CCA TO CRTC: PROTECT CONSUMERS BY REGULATING CABLE AND SATELLITE RATES

The Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts (CCA) weighed in yes­ter­day on the pub­lic debate on whether cable and satel­lite oper­a­tors should be called upon to pay over-the-air (OTA) tele­vi­sion broad­cast­ers for the dis­tri­b­u­tion of local signals.

The CCA sup­ports the intro­duc­tion of a value for sig­nal pay­ment, pro­vided that the CRTC also imposes Cana­dian pro­gram­ming expen­di­ture require­ments on OTA broad­cast­ers equiv­a­lent to 6% of their rev­enue.  In order to pro­tect the inter­ests of Cana­dian con­sumers, the CCA urges the CRTC to reg­u­late  cable and satel­lite rates,  ensur­ing that this even­tual pay­ment, as well as the Local Pro­gram­ming Improve­ment Fund (LPIF) con­tri­bu­tion, not be passed on to consumers.

Twice, the CRTC has rejected a “fee for car­riage”, which broad­cast­ers now call “value for sig­nal”. Recently,  cable and satel­lite com­pa­nies used tra­di­tional adver­tis­ing as well as social net­work­ing tools like Face­book to denounce this “tax on tele­vi­sion”, which they claim they will be forced to pass on to consumers.

This con­cern is behind the fed­eral government’s call for the CRTC to hold a pub­lic hear­ing mea­sur­ing the impact on Cana­dian con­sumers of the mea­sure under con­sid­er­a­tion. The hear­ing is sched­uled to begin on Decem­ber 7, 2009 in Gatineau (Québec).

In the brief filed with the CRTC yes­ter­day, the CCA notes that with prof­its of $2 bil­lion a year, the dis­tri­b­u­tion com­pa­nies can and should absorb the new con­tri­bu­tion aim­ing at ensur­ing that Cana­di­ans have access to qual­ity Cana­dian pro­gram­ming.  The National Direc­tor of the Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts, Alain Pineau, says that “this con­forms with the let­ter and spirit of the Broad­cast­ing Act, and with the prin­ci­ples which led the Cana­dian Par­lia­ment over 40 years ago to leg­is­late and reg­u­late the Cana­dian broad­cast­ing system.”

The CCA invites the CRTC to set the proper level of con­tri­bu­tion, tak­ing into account the impact this would have on both the broad­cast­ers and the dis­tri­b­u­tion under­tak­ings.  Says Pineau: “given the tone that the debate has taken in recent months, it would be utopian and irre­spon­si­ble to hope that such an issue can be deter­mined through direct nego­ti­a­tions between the par­ties involved.”

The Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts (CCA) is the national forum for arts, cul­ture, and heritage.