CCA JOINS CHALLENGE TO CRTC DECISIONS ON SATELLITE RADIO

Ottawa, August 9, 2005 -  On June 16, 2005, the Cana­dian Radio-television and Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Com­mis­sion (CRTC) announced approval for three licenses to oper­ate satel­lite sub­scrip­tion radio ser­vices, along with the estab­lish­ment of a licens­ing frame­work for such services.

In response, on August 2, 2005, a broad coali­tion of groups, includ­ing the CCA, launched a peti­tion to the Gov­er­nor in Coun­cil ask­ing for a rever­sal of the CRTC deci­sions on the licenses granted to

Cana­dian Satel­lite Radio Inc. and SIRIUS Canada Inc. (deci­sion CRTC 2005-246 [http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2005/db2005-246.htm] & deci­sion CRTC 2005– 247

[http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2005/db2005-247.htm]).

The petition’s main argu­ment is that the vast major­ity of the actual con­tent on these new ser­vices will be for­eign, and that this rep­re­sents a direct vio­la­tion of Canada’s Broad­cast­ing Act

(http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/B-9.01/).  The CRTC’s devi­a­tion from the broad pol­icy objec­tives of the Act become clear when one reads Sec­tion 3(1) of the Act.

Sec­tion 3(1) states that our broad­cast­ing sys­tem is, “a pub­lic ser­vice essen­tial to the main­te­nance and enhance­ment of national iden­tity and cul­tural sov­er­eignty”, and that it serves to “safe­guard, enrich and strengthen the cul­tural, polit­i­cal, social and eco­nomic fab­ric of Canada”.  More specif­i­cally, it is man­dated to “encour­age the devel­op­ment of Cana­dian expres­sion”, reflect “Cana­dian atti­tudes, opin­ions, ideas, val­ues and artis­tic cre­ativ­ity”, dis­play “Cana­dian tal­ent in enter­tain­ment pro­gram­ming”, and offer “infor­ma­tion and analy­sis … from a Cana­dian point of view”.

The Act goes on to state that “each ele­ment of the Cana­dian broad­cast­ing sys­tem shall con­tribute in an appro­pri­ate man­ner to the cre­ation and pre­sen­ta­tion of Cana­dian pro­gram­ming” and that “each broad­cast­ing under­tak­ing shall make max­i­mum use, and in no case less than pre­dom­i­nant use, of Cana­dian cre­ative and other resources in the cre­ation and pre­sen­ta­tion of programming … ”.

The coali­tion peti­tion also argues that the two licensees have failed to make an ade­quate com­mit­ment to French-language, mul­ti­cul­tural, eth­nic minor­ity, or Abo­rig­i­nal pro­gram­ming, as required under the Act.  It also notes that the CRTC deci­sions con­tra­dict Canada’s com­mit­ment to the UNESCO con­ven­tion on cul­tural diver­sity, which the CCA has strongly sup­ported through its work with the Inter­na­tional Net­work for Cul­tural Diver­sity (INCD).

The coali­tion rep­re­sents a wide range of inter­ests includ­ing cre­ators, song­writ­ers, com­posers, radio drama­tists, per­form­ing and record­ing artists, music pub­lish­ers, and pro­duc­ers of sound recordings.

The sig­na­to­ries to the peti­tion, many of whom are CCA mem­bers, are:

.

- Alliance of Cana­dian Cin­ema, Tele­vi­sion and Radio Artists (ACTRA)

- Amer­i­can Fed­er­a­tion of Musi­cians (Canada) (AFM)

- Cana­dian Auto Work­ers (CAW)

- Cana­dian Film and Tele­vi­sion Pro­duc­tion Asso­ci­a­tion (CFTPA)

- Cana­dian Inde­pen­dent Record Pro­duc­tion Asso­ci­a­tion (CIRPA)

- Cana­dian Labour Con­gress (CLC)

- Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, Energy & Paper­work­ers Union (CEP) — Direc­tors Guild of Canada (DGC)

- Friends of Cana­dian Broad­cast­ing (FCB)

- National Cam­pus & Com­mu­nity Radio Asso­ci­a­tion (NCRA/ANREC) — Soci­ety of Com­posers, Authors and Music Pub­lish­ers (SOCAN)

- Song­writ­ers Asso­ci­a­tion of Canada (SAC)

- United Steel Work­ers (USW)

- Writ­ers Guild of Canada (WGC)

The coali­tion is not alone in its effort to get the two con­tro­ver­sial CRTC deci­sions reversed.  A coali­tion of French-language cul­tural groups, includ­ing ADISQ, APEM, APFTQ, ARRQ, GMMQ, SARTEC, SOCAN, SODRAC, SPACQ and UdA (many of who are also mem­ber orga­ni­za­tions of the CCA), have filed a sep­a­rate appeal.  In part, their appeal is based on objec­tions regard­ing how the deci­sions will effect Cana­dian con­tent and broad­cast ser­vice for French-speaking citizens.

The full text of the coalition’s peti­tion is avail­able online at:  http://www.friends.ca/files/PDF/Petition-CRTC-2005–246.2005–247.pdf

Back­ground: ·

The Appli­cants

- Sir­ius Radio Canada, a part­ner­ship involv­ing the CBC, Stan­dard Radio Inc. and the U.S. firm Sir­ius Satel­lite Radio Inc.

(http://www.sirius.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Sirius/CachedPage&c=PresRele

Asset&cid=1070996607487&flash=flash )

- Cana­dian Satel­lite Radio Inc ., headed by Toronto busi­ness­man John Bitove, in part­ner­ship with XM Satel­lite Radio Hold­ings Inc. (http://www.cdnsatrad.com/news06162005.php)

- CHUM Sub­scrip­tion Radio Canada is propos­ing 50 chan­nels, all of which would be pro­duced in Canada. (http://www.chumlimited.com/csrc/index.asp ).

The Appli­ca­tions

(http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/NEWS/RELEASES/2005/i050616.htm ):

Cana­dian Satel­lite Radio

Sir­ius Canada Inc.

CHUM/Astral

CBC 40%  Stan­dard 40%

Sir­ius USA 20%

CHUM 80.1%  Astral 19.9%

Own­er­ship

John Bitove 100%

US part­ner

XM Radio

Sir­ius USA

N/A

Deliv­ery system

Satellite/terrestrial

Satellite/terrestrial

Ter­res­trial

Spec­trum

S – band

S – band

L – band

60 –75% of population

(by end of 1  term)

Ser­vice area

National

National

st

1 Eng­lish music  1 French music

1 Eng­lish com­edy  1 French talk

1 Eth­nic

Radio 1 (Eng)  Prem Chaine (Fr)  Radio 3 (Eng)  Ban­dea­part (Fr)  The Wave (Eng)

35 Eng­lish  10 French

5 Eth­nic

Pro­posed  Canadian

chan­nels

Pro­posed for­eign channels

122

120

All Cana­dian

Pro­posed monthly fee

$12.99

$12.95

$9.95

·  For more detailed infor­ma­tion on Broad­cast­ing Deci­sions CRTC 2005-246 to 2005-248 CRTC see Broad­cast­ing Pub­lic Notice CRTC 2005–61: Licens­ing of new satel­lite and ter­res­trial sub­scrip­tion radio under­tak­ings (http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Notices/2005/pb2005-61.htm).