- published: 26 Feb 2016
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Community television is a form of mass media in which a television station is owned, operated and/or programmed by a community group to provide television programs of local interest known as local programming.
Community television stations are most commonly operated by non-profit groups or cooperatives. However, in some cases they may be operated by a local college or university, a cable company or a municipal government.
Most community channels in Canada are owned and operated by cable companies, as a requirement of license imposed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). However, due to the state of concentration of media ownership in Canada, whereby the vast majority of Canada's conventional television stations are now owned by national media conglomerates and offer very little locally-oriented programming, terrestrial community channels began to emerge in the 2000s in many smaller markets not directly served by their own commercial television stations. Community channels of this latter type are generally operated by local non-profit groups.