By Peter Berton

GATINEAU, Canada – Boobs, butts and cocks are just fine on pay TV in Canada, as long as the majority of them are Canadian. Broadcasting too much foreign talent may jeopardize a broadcaster’s license, according to communications regulator Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

After a license-renewal hearing last week, CRTC lowered the boom on three domestically owned XXX cable-satellite TV channels: AOV (Adults Only Video) Adult Movie Channel, AOV XXX Action Clips and AOV Maleflixxx. According to the regulator, none of the channels has been complying with regulations established to protect Canadian jobs.

To get a TV broadcast license in Canada, applicants must promise to air an agreed-upon amount of Canadian content (CanCon). The idea is that licensees will source their programming from domestic producers, boosting the Canadian economy as a result.

CRTC determined AOV Adult Movie Channel, AOV XXX Action Clips and AOV Maleflixxx “may have failed to comply with its conditions of license by 1) providing less than 35 percent Canadian programming over the broadcast year and during the evening broadcast period, and 2) providing less than 90 percent closed captioning for English-language programs over the broadcast day for both services.”

The idea that a trio of porn channels could lose their licenses is remarkable, given the extreme rarity of the CRTC taking such steps in the past. The threat has riled normally sedate Canadian media to new heights of sarcasm.

“The CRTC says a group of Canadian porn channels needs a few more naughty Newfoundlanders, Manitoba MILFs and promiscuous prairie girls,” Canoe News reported.

Yahoo! News Canada added, “Perhaps the best way to ensure proper CanCon is to air films with Canadian names, such as The Raunchiest Hobo or Mr. Undressup. The Royal Canadian Mounting Police? Kids in the Whore? Tim’s Whore-tons? Fleshpoint?”