Rogers argues for competition in community television sector

GATINEAU, Que.--Rogers Communications Inc. told the CRTC Monday that free market competition is better for the community television sector than partnering to provide channels. On Friday, Bell Canada proposed a plan to create two national community channels, one English and one French, and that existing community channels should not compete with one another in the same markets. “I think it’s better to do it competitively,” Ken Engelhart, Rogers’ senior vice-president of regulatory affairs, told the commission during hearings to review the sector’s policy framework. “Having to come up with a competitive service forced to do something interesting." Konrad von Finckenstein, chairman of the CRTC, asked Engelhart at the hearing whether competitive community channels could pose a problem. “Shouldn’t decide if they want to have it competitive or not?” he asked. “They might think it’s better to have two people covering events than just one,” Engelhart replied. “I think that even something with as strong a public interest component as this, benefits from competition.” MTS also addressed the commission Monday. Since 2007, the company has provided community television content through its video-on-demand (VOD) service to customers in Winnipeg. “In the broadcast year 2008-2009, we added 105 programs to the Winnipeg on-demand library, and 86 per cent of those were access programs,” Greg McLaren, manager of MTS TV content, told the CRTC. The CRTC defines community access programming as that produced by individuals, groups or companies in the community, as opposed to the cable company. The CRTC is holding the hearings as part of its review of the community television policy framework. Right now, the large cable companies contribute two per cent of subscriber revenues to channels providing community access programming. Each of the major cable companies operates their own community television channels. MTS told the commission that cable companies should make community programs available to competitors so that more members of the community can benefit from it. “However, we recommend that the sharing of community programming be limited to the community in which the programming was produced,” Jenny Crowe, director of regulatory law with MTS, told the commission. Community access to the channels has been a top issue at the hearings. Organizations like the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS), have criticized cable companies like Rogers for not providing enough community access on their community television channels. Martha Fusca, president and CEO of Stornoway Communications Inc., a Toronto television broadcasting and production enterprise, echoed CACTUS’ concerns before the commission Monday. “People are very concerned about the fact that they can’t get access to their local community channel,” she told the commission Monday. “Every program we do is community produced with respect to involvement on the technical side,” Colette Watson, vice-president of Rogers TV, said Monday. “In my 20 years there has only been one program that was produced by staff , and that was Mr. Rogers’ funeral last year.” Von Finckenstein said he has been impressed by Rogers TV’s reputation in the 34 regions its community television channels serve. “I don’t know to what extent our hearing is representative, but I have heard nothing but good things about Rogers Cable TV over the last week, and I congratulate you,” von Finckenstein said. “At least the people who have appeared before us feel that you are meeting the needs of community TV.” Rogers said it has been able to meet those needs under the current regulatory regime, which requires cable companies with more than 20,000 customers to make contributions to community television. “The model that the CRTC developed, and the way we apply it, works,” Watson said. Watson said that if the funding obligations for community television were higher, Rogers would produce more programming. If the funding obligations were decreased, Engelhart said the savings would be passed on to consumers, who would see a difference on their cable bills. Watson said new media and VOD services could be added to Rogers’ linear broadcasts. But she said 60 per cent of the programming on Rogers TV is done live, and that on-demand services are not as good for live events. Companies with VOD community content cannot produce much live content partly due to technical difficulties involved in uploading content as it happens, she said. “I worry about access programming getting lost in the VOD library,” Watson said. jmigneault@thewirereport.ca

Rogers argues for competition in community television sector

Broadcast | May 3, 2010

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