The CCA weighs in on private television group-based licence renewals

CCA Bul­letin 7/11

Feb­ru­ary 25, 2011

 

Just the Facts

The Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts (CCA) recently sub­mit­ted a brief to the Cana­dian Radio-Television and Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Com­mis­sion (CRTC) regard­ing group-based licence renewals for English-language television.

Why does this issue matter?

Tele­vi­sion pro­gram­ming is the most con­sumed cul­tural prod­uct. TV is the for­mat through which the gov­ern­ment invests the most tax­pay­ers’ dol­lars, both directly and indi­rectly. Tele­vi­sion is also the most pop­u­lar cul­tural form and accord­ing to the objec­tives of the Broad­cast­ing Act, it should reflect Cana­dian real­i­ties and cul­ture. Due to the con­sol­i­da­tion of own­er­ship in the audio-visual sec­tor and the relaxed nature of past reg­u­la­tion, it is imper­a­tive that the CRTC set a proper course to ensure that Cana­dian pro­gram­ming is offered to Cana­di­ans across the var­i­ous plat­forms now avail­able. This is nec­es­sary because for the fore­see­able future, tra­di­tional tele­vi­sion pro­grams will remain as the pri­mary source of such programming.

Tell me more

Over the past 10 years, we have wit­nessed an increased con­cen­tra­tion of own­er­ship and power in the Cana­dian broad­cast­ing and dis­tri­b­u­tion indus­try. In 2001, we saw the trans­fer of con­trol of TVA to Que­becor, the largest cable oper­a­tor and inter­net provider in Que­bec which now also offers com­pet­i­tive wire­less ser­vices. In 2007, five Citytv sta­tions were acquired by Rogers, which also oper­ates three dis­tri­b­u­tion plat­forms. In Octo­ber 2010, the CRTC autho­rized the acqui­si­tion of Can­west Global by Shaw and the Com­mis­sion most recently com­pleted hear­ings regard­ing BCE’s acqui­si­tion of CTVglobemedia Inc.

On April 4, for the first time since its pol­icy deci­sion, the CRTC will hold a hear­ing to licence pri­vate tele­vi­sion ser­vices, apply­ing a group-based approach. Given the extreme con­cen­tra­tion of own­er­ship of broad­cast­ing and dis­tri­b­u­tion under­tak­ings, it is imper­a­tive that the Com­mis­sion looks at the broad pic­ture and under­stands how best to achieve the cul­tural objec­tives set out in the Broad­cast­ing Act, of which it is the custodian.

The CCA sees these hear­ings as an oppor­tu­nity to cor­rect the imbal­ance in the pro­gram­ming avail­able to Eng­lish Cana­dian audi­ences. Improve­ments can be made by imple­ment­ing gen­eral Cana­dian pro­gram­ming expen­di­ture require­ments on tra­di­tional over-the-air broad­cast­ers and spe­cific require­ments for pro­grams of national inter­est.  The Com­mis­sion has defined pro­grams of national inter­est as scripted drama, doc­u­men­taries and Cana­dian awards shows. In its sub­mis­sion, the CCA focused on the fol­low­ing issues:

The need for a proper base for expen­di­ture requirements

The CCA was dis­ap­pointed with the CRTC’s deci­sion to reduce Cana­dian con­tent require­ments to 55% over the broad­cast day from the tra­di­tional level of 60%, but rejoiced in the deci­sion to rein­tro­duce expen­di­ture require­ments for Cana­dian pro­gram­ming, a pol­icy that was aban­doned in 1999 with dis­as­trous results. The CCA opposes the posi­tion of all four of the large broad­cast own­er­ship groups, who have pro­posed that expen­di­ture require­ments be cal­cu­lated based on an aver­age of the rev­enues in each of the three pre­vi­ous broad­cast­ing years, since this was a period of unusu­ally low rev­enue by broadcasters.

Main­tain­ing Cana­dian con­tent require­ments for spe­cialty services

The CCA is strongly opposed to any sug­ges­tion that Cana­dian con­tent require­ments be low­ered for spe­cialty ser­vices, par­tic­u­larly now that own­er­ship of over-the-air sta­tions and spe­cialty ser­vices has been con­sol­i­dated. Those require­ments ensured the sus­tained pro­duc­tion of Cana­dian pro­gram­ming between 1999 and 2010, even when the CRTC’s dis­as­trous pol­icy of incen­tives led to over-the-air broad­cast­ers invest­ing less and less in Cana­dian pro­duc­tion and spend­ing more and more on US programs.

Estab­lish­ing the proper lev­els for expen­di­ture requirements

The CCA is rec­om­mend­ing to the CRTC that Cana­dian pro­gram­ming expen­di­tures be estab­lished as a min­i­mum at 30% of total rev­enue for each group, with even the pos­si­bil­ity of scal­ing upwards over the course of the five-year licens­ing period. This require­ment will barely re-establish a rea­son­able equi­lib­rium between what Anglo­phone broad­cast­ers spend on acquir­ing for­eign pro­gram­ming and what they spend on Cana­dian programs.

With regards to scripted drama, doc­u­men­taries and Cana­dian awards show, the CCA believes that the pro­posed level of 5% is not suf­fi­cient. Instead, the CCA rec­om­mends that the Com­mis­sion estab­lish 10% as the proper level in year one for Shaw and Corus and have Rogers and CTV grow to a level 10% over five years.

Rely­ing on the inde­pen­dent pro­duc­tion sector

In order to ensure that there is a diver­sity of pro­gram­ming, the CCA believes that it is essen­tial to have a strong inde­pen­dent pro­duc­tion com­mu­nity in Canada.  Accord­ingly, the CCA agrees with the Commission’s posi­tion that the ser­vices that are part of these groups be sub­ject to a con­di­tion of licence. This would require hav­ing at least 75% of expen­di­tures that are ded­i­cated to pro­grams of national inter­est allo­cated to inde­pen­dently pro­duced pro­grams. The groups should also com­mis­sion pro­duc­tion from all regions of Canada, com­men­su­rate with their pres­ence in the respec­tive mar­kets in which they broad­cast. In a sim­i­lar vein, the CCA opposes the var­i­ous pro­pos­als that would reduce or elim­i­nate con­di­tions of licences, requir­ing spe­cialty ser­vices to acquire pro­gram­ming from inde­pen­dent pro­duc­ers.  There is no jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for these pro­pos­als and they must be firmly rejected by the Com­mis­sion.

Estab­lish­ing exhi­bi­tion requirements

Finally, the CCA notes that expen­di­ture require­ments must be accom­pa­nied by exhi­bi­tion require­ments. The CCA pro­poses that each tra­di­tional broad­caster be required to sched­ule at least two hours of drama or scripted com­edy in the 8 to 11 pm time slot, Sun­day to Fri­day, each week.  This is the time dur­ing which most Cana­di­ans are watch­ing tele­vi­sion. Requir­ing broad­cast­ers to sched­ule a min­i­mum level of drama and scripted com­edy will pro­vide them with a strong incen­tive to help make these pro­grams successful.

What can I do?

Find out more about group-based licens­ing and the CRTC, and fol­low the hear­ings on this topic once they begin on April 4, 2011.