CRTC moves quickly on government order regarding World Television Network

The Toronto businessman behind repeated failed bids for an analog multicultural television licence says he’ll take the matter to Canada’s highest court if the CRTC decides to open up the licensing process to other parties. That’s one of the options available to the commission as it reconsiders its December 2001 decision to award only a Category 2 digital specialty TV licence to World Television Network/Le Réseau Télémonde Inc. (WTM). The CRTC moved quickly on the federal government’s directive to reconsider Decision 2001-757, announcing on March 26 that it would take another look at the decision as required by an Order-in-Council dated March 26 – Broadcasting Notice of Public Hearing CRTC 2002-5. Under the Broadcasting Act, where a decision is referred back to the CRTC, the regulator may rescind the decision or the issue of the licence; rescind the issue of the licence and issue a licence on the same or different conditions to another person; or confirm, either with or without change,variation or alteration, the decision or the issue of the licence. Under the second option, it’s possible the commission could call for applications for a national multicultural television licence. But Dan Iannuzzi, who heads WTM, says it wouldn’t be fair if the CRTC decided to open up his decade-long struggle for a must-carry multicultural channel to other parties. "We’d probably end up in Supreme Court (if that happened)," he told CCR prior to the release of the March 26 public notice. Iannuzzi, who publishes a number of ethnic and community-based newspapers, has been trying for more than a decade to get an analog television licence for WTM. "We’re the ones who have been bringing this forth for a decade. We’ve spent $1.74 million to date. We’ve been embarrassed four times by the commission," Iannuzzi said following the government’s decision to uphold his Cabinet appeal of Decision 2001-757. The government did not give the CRTC any specific directive in telling it to take another look at its decision to grant Iannuzzi a discretionary Category 2 licence for WTM (CCR Update, March 20/02; CCR, Jan. 31/02). "They’ve never had a problem with the concept. It was always a question of carriage," Iannuzzi noted. "They thought continuously that this was ethnic television, and under CRTC regulations, ethnic television is generally considered discretionary...But we’re truly a Canadian television service, and we have full right to the priority, basic service. The Multiculturalism Act supports that and the Charter of Rights supports that. If we go to the Supreme Court, we’ll show that the Constitution supports that. Once you’ve spent $1.75 million, what’s another quarter of a million? "(The government) can’t have a cultural diversity policy and have a commission that is thinking in technological diversity," Iannuzzi added. "In other words, using the technology to give people more choice. I’m not going cap in hand to beg Mr. Rogers or Mr. Shaw or any of those guys (for carriage)...This is hogwash." Some broadcasters have indicated to CCR that they would apply if the CRTC put out a call for licence applications, as it did following an appeal to Cabinet after Rogers Broadcasting was twice denied a licence for an over-the-air ethnic TV station in Vancouver. In that case, the government was more specific in its directions to the CRTC, ordering the commission on Oct. 4, 2000 to report by Feb. 28, 2001 on the earliest possible establishment of such a station (CCR, Oct. 13/00). The CRTC ended up putting out a call for applications for the Vancouver station, and ultimately awarded a licence to Multivan Broadcast Corporation (CCR, Feb. 15/02). The CRTC has invited WTM to submit any comment or amendment it might wish to make to its application by April 8. Interested parties have until April 26 to comment on the CRTC’s reconsideration and any new information submitted by WTM, and the applicant will have until May 1 to reply.

CRTC moves quickly on government order regarding World Television Network

Broadcast | March 28, 2002

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