Don’t leave local news in the hands of megacorporations, Heritage committee hears

Not-for-profit community news associations are sounding the alarm over the Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. merger, with one stakeholder saying "democracy dies in the dark without reliable and accurate local news and information", while Quebecor Inc.’s CEO is saying the CRTC has to loosen its regulatory burdens on Canadian companies if it wants to preserve local news. The comments came Wednesday at a House of Commons’ Heritage committee meeting studying the effects of the merger on local news. “I won't be taking a position today on whether this merger should proceed. Rather, I'm here to say that if it does, the consequences will be damaging for local news and information,” executive director of Community Radio Fund of Canada Alex Freedman told MPs. “This government has a responsibility to insist on remedies to ensure that Canadians get the news they need and deserve.” Quebecor president and CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau told MPs that his company would not take a position on Rogers' local news proposals, but instead took aim at the CRTC. "If the CRTC does not lighten the regulatory burden on Canadian companies, which are operating in an increasingly precarious environment, local news and indeed all news will suffer from the economic and financial weakening of the television industry and of local production,” he told the committee, according to translation. Péladeau cited a study showing that video streaming subscriptions in Quebec for the first time last year overtook television distribution services, which he said means fewer financial resources will be made available for the Canada Media Fund “since the U.S.-based web giants don’t contribute to the financing of Canada’s production ecosystem.” The CEO told the committee that the CRTC must loosen its “unsustainable” regulatory, reporting, content quota, and financial burdens on Canadian companies so they can “enjoy the commercial freedom” that U.S.-based companies do – something which he said can be addressed in Bill C-11. Last year, Péladeau advocated for the lessening of regulatory burdens before a Heritage committee hearing on Bill C-11's predecessor, and was one of a trio of broadcasters that pleaded for looser spending requirements after the CRTC opened a proceeding on a similar request from Corus Entertainment Inc. Executive director of the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations Catherine Edwards told the committee that community television and access to local news has been “decimated" in the past 20 years by mergers in the industry. “Canada's cable giants have withdrawn production infrastructure to the cities and focus their energies on specialty channels, selling TV subscriptions, and mobile services,” she said. Edwards told committee chairwoman, and Liberal MP, Hedy Fry (who represents Vancouver Centre) that Rogers used to serve 12 community television studios in Vancouver and the lower mainland of British Columbia until it sold them off to Shaw, who then shut them down. “Vancouverites from White Rock to North Bend were expected to make their way to Shaw corporate headquarters for access to our broadcasting system,” Edwards stated. Edwards also said that Rogers, like Shaw, consolidated all its community TV productions in one corporate headquarters, before finally closing in 2017. She then called the incumbent “particularly vicious” in eliminating competition for its own regional community channels. “These stations ensure that you, as parliamentarians, can reach your constituents to talk about the issues that are important, not sound bites metered out to you by megacorporations who are interested in blockbuster U.S. series,” Edwards told MPs. She noted to Liberal MP Chris Bittle that in 2011 Cogeco Inc.’s community channel, devoted to his riding of St. Catharines, had disappeared. Subscribers in the area now see the community channel from Niagara also shared with the town of Grimsby. Edwards also argued to Conservative MPs John Nater and Leslyn Lewis, and Liberal MP Tim Louis, that Rogers’ claims to have distinct community channels in Waterloo, Kitchener, London, Stratford, Guelph and Cambridge were not true because they are “in fact a single-zoned channel” which serves all the mid-sized cities “with only occasional insertions of content specific to each city.” Rogers’ and Shaw’s lobbying are to blame, she said, for a CRTC decision to allow cable companies to redirect “most of Canada's community TV or local expression budget to support their failing private news properties via the Independent Local News Fund.” “Rogers and Shaw have told the CRTC that they couldn't afford to keep separate stations open, but communities were never asked whether they'd like the opportunity to run the channels in a more cost-efficient model.” Freedman cited data showing that since 2008 a total of 451 news operations have closed in 324 communities across Canada. “The cutting of local news has been ongoing for many years but has accelerated dramatically over the last decade, and the consequences are terrifying. A full third of US citizens believe their election was stolen, horse medication flies off shelves as an antidote to COVID… and about a dozen accounts are responsible for more than 80 per cent of the vaccine misinformation available on social media,” he said. Freedman argued that Corus’ GlobalTV is likely to seek a significant portion of the Independent Local News Fund (ILNF), which will further impact local news because funding will be cut by more than half. He said that Global is set to lose $13 million out of its $138 million annual budget, which will go to Rogers' CityTV, because Rogers “cannot get its head around the idea of funding a competitor.” Freedman said that the tangible benefits package offered by Rogers in support of the merger only allows for a one-time investment of $8.5 million in the INLF. "The rest of the benefits will go to the Canadian Media Fund, an assortment of important film festivals, next to nothing to support local news,” Freedman said. Edwards said if the merger has to go through, the committee must ensure support for initiatives that ensure a diversity of information such as a Local Journalism Initiative and the establishment of a Community Access Media Fund that specifically supports the not-for-profit community media. She noted that her organization already filed an application for the certified CRTC fund which has not yet been gazetted. The purpose of the fund, she said, is to help small not-for-profits who have been trying to step in and fill the gaps left by the retreat of cable community channels. “But it's really difficult to do because we have no access to the ILNF, for example, which was ironically created out of former community TV funding. Yet not-for-profit community TV stations have never had access to any of the funding that BDUs spend, except in Quebec,” she said. Edwards said that Shaw “in particular” has been in violation of CRTC policy with respect to community TV stations by allegedly not meeting their local requirements over the years. Edwards argued that resources should be diverted to not-for-profits in areas that cable companies have pulled out of. Freedman said that the 39 journalists his organization can salary through the government’s Local Journalism Initiative is not nearly enough to fill the “news desert” that has been created. He suggested that the government expand the local journalism initiative and have corporations pay for the costs, which should then go exclusively into a community fund earmarked for independent news. “This is important because Rogers cannot stomach the idea that they would give money to their competition. But we are independent broadcasters, we are community broadcasters, and we're not the competition,” he stated. Conservative MP Kevin Waugh noted that he was disappointed Rogers and Shaw opted to not attend the committee hearing, despite his request to do so and stated that BCE. Inc. confirmed Wednesday afternoon that it would like to come testify at the next Heritage committee hearing into the merger. – Reporting by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca.

Don’t leave local news in the hands of megacorporations, Heritage committee hears

Broadcast | February 16, 2022

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