CRTC to put broadcasters on short lead

Canada's broadcast regulator says it wants to allow one-year licence renewals to conventional television broadcasters, such as CBC, CTV and Global in spring 2009, because of the financial issues faced by the industry.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission usually renews broadcast licences for a seven-year period.

The CRTC issued a statement Friday outlining the issues it will cover in its spring 2009 hearings, including the amount of local programming and Canadian programming broadcasters should produce.

The regulator expressed concern last year about how little money conventional private broadcasters spend on Canadian programming compared to the amount that goes to foreign programming.

A report earlier this week showed 2008 spending on foreign programming up 7.4 per cent and outstripping spending on Canadian programming by more than $150 million annually. Combined spending on foreign programming was $775.2 million in 2008. 

Now the CRTC says it will look in 2010 for ways to implement "effective regulatory mechanisms to ensure that private ownership groups with television licences contribute appropriately to the creation of Canadian programming."

Among the measures it will consider is demanding spending on Canadian programming equal spending on foreign shows.

Canada's actors' union ACTRA welcomed that proposal and asked that the CRTC also consider when Canadian programming is broadcast. Private broadcasters often reserve Canadian fare for unpopular time slots.

"Today, performers have reason to believe that the CRTC is finally listening to Canadians' desire to see more Canadian content," Stephen Waddell, ACTRA's national executive director said in a statement.

"Especially on the heels of a record-spending year buying Hollywood shows, it's good to hear the CRTC suggest that it's now time for private broadcasters to invest equally in Canadian content as they do on foreign programming."

Areas the CRTC will consider in spring 2009 include:

• The appropriate contributions to Canadian programming in current economic conditions.
• Terms of administering the fund that seeks to promote local program spending, in current economic conditions.
• Whether to impose a short-term requirement that spending on Canadian programming equal spending on foreign programming.
• Terms for the transition to digital by August 2011.

The CRTC said it intends to keep conditions of current TV licences the same as they are now over the one-year term, because the broadcasters are suffering from declining ad revenue.

The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, representing workers at many of the broadcasters, urged the regulator to reconsider fee-for-carriage, in which cable firms would have to pay for signals from conventional broadcasters. The regulator rejected that idea last year.

"We are in an age when regulators such as those in the financial community have proven themselves to be more like sleeping kittens than growling watchdogs. The CRTC must show Canadians that it is serving our national and cultural priorities, not simply the private ownership interests of these mega media conglomerates," says Peter Murdoch, vice-president of the union.

The CRTC plans another round of licence renewals in spring 2010 and at that time, it says it will consider assessing applications by ownership group. It is considering this approach because of the concentration of ownership in broadcasting, the CRTC said, adding that it wants to create a more flexible and adaptive environment for broadcasters.