APTN seeks 40 cent carriage rate to better connect, reach aboriginal youth

The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network Inc.’s (APTN) proposed 40-cent carriage fee will help the company expand its online presence and reach 50 per cent of aboriginal youth over a new seven-year licence term, APTN CEO Jean LaRose said. APTN is among six broadcasters seeking to renew their mandatory distribution or “must offer” licences for specialty channels before their current licences expire. The CRTC said last Monday that it had received 22 applications from broadcasters seeking these mandatory distribution orders for specialty channels under section 9(1)(h) of the Broadcasting Act. As part of that proceeding, APTN has proposed to increase its regulated per subscriber per month mandatory carriage fee from 25 to 40 cents. “It’s for things that is doing right now, but without the increase we won’t be able to keep doing,” LaRose said in a telephone interview. Over seven years, the increased wholesale fee will bring $133.7 million in subscriber revenue to APTN, of which 32 per cent will be dedicated to programming, 46 per cent to programming improvements and 22 per cent to aboriginal language content and multiplatform distribution, the application said. LaRose said APTN is now working with budgets established in 2005, when its last licence was issued, and that with inflation, the broadcaster has lost about six or seven per cent of the value of that money since that time. It faces added pressures such as a Canada Media Fund (CMF) requirement that broadcasters have a digital component to receive funding, he said. “That means that these are all extra costs that didn’t exist when we were relicensed in ‘05,” LaRose said. “We’re expected to deliver high end programming like drama, like children’s shows and others that cost a fair amount to produce. All those costs have gone up.” LaRose said costs associated with APTN’s online presence, additional closed-captioning, versioning and described video have also increased. “We will not be able to maintain the current level of production without that increase and we certainly won’t be able to improve it,” he said. “If anything, over time we would end up having to drop some of those productions.” In its 85-page application to the commission, APTN presented a three-part strategy focused in part on engaging and serving a growing 13-to-35 year-old aboriginal youth demographic. The strategy aims to solidify APTN’s position as a national network and better position it for multi-platform delivery, the broadcaster said. LaRose said the network now reaches 15 to 20 per cent of aboriginal youth, of which 49 per cent are under the age of 25. APTN’s goal over the next licensing term is to reach 50 per cent of that audience through a larger online presence, he said. APTN hopes to draw more young viewers through the expansion of its interactive “Digital Drum” website, where viewers would login, upload videos and discuss events that affect their lives and communities. “It’s a very basic site now, but that’s the one we hope to expand after the licence renewal if the CRTC grants the increase,” he said. “What we are proposing to do is to basically build the infrastructure and the platform for them to be able to reach them on a daily basis to be able to connect with them on Twitter and Facebook and everything else.” LaRose said APTN has been “slowly increasing” its online presence and is starting to see positive results. “That’s what they’re expecting of us,” he said. He said the Idle No More movement, in which aboriginal communities and activists held protests and some rail blockades over the past several weeks, brought an “exponential” amount of traffic to the Digital Drum site, registering 10 million to 12 million hits between December 2012 and January 2013. “We’ve never had that amount of traffic from young people,” he said. “So it clearly showed that there’s a huge need for them to have somewhere where they can sort of congregate, exchange, and we hope to provide them with that.” Experts told The Wire Report last week that it will be tough for broadcasters to convince the CRTC that their channels warrant mandatory carriage and that they offer a distinct and unique public service. Toronto-based independent international communications consultant Werner Patels said in a telephone interview Monday that APTN’s 15-cent increase is reasonable. Patels said APTN is not a niche service and is rather a Canadian channel that tells First Nations’ stories. He said that considering the financial constraints faced by many First Nations, “a lot of people in that target audience basically wouldn’t have the funds to pay for an extra channel if they have to pay for cable or satellite.” He said production costs have also increased as the demands for new technology rise. “A demand for 15-cent increase? That’s actually quite reasonable compared to the tremendous costs television operations have in the country,” Patels said. Richard Paradis, president of media consulting firm Groupe CIC, said in an interview that though the CRTC has recognized APTN’s unique function in the past, a 60 per cent increase might be difficult to obtain from a commission that has a “new sensitivity” to consumer needs and expectations. “It’s a huge ask,” Paradis said. “Take 15 cents and multiply it by a month, by 10 million potential subscribers. That’s a lot of people and a lot of money.” He said that APTN is now carried as a basic service in both French- and English-language markets, adding that the CRTC may have a “cold shoulder” towards applications that push costs onto consumers. “I think there’s a limit to how much we can ask from consumers,” he said. The CRTC is accepting interventions on the applications until Feb. 20, after which they will be considered at a public hearing in Gatineau, Que., on April 23. —With reporting by Danika Grenier at dgrenier@thewirereport.ca and editing by Simon Doyle at sdoyle@thewirereport.ca

APTN seeks 40 cent carriage rate to better connect, reach aboriginal youth

Broadcast | January 28, 2013

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