CRTC won’t change course despite appeals, criticism: Blais

CRTC Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais said Wednesday the CRTC will stick to the course of action it has set despite disapproval by those who feel the CRTC’s direction “upsets their entitlements and threatens their livelihoods.” According to a copy of his remarks at a speech delivered to the Canadian Club of Toronto, Blais said that while “many Canadians and companies approve of the course we at the CRTC are setting… are just complaining. They’re forecasting doom and gloom: job cuts, revenue losses, station closures. They run off to court, they run off to Cabinet to seek relief. It’s their right to do so, but it doesn’t make them right.” He added: “Their stock in trade these days seems to be divisive and self-interested polemics rather than forward-looking action.” BCE Inc. is currently challenging several CRTC decisions, including court challenges of the CRTC's plan to ban the use of simultaneous substitution for the Super Bowl, a cabinet appeal regarding the CRTC’s decision to mandate access to fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) networks, as well as court challenges of the CRTC’s decision in a case about zero-rating mobile TV services and its Wholesale Code. The CRTC will be “staying the course we’ve mapped with Canadians and we’ll follow it to the end,” Blais said. “We're not standing still and hoping the storm of change passes us by,” he added. “We’re reaching out to Canadians. We’re putting them at the centre of our conversations about the future of broadcasting and telecommunications in this country. We’re giving them back control over their communication system by setting a regulatory course that supports public – not private – wealth.” Blais said the “intense and continuing change the communication system is going through gives rise to anxiety about the future and, therefore, doubt and even fear about the course we’re taking – especially among those with a vested interest in keeping things the way they are.” He noted that as of March 1 TV providers are required to begin rolling out skinny basic packages and said the CRTC will be watching how companies implement those changes. The commission, he said, “will not hesitate to act if we see some companies disregarding the wishes of Canadians, our decisions and the spirit of the outcomes they were intended to achieve.” He added that licence renewals are also coming up for major broadcasters and said “Canadians expect us to pay close attention to the quality and quantity of news and public affairs programming they offer. If they fail to live up to their end of their bargain with Canadians, we will not hesitate to take action.” Earlier this month, the CRTC wrapped up a two-week hearing into local and community television, which, among other questions, considered the possibility of setting up a news fund for local TV stations that would be funded by existing financial resources within the broadcasting system. During that hearing, Blais said Wednesday, he “listened as Canadians spoke with intelligence and passion to many of the issues I just described, while corporate executives who own luxury yachts and private helicopters came looking for subsidies.” Blais reiterated that there “is more than enough money in the broadcasting system to support the creation of news and local information programming – and new approaches to monetize each. The challenge before broadcasters is not to find new sources of money to fund such change, but to redistribute the money already in the system to accommodate the new business reality.” However, he also asked whether the creation of such a fund would have an effect on journalistic independence. “Should civic authorities – who should be held to account through news reporting – have direct or indirect involvement on what news is or is not investigated, gathered or reported upon?” Blais asked. Blais also said that the “value to society of a vibrant, free and responsible press is immeasurable. It is a public good. Television news belongs to the marketplace of ideas, not the marketplace of higher dividends for investors.” Blais said he was “unconvinced” that “digital-based, citizen journalism” is as effective as traditional media, and asked whether society can “afford to entrust something as fundamental to our democracy as news reporting” to services like Google Inc.’s YouTube and social media outlets Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc., which are “still in their infancies.” The House of Commons heritage committee is also set to hold a study on the news media. — With reporting by Shruti Shekar at sshekar@thewirereport.ca and Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Charelle Evelyn at cevelyn@thewirereport.ca

CRTC won’t change course despite appeals, criticism: Blais

Broadcast | February 17, 2016

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CRTC won’t change course despite appeals, criticism: Blais

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