John Ward, THE CANADIAN PRESS

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OTTAWA - The CRTC approved a new CBC sports specialty channel Wednesday, but set strict content rules that will limit its ability to carry popular audience-grabbing sports such as professional hockey, basketball and football.

The new channel, CBC SportsPlus, is to be devoted largely to Canadian sport, with an emphasis on amateurs.

Jeff Keay, a CBC spokesman, said the corporation was pleased at the announcement, but is still studying the fine print.

"Right now, we're going to go through the details of the decision before making further comment," he said.

In its initial application, the CBC proposed to offer "programming dedicated primarily to the coverage and celebration of Canadian athletes with a particular emphasis on amateur athletes."

CBC offered to air a minimum of 25 per cent amateur sport over the year. However, the commission, in approving the proposal, ordered that it broadcast at least 30 per cent amateur sport, calculated on a weekly basis.

The regulator also said no more than 30 per cent of weekly broadcasts could involve pro sports and only 10 per cent could be high-profile sports such as hockey, baseball, football, basketball, golf, soccer or tennis.

Calculation on a weekly, rather than an annual basis, is a significant condition. This is because annual calculations could allow the new station to run well over its limits on some programming at key times - playoffs for example - and then make it up in slack periods.

A number of groups, including CTVglobemedia, Rogers Media Inc., and Score Media, opposed the proposed channel as unfair competition. They argued for some of the restrictions eventually imposed by the regulator.

Score Media, for example, argued that professional sports coverage be limited to 10 per cent of the broadcast week and that the major sports be banned entirely.

The commission didn't go that far, but John Levy, CEO of Score Media, still welcomed the conditions it did set. He pointed out in an interview that the original application would have allowed SportsPlus to devote 75 per cent of its programming to professional sports.

"It's a bit of a compromise and I think it's not unreasonable," he said of the final decision.

"I think it's a win-win. CBC's going be able to do what they said they want to do, which is celebrate amateur sports and Canadian athletes and athletics and not basically just be a second network for CBC to run live sporting events all day long."

He said digital specialty channels are not supposed to compete with existing services

The CBC promised 80 per Canadian content on an annual basis and in the evenings and the commission, while not making that a condition of the licence, said it "expects the CBC to abide by its commitment to broadcast 80 per cent Canadian content in each broadcast year."

The new channel is a Category 2 operation, meaning cable companies don't have to carry it and that CBC will have to find a carrier.