PIAC, pensioners want cabinet to overturn CRTC’s CBC licence renewal

The National Pensioners Federation and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre have filed a petition asking cabinet to overturn the CRTC’s renewal of the CBC/Radio-Canada broadcast licence. The decision contravenes broadcasting policy, they maintain, and should be thrown out. Failing that, the government should send the decision back to the regulator for reconsideration, they argue. The petitioners point out that the public broadcaster did not make an application for online licences, as these fall beyond the purview of the CRTC. Digital media broadcasting (DMB) is exempt under the commission’s Digital Media Exemption Order (DMEO). “The CRTC’s ruling in 2022-165 allows CBC/SRC the ability to move its funds from its linear services to its online services (the two largest of these being CBC’s “Gem” service and SRC’s “ICI TOU.tv”),” the Aug. 5 letter to the privy council states. “This regulatory legerdemain is achieved by removing nearly all exhibition requirements on linear TV and over-the-air TV (OTA).” NPF and PIAC point out that no party to the proceeding, not even the CBC itself, had asked for the removal of the requirements. Many called for a DMEO hearing after the government’s online streaming act, Bill C-11, receives royal assent The petitioners argue that dropping the requirements derogates from section 3 of the Broadcasting Act, which refers to economic and social needs of all Canadians of all ages. Many seniors do not have the technical expertise or the financial resources to migrate to DMB, they maintain. “In effect, CRTC has set the CBC/SRC a trap, an attractive nuisance, a seduction, to move all local programming (including local news) resources from linear and OTA TV to the uncharted waters of online digital media broadcasting,” the petition reads. “The result of this is to abandon especially older Canadians that access CBC programming on traditional linear and OTA TV–at least 28 per cent of the viewer population and up to 73 per cent if younger and more occasional users of linear and OTA TV are included.” The shift from linear is “unexpected, shocking, painful and destructive,” the statement adds. “Permitting CBC/SRC the ‘flexibility’ to move resources from linear and OTA TV channels (by removing exhibition requirements on linear and OTA TV) without concomitant online programming requirements to substitute for the dropped licence conditions on linear means the CBC/SRC can focus on building/growing its exempt DMB services and abandon linear and OTA TV,” the petition says. “This is contrary to the understanding of all parties to the CBC/SRC licensing proceeding that revision of the DMEO was not under consideration.” At present, if unchanged, the ruling gives the CBC an unfair advantage over private broadcasters. They, in turn, will seek similar dispensations from the regulator, NPF and PIAC assert. “As a result, all Canadian linear and OTA TV viewers may soon experience the rapid impoverishment of linear and OTA TV services offered by Bell, Rogers, Quebecor, Corus and others as they request similar ability to satisfy former linear and OTA TV exhibition and expenditure requirements with DMEO-exempt services, in a race to migrate resources to online, where greater advertising returns and viewer behavioural monitoring and monetization opportunities exist.” Branding the ruling a “stealth policy decision”, the petitioners allege the CBC is given a head start on or exemption from the Online Streaming Act, currently before the Senate. This could lead to foreign content suppliers like Netflix and Amazon Prime seeking deregulation for their online content. NPF and PIAC are hoping that cabinet will overturn the decision. If it opts to return the matter to the CRTC, the government should set out guidelines for the commission to consider when re-assessing the licence renewal, the petition said. –Reporting by Paul Park at ppark@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca

PIAC, pensioners want cabinet to overturn CRTC’s CBC licence renewal

Broadcast | August 5, 2022

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PIAC, pensioners want cabinet to overturn CRTC’s CBC licence renewal

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