TVO

TVO (stylized in all lowercase as tvo), formerly known as TVOntario, is a Canadian publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It operates flagship station CICA-DT (channel 19) in Toronto, which also relays programming across portions of Ontario through eight rebroadcast stations. All pay television (cable, satellite, IPTV) providers throughout Ontario are required to carry TVO on their basic tier, and programming can be streamed for free online within Canada.

TVO is operated by the Ontario Educational Communications Authority (OECA), a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Ontario, which since 2022 has done business as the TVO Media Education Group (or TVO.me). TVO.me also operates TVO Today, TVO ILC, TVO Learn, and TVOKids.

TVO is governed by a volunteer board of directors, and supported by a network of regional councillors from across the province. TVO also reports to the Ontario legislature through the Minister of Education, in accordance with the Ontario Educational Communications Authority Act.

Instead of following the model of the federally owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)'s television services, which shows commercial advertisements, TVO chose a commercial-free model similar to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States (in fact, various TVO productions wound up being aired on PBS stations). This model was later emulated by provincial educational broadcasters Télé-Québec in Quebec and Knowledge Network in British Columbia.

The majority of TVO's funding is provided by the Government of Ontario through the Ministry of Education, which provides $54.4 million annually, with additional funding provided by charitable donations. In 2023, TVO's total revenue was $66 million.^{[citation needed]}

TVO is also responsible for over-the-air broadcasts of the Ontario Legislative Assembly in some remote Northern Ontario communities that do not receive cable television access to the Ontario Parliament Network.

In 2002, the Ministry of Education transferred responsibility for the Independent Learning Centre—the agency which provides distance education at the elementary and secondary school level—to TVO.

TVO used to operate TFO (Télévision française de l'Ontario), a separate but similar network for Franco-Ontarian audiences. Before the launch of TFO, TVO aired French-language programming on Sundays. Even after TFO's launch, TVO and TFO swapped programming on Sundays well into the 1990s. TFO was separated from TVO and was incorporated under the newly formed GroupeMédia TFO, a separate Crown corporation of the Government of Ontario, in 2007.