YTV, the national children's and youth channel, wants to play with the big kids.

Big Daddy, the federal broadcast regulator, allowed YTV to go on air Sept 1., 1988, with one surprise no-no during its first five years.

Unlike all other networks, stations and entertainment channels, YTV cannot air drama programs in prime time if their "major" protagonists, their heroes, are over the age of 18, or are folk story, comic book or super hero characters.

That condition of license, says YTV president Kevin Shea, meant the channel had to drop reruns of Bonanza from prime time when little Joe turned 18.

"And we can't run in Dr. Who (reruns) in prime time. We also can't run the live action series, The Hardy Boys, being produced by Toronto's Nelvana, in prime time, because the boys are over 18. Batman and Superman series don't fit either."

Even the existence of the adult fly on Toronto's Atlantis Film- produced Maniac Mansion keeps the show out of YTV's prime time.

"That's all very silly," argues Shea.

"Forty per cent of our schedule has to be programmed for youth, age 12 to 17. Do 16 or 17-year-olds want to see programs featuring those just their own age? Seventeen- year-olds want to see kids in university; they're even watching (daytime) soap operas in substantial numbers."

Shea presses the argument now because early next year YTV will be before the federal broadcast regulator for licence renewal - a now- standard seven years, rather than the previous five-year term.

Renewal is assured.

YTV has met all license conditions and rates high with focus- group viewers surveyed in October by Decima Research. Decima's boss, Allan Gregg, owns 5.3 per cent of YTV. The channel's leading shareholders, cable companies, Rogers and CUC, own 25.4 per cent each.

"We have succeeded beyond our original expectations," YTV says in its renewal application, noting a current 970,000 subscribers and predicting a slow but measured increase to come.

It pledges to spend $84 million on Canadian programs over the next seven years, a total of $11.4 million more than for the first five years.

And it pointedly does not want more than the one hour of U.S. programming currently allowed every night.

The key changes YTV seeks is to be to allowed to extend its prime- time shows to those featuring a "major protagonist under the age of 21" and also folk, comic book and or super heroes.

"A youth audience," says the renewal application, "is keenly interested in these upcoming challenges: going to university, finding that first apartment, entering the workplace, falling in love.

"Expanding the protagonist's age limit by only three years would retain YTV's youth focus, yet allow these key adolescent issues to be investigated and explored."

Some national networks and other TV broadcasters applauded and still want such restrictions imposed because, they argue, YTV, otherwise, would encroach more on their own audiences and compete more for commercial revenue, both of which are in decline these days.

YTV's application also notes excluding folk, comic book or super hero characters from prime time prevents the channel from running "many children's classic folk tales such as Rumpelstiltskin, Sinbad The Sailor and Johnny Canuck" during those hours.

YTV requests one less controversial change that's most likely to meet favor.

Canadian networks and stations are permitted 12 commercial minutes every hour. YTV is permitted only eight commercial minutes an hour and is not asking for more.

"We are not trying to get more commercial time," insists Shea. "We don't want more commercial time."

But other TV broadcasters also are allowed two more minutes for a combination of free public service announcements and promotion of their Canadian programs.

The broadcast regulator is about to deregulate - that is, let networks and stations air as many, or as few, public service announcements and Canadian program promos as they want.

YTV currently is not allowed any extra time for PSAs or for Canadian program promos and must squeeze them within its eight minutes an hour allotted for commercials.

For the next seven years, it wants four extra minutes an hour for them.

By current licence condition, YTV spends 30 per cent of its gross revenues on Canadian programs, reruns such as The Friendly Giant and original series such as Rupert and The Adventures Of Black Stallion.

"We're going to raise that to 35 per cent," says Shea. "And we would spend 45 per cent of gross revenues for Canadian programming in the first four years of our seven-year plan.

In January, YTV will premiere a talk show it's co-producing with Vancouver's WIC Broadcasting. The show features a Vancouver psychiatrist helping real children with problems. But that's not a drama, so the kids do not have to be under 18.