Three TV channels specializing in pornography have been forced to enhance their Canadian content and closed-captioning to meet CRTC guidelines.

AOV Adult Movie Channel, AOV Action Clips and AOV Maleflixxx and two mainstream, non-pornographic channels, Moviola and Silver Screen Classics, which are all specialty television services, are up for licence renewals.

They had been warned by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission that they may have failed to comply with licensing conditions when they provided less than 35 per cent Canadian programming and less than 90 per cent closed captioning for English-language shows.

The CRTC has the power to suspend or revoke the licences.

But according to evidence presented to a CRTC licence review hearing in Gatineau, Que., the services are “now in full compliance’’ with Canadian content rules, and 100 per cent of the programming on all the channels is closed-captioned.

According to information given to the hearing Monday by Toronto-based Channel Zero, which provides the television services on behalf of licensees, the media company, an independent start-up, had lacked the proper infrastructure.

Among the changes made to ensure the problems don’t pop up again, Channel Zero has tripled the size of its closed-captioning department to six people, has a third-party provider on contract as back-up, and has hired a compliance officer to monitor, measure and correct compliance issues.

A spokesperson for the CRTC declined to comment on the matter, saying the commission doesn’t make remarks about ongoing licensing issues.

Calls to several senior representatives at Channel Zero, including president Cal Millar, were not returned. When reached by telephone, Joel Fortune, a lawyer who acted on behalf of the company at the CRTC hearing, declined comment.

Aside from the compliance matters, Channel Zero was before the CRTC this week seeking approval for a corporate reorganization.

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