CBC request to alter CPE, PNI, expenditures is result of licence renewal flaw: Friends

Canadian public broadcasting advocacy group Friends says CBC/Radio-Canada’s request that the CRTC amend its conditions of licence (COL) to exclude Olympic and Paralympic coverage in the calculation of its Canadian programming expenditures (CPE) and programs of national interest (PNI) requirements reflects a larger issue within the broadcaster’s renewed licence. In a Part 1 application submitted June 20, the CBC said its CPE goes up during Olympic and Paralympic years, mainly due to licensing and production costs of coverage. As a result, their PNI requirements also go up, but because of budgetary limits and other obligations, they will be unable to meet their requirements in the coming years. Friends told the CRTC in its Monday intervention that it would be inappropriate to consider the application in isolation and proposed it be considered as part of the CBC’s wider licence renewal. The CRTC renewed CBC’s licence last year (but the government sent it back to the regulator in response to a slew of petitions). In the renewal, the CRTC imposed CPE expenditure requirements which would be based on a percentage of total programming and production expenditures rather than gross revenues from the previous broadcast year (the latter is the method imposed on private broadcasters). Friends said the CBC is now proposing a “band aid” solution to a framework that was flawed to begin with. “The commission failed to establish a binding legal baseline for CPE requirements, effectively rendering them a house of cards. Our concern being that nothing would prevent CBC from spending less on programming and more on overhead, alphanumeric services, digital infrastructure etc., and less on Canadian programming,” Friends wrote. Friends said the framework will also drive up CPE expenditures in other categories when aggregate CPE is higher than usual. “If CBC is unable to reduce aggregate required expenditures in PNI, it will seek to find reductions in other programming categories. And if history is any indication, one of those program categories will be local news,” Friends wrote, noting that the CRTC refused to impose any news programming expenditure requirements on the public broadcaster. The Directors Guild of Canada (DGC), Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) and the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) also opposed the application. The DGC and WGC argued that the CBC did not provide clear rationale for its proposal and noted that the public broadcaster was the one that asked the CRTC to base its CPE requirements off of total programming expenditures rather than gross revenues. The DGC said excluding the Olympics and Paralympics games expenditures would reduce PNI spending by tens of thousands of dollars. The WGC further argued that the CBC generates more revenue during the Olympic games years. The CBC’s request comes at a time when Canada’s private broadcasters, BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc., Corus Entertainment Inc., and Quebecor Inc.’s TVA, are also seeking reductions or significant changes to their CPE and PNI requirements. Creative unions have all opposed the move and recommended the commission wait until it fully implements the updated Broadcasting Act. The DGC said approving CBC’s request will create a dangerous precedent and regulatory uncertainty. “The DGC previously recommended that the commission deny all traditional broadcasters’ applications as they are highly inappropriate at this time. CBC should not get a free pass or special treatment as Canada’s public broadcaster,” the DGC wrote in its CBC intervention. — Reporting by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca and editing by Paul Park at ppark@thewirereport.ca.

CBC request to alter CPE, PNI, expenditures is result of licence renewal flaw: Friends

Broadcast | August 1, 2023

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us

CBC request to alter CPE, PNI, expenditures is result of licence renewal flaw: Friends

Broadcast | August 1, 2023

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Related Stories

Heritage Committee urges changes to bonuses for CBC executives

Incoming CBC head non-committal on bonuses as she takes the helm, pledges to listen to Canadians

CBC expands local news programming following Google news act exemption

Marie-Philippe Bouchard to take over from Catherine Tait at CBC

Reuse & Permissions

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us