CMPA wants CRTC to stand firm on terms of trade with CBC

The Canadian Media Producers Association has called on the CRTC to force CBC/Radio-Canada to ink a so-called terms of trade agreement with the organization, which the CMPA says will allow Canadian content producers to maintain their copyright and make more money off their shows. Speaking to CRTC commissioners Wednesday in the third week of hearings into the renewal of CBC's license, CMPA president and CEO Reynolds Mastin told commissioners that forcing the CBC to enter into a terms of trade agreement with the CMPA would allow its members to " those rights both nationally and internationally, to the maximum possible degree." A terms of trade agreement would ensure "we really are getting the full value, economic value, of the programs that are commissioned," Mastin said. CMPA's senior director of business affairs Marcia Douglas said that terms of trade, in which producers can maintain their copyright, would allow them to sell more Canadian content to international audiences. She added that the CMPA has heard from producers that the CBC will acquire the international rights to a production, then "water down the value" by placing content on YouTube. Mastin said that even though the CRTC mandated the CBC sign a terms of trade agreement with the CMPA in its 2013 license renewal, none has yet been signed, though CMPA and CBC have at times been in negotiations. In its application for license renewal, the CBC proposed deleting the 2013 condition of license that requires it to sign a terms of trade agreement with the CMPA, citing paragraphs 132 to 140 of the Create policy, in which the CRTC wrote that "it is no longer necessary for the Commission to intervene in this relationship by requiring adherence to terms of trade agreements. The Commission considers that broadcasters and producers now have the clarity and experience they need to negotiate any future agreement among themselves." But that policy to pull back from mandating terms of trade, Mastin said Wednesday, only applied to private broadcasters. "The plain meaning of this language is that it only applies to the private broadcasters given that CBC was never a party to the executed agreement," he said. In 2015 the CMPA said it was "shocked and stunned" when the CRTC eliminated terms of trade agreements with large private broadcasters. "The simple fact is that CBC failed to meet this condition of licence in the current term. It should be held accountable for not fulfilling this regulatory obligation," Mastin said Wednesday. The Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review report released a year ago also called for any update of the Broadcasting Act to give the CRTC the authority to “regulate economic relationships between media content undertakings and content producers, including terms of trade; and resolve disputes between media content undertakings.” The failure to ink a terms of trade agreement with the CBC, Mastin said, has cast an "eight year cloud over your authority in this area," referring to the CRTC's regulatory authority over the issue. "What we're really trying to achieve through terms of trade is: in an environment where dollars are scarce, what can our members do in terms of their unique role in the system -- to grow the pie, to leverage those dollars to the maximum extent possible, so those dollars can be reinvested in Canadian programming," Mastin said. — Reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

CMPA wants CRTC to stand firm on terms of trade with CBC

Broadcast | January 27, 2021

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CMPA wants CRTC to stand firm on terms of trade with CBC

Broadcast | January 27, 2021

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