's a very complicated web in how a TV signal gets distributed."

Katrycz said the porn also appeared on air in Ottawa through a repeat CHCH transmitter, which gets its signal through another cable company.

"This was in no way CHCH's doing," he said. "We didn't provide or supply that content, it suddenly appeared on cable and satellite distribution, not on our actual air."

That said, "unfortunately there's the impact and that's what we apologize for."

Reaction immediately followed on Twitter and Facebook, with dozens of outraged comments after the porn viewing.

"Did I just see what I think I just saw on #chch TV??" asked Shiona Thompson at the handle @Shionatalk.

"Thinking about filing a lawsuit with #CHCH for making me question my sexuality," wrote Anthony Urciuoli at the handle @AnthonyUrchTLR.

Valladao said the mixup is a cable issue, not a broadcasting issue."

"It was mostly a problem of cable distribution," she said.

After the CRTC sends the complaints to the cable provider, they must provide a report showing steps to ensure it doesn't happen again, she said.

Valladao said Friday afternoon the name of the provider isn't yet known by the commission.

A Cogeco spokeswoman said her cable firm was not the source. A Shaw spokeswoman was contacted, but did not provide comment by the end of day Friday.

dfraser@stcatharinesstandard.ca