In petitions to GiC, broadcasting stakeholders upset of lack of local news requirements for CBC

Several broadcast industry stakeholders are arguing to the Governor-in-Council (GIC) that the CRTC’s treatment of local news in the CBC/Radio-Canada’s licence renewal derogates the objectives of the Broadcasting Act and should be overturned. In petitions filed to the GIC, media policy watchdog Friends, and the Forum for Research and Policy in Communications (FRPC), argued that the commission should have implemented a baseline expenditure requirements with respect to local news and it also failed to mandate the exhibition of original or first-run local news for CBC’s licensed services. “Despite the professed recognition by both CBC and the CRTC regarding the vital importance of news, including local news, this decision leaves CBC with no material new requirements in this regard. In fact, its requirements have been reduced,” Friends (formerly known as Friends of Canadian Broadcasting) wrote in its petition. “Friends believes the commission’s position here to be at best inconsistent and, at worst, hypocritical. The CRTC has correctly characterized CBC’s obligations towards news and local news in its words, but utterly failed to ensure them through their actions.” Friends also took issue with the public broadcaster’s continued use of its branded-content initiative, Tandem, and with a lack of accountability regarding its Canadian programming expenditures and the resources allocated to its licenced services. Friends told the GIC that, to the commission’s credit, it previously took “bold and appropriate steps of indirectly regulating” the CBC with policies that imposed cross platform expenditure requirements and expenditure obligations in respect of diversity, but questioned why it did not impose “clear or measurable obligations” in its licence renewal decision. The GIC can only refer a decision back to the CRTC if it “derogates from the attainment of the objectives of the Broadcasting Act.” Friends says its three main grievances meet that criteria. “The CRTC’s failure to impose substantive expenditure-based requirements in support of local programming and local news represents a major error, inconsistent with the commission’s own past practices and government policy,” it argued. Friends said local news is vulnerable in today’s media landscape and given the CBC’s "uneven historical performance” the broadcaster should have an explicit condition of licence that stipulates a minimum level of expenditures on local programming, including local news, averaged across the markets in which it operates. The watchdog pointed out that in 2018 CBC president Catherine Tait declared local news a top priority upon her appointment, but then the broadcaster, when asked by the CRTC about spending requirements for locally-reflective news, stated that its “does not have a statutory mandate to provide local programming.” “CBC’s position that it has no legal obligation to provide local programming flies in the face of decades of CRTC regulation and portends a future in which the supply of local news and information programming is severely curtailed,” Friends wrote. The organization noted that CRTC’s own data shows that the CBC’s conventional station news spending fell from $207 million in 2014 to $102 million in 2017. “It is noteworthy that these reductions occurred despite local programming exhibition conditions of licence, which the corporation states they ‘continue to meet.’ If that is so, then quality is surely the victim.” The FRPC also said the CRTC’s treatment of local news in the licence renewal violated several sections of the Broadcasting Act. “It fails to mandate the exhibition of original or first-run local news in the schedules of CBC’s licensed services, contrary to subsections 3(1)(f) and 3(1)(m), it ignores a serious complaint related to the broadcasting policy’s requirement for programming of high standard in subsection 3(1)(g) and it fails to consider the consequences of its decision on the private element of the broadcasting as required by subsection 3(1)(n), and on the continued existence of employment opportunities as required by subsection 3(1)(d)(iii),” it argued. The FRPC argued that data shows that up to 80 per cent of CBC’s programming can be foreign content and that radio regulations allow 65 per cent of the popular music selections played by Canadian commercial radio stations to be foreign. As for news, the FRPC said CBC publishes little information but proceedings over time have revealed that the public broadcaster will include national and international stories in its local newscasts, and replay its local newscasts from the previous night in the morning. “The CRTC has ignored the spread of ‘centralcasting’ in Canadian broadcasting: this system helps larger broadcasters to reduce costs by having central hubs package local stations’ programming segments into a newscast the hubs then transmit; the CRTC has not addressed the issue that stations merely contributing to a central hub generally no longer actually control their own transmitters, making it difficult and potentially impossible for local stations to break into ‘their’ programming to broadcast emergency alerts to the communities they serve,” it wrote. The CRTC only imposed a condition of licence requiring CBC to provide local programming, rather than local news, on its television stations in non-metropolitan communities. “It could have and should have imposed conditions of licence to mandate the daily provision by each CBC originating radio and television station of original local news. It did not,” FRPC wrote. The Canadian Media Guild (CMG) echoed that sentiment in its own petition to cabinet, saying local news requirement should be imposed no matter the area, “including reestablishing and maintaining a minimum of 14 hours a week of quality local television news/programming for those living and working in the multicultural, multiracial metropolitan centres of Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa and Montréal.” CMG and Friends also took strong positions against Tandem – the CBC’s branded content initiative which produces and broadcasts long-form advertising for advertisers. CMG said it supported advertising on the CBC, but that Tandem blurs the line between what is quality news and what is not. “This practice of paid advertisements masquerading as news does not belong on the public broadcaster’s news services as it creates confusion for the public and undermines the high standard and quality the public expects and relies on from their national public broadcaster as a trusted news source,” CMG wrote. CMG criticized the commission for a lack of stronger measures to address branded content while Friends wanted the initiative eliminated altogether. The commission determined that Tandem is “onside” with the CBC's past approaches to its finances, but it did impose conditions that the CBC distinguish Tandem content from other news content. “The commission’s actions regarding Tandem are perplexing. If the commission is saying that Tandem is 'onside' then why are such constraints necessary? And if constraints are necessary, why are they in the form of expectations and not binding conditions of licence? Instead, here we have an acknowledged problem that the commission 'solves' by imposing immeasurable and nonbinding conditions,” Friends wrote. Quebec’s Ministry of Culture and Communications, in its own petition, added that the CRTC has also made no requirement for original Canadian programming in the French language, “despite the capital importance of these programs for the French-speaking market.” It noted that in 2017, the GIC referred several decisions, relating to renewal of licenses for large French-language private ownership groups, back to the CRTC for reconsideration due to the removal of such requirements. The CRTC then reinstated the requirements. “There is indeed no guarantee that the SRC will continue to meet the current requirements once they are lifted,” the ministry wrote. Other groups, including the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, are also petitioning the government to reject the CRTC ruling. The Canadian Media Producers Association has also filed an appeal to cabinet to overturn the CBC decision. – Reporting by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca

In petitions to GiC, broadcasting stakeholders upset of lack of local news requirements for CBC

News | August 12, 2022

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In petitions to GiC, broadcasting stakeholders upset of lack of local news requirements for CBC

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