Supreme Court to hear value for signal appeal

The Supreme Court of Canada said Thursday that it will hear an appeal of a Federal Court of Appeal decision that upheld the CRTC's jurisdiction to implement its controversial value for signal regime. The court announced Thursday that it will look at the jurisdiction of the CRTC and whether it is empowered under the Broadcasting Act to establish the regime. The case will also consider whether the commission's value for signal policy “necessarily conflicts with rights of broadcasting distribution undertakings under Copyright Act Broadcasting Act,” the Supreme Court said in a summary of the case on its website. In a split decision issued in February, the Federal Court of Appeal upheld the CRTC policy, ruling that the commission has the jurisdiction to implement a value-for-signal regime in which distributors would compensate conventional broadcasters for the carriage of their free, over-the-air signals. The regime would require distributors to provide “value” for the carriage of a broadcaster’s local signals through carriage fees or arranging deals like carrying a broadcaster’s specialty channel at a special rate. If negotiations failed, local, over-the-air broadcasters would have the power to pull or delete their programming and black out the same programming offered at the same time by foreign or distant channels. The CRTC says broadcast distributors' revenues have climbed while direct-to-home satellite TV, speciality channels, and new media platforms have fragmented audiences and caused advertising revenues to drop for local TV stations. The commission released the policy in the spring of 2010 and at the same time referred it to the Federal Court of Appeal for a ruling on its jurisdiction to implement it. In the new appeal case before the Supreme Court, known as Cogeco Cable Inc., et al. v. Bell Media Inc., et al. (case No. 34231), broadcast distributors including Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Communications Co. argue that the CRTC framework effectively gives broadcasters a new retransmission right under the Copyright Act, which only Parliament has the power to create. Bell Canada Enterprises Inc. subsidiary Bell Media, which owns the CTV network, issued a release Thursday in support of the Supreme Court hearing. "We believe the federal court was correct in finding that Value for Signal falls within the CRTC's jurisdiction, and we are confident the Supreme Court of Canada will agree when they are presented with the relevant facts and arguments,” Kevin Crull, president of Bell Media, said in a release. “We will argue forcefully at the Supreme Court that the Value for Signal regime falls squarely within the CRTC's jurisdiction, as it is directly connected to the policy objectives of the Broadcasting Act, and is consistent with the Commission's mandate to supervise and regulate the broadcasting system.” Crull added that conventional television stations need a regulatory framework that allows them “to survive on their own merits, regardless of whether or not they are integrated with cable and satellite companies.” Otherwise, he said, local television stations “are left to rely solely on advertising revenue, which continues to prove to be unsustainable. This antiquated compensation model is not viable in today's media landscape." A hearing date has not yet been scheduled. news@thewirereport.ca

Supreme Court to hear value for signal appeal

Broadcast | September 29, 2011

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