CRTC postpones CBC licence renewal hearing

The CRTC is postponing the CBC's group licence renewal hearing until June 2012, citing requests for new data and uncertainty surrounding the broadcaster’s budget. The commission said it delayed the hearing in part because the Quebec English-language Production Committee (QEPC)—with support from the Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA) and the Documentary Organization of Canada—requested independent production data from the CBC that was available from the private broadcasters for their group-based licensing proceeding. The CRTC is now renewing all licences for large broadcasting groups in single proceedings. A hearing for the private broadcasters' licence renewals took place in April. The CBC licence renewal hearing was originally scheduled to take place in September. Faced with a heavy schedule, the commission has now pushed it off by more than six months. A source familiar with the situation said the CBC does not routinely provide the CRTC with the kind of data that the group is looking for but that private broadcasters provide it to the commission. The CRTC also said in a release Friday that it delayed the hearing because the federal government has not yet established the CBC’s future operational budget. “The CRTC believes it would be inappropriate to impose licence conditions given this uncertainty,” the commission said in a release. The CBC said in a release Friday that it did not know about the hearing postponement. “We were formally advised about the delay today. This was not requested by CBC/Radio-Canada,” Hubert T. Lacroix, president and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada, said in a statement. “Nonetheless, we look forward to the opportunity to make our case for the future of CBC/Radio-Canada next year.” Lacroix said the CBC will continue to roll out its five-year strategy. Industry sources have also expressed concern that the commission's deadlines for the licence renewal proceeding were too tight and fell in the middle of summer. The CRTC launched the consultation on June 17. It called for public comments for the licence renewal proceeding and set a comment period deadline of July 18. The Friends of Canadian Broadcasting subsequently wrote the commission to request a deadline extension until Aug. 2 to provide “sufficient lead time” during the summer holiday season. The CRTC said Friday that it will soon issue a revised notice of consultation with new submission deadlines and procedural dates. Any submissions filed before the original July 18 deadline will be still considered for the new June 2012 hearing. CMPA issued a release Friday saying it is disappointed with the delay. “This is a hearing that was long overdue even before today’s announcement,” Tom Cox, Chair of the CMPA board, said in a statement. “We can’t forget that it’s been over a decade since the last CBC licence renewal hearing. The landscape since that time has undergone massive change, and there are a number of opportunities and challenges urgently facing CBC that only a public hearing can properly address.” The CMPA said it supported the QEPC’s request for more data on the CBC’s use of independent productions but it did not support a delay. “CBC doesn’t need the delay. It has the resources to compile and provide the requested data within the original timeframe,” Norm Bolen, president and CEO of the CMPA, added in the release. The CMPA said that the hearing delay should not also postpone its terms of trade negotiations with the broadcaster. The CMPA began terms of trade negotiations with the CBC in May to set the terms on production rights and allow producers to retain tax credits and international and multiplatform rights, among other conditions. The group reached a terms of trade agreement with private broadcasters in April. The CRTC had said that if an agreement with the CBC could not be reached before the original hearing date of Sept. 12, it would impose one. The CMPA said Friday that it wants the original Sept. 12 deadline to stand. “We intend to meet that expectation by having an agreement with CBC concluded before the original hearing date of September 12,” Barrack said in a statement. The CBC's broadcasting licences remain valid until the fall of 2012. news@thewirereport.ca

CRTC postpones CBC licence renewal hearing

Broadcast | July 8, 2011

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