Look at CTV’s numbers before granting regulatory relief, cultural groups say

The CRTC should wait to see CTVglobemedia Inc.’s 2010 financial information before it considers the company’s proposal to reduce its Cancon requirements and amend the licences for 25 of its conventional over-the-air television stations, Maureen Parker, the executive director of the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC), has told the commission. “We strongly suspect that the Commission will find that CTV performed much better in the 2009-2010 broadcast year than they did in the previous year,” Parker wrote in a comment on CTV’s licence application, submitted to the CRTC Friday. In July, CTV asked the CRTC for more Canadian content flexibility for 25 of its conventional over-the-air television stations in accordance with changes to the commission’s 2010 television policy. Right now, each of CTV’s over-the-air television channels must devote 60 per cent of the broadcast year to Canadian content, and the company has asked to reduce that obligation to 55 per cent. When the CRTC established its group-based broadcasting policy last March—in which one company’s multiple broadcasting licences are considered at the same time—the commission modified the Canadian content rules so that over-the-air broadcasters could apply to reduce their Canadian content requirements to 55 per cent of the broadcast year. The commission provided the option an effort to reduce the strain on stations facing declining advertising revenues. According to the CRTC’s annual statistical report on the communications industry, revenues for conventional television stations decreased by 7.9 per cent, from $2.1 billion to $1.9 billion, between 2008 and 2009. Private conventional stations saw the biggest revenue dip among the entire television sector, which includes the CBC and specialty and pay-per-view services. The WGC, along with the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) and the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), are suggesting this year will be a better one for conventional television stations, and have filed comments with the commission opposing CTV’s application. They argue that “regulatory relief” may not be as necessary as it once was, and that CTV’s broadcasting licences should be reviewed during its group-based licence hearings scheduled for the spring of 2011. “Granting CTV the flexibility to air more foreign programming by reducing the Cancon requirements, without the imposition of the corresponding expenditure requirements envisioned in the Group Licensing Policy, would merely serve to support Canadian conventional broadcasters’ chronic overspending in Hollywood,” Brian Anthony, national executive director and CEO of the DGC, wrote in a comment on the CTV application. But other broadcasting industry observers say CTV’s request for reduced Canadian content is justified. “There’s nothing wrong with CTV making money,” Ian Morrison, a spokesman for the independent watchdog group the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, told The Wire Report. “In fact, Canada needs CTV to make money in order to be able to be healthy and not lay people off.” In their submissions to the commission, the cultural groups also accused CTV of “cherry-picking” the reduced Canadian content requirements from the new Canadian television policy framework but failing to mention some of the policy’s extra obligations, such as prioritizing “programs of a national interest” in genres of drama and documentary television. “I don’t see them trying to implement rules where there are actually benefits to the system,” Stephen Waddell, ACTRA’s national executive director, said in an interview. “They’re looking to get benefits that get them off the hook with respect to their Cancon requirements.” But Morrison said it is not surprising that CTV is focusing on its own interests in its application. “It’s not CTV’s job to raise obstacles to its intended policy outcome,” he said. The three cultural groups have asked the CRTC to reject CTV’s licence renewal applications for now, and examine them next year under the group licensing process, when all of the company’s television assets will be under review. “I think the CRTC should just deny the request, say it is untimely and inappropriate. I don’t think there is any merit in their request,” Waddell said. “I’m not saying broadcasters are out of the woods, but certainly the substantial decline in ad revenues has rebounded.” CTV’s deadline to respond to the interventions is Aug. 23. The company is not commenting on the matter until that time. jmigneault@thewirereport.ca

Look at CTV’s numbers before granting regulatory relief, cultural groups say

Broadcast | August 16, 2010

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us