By Connie Thiessen
The Canadian Association of Broadcasters blasted today’s CRTC review of commercial radio, saying it doesn’t do enough during a time when broadcasters are losing money and are having to compete against “unregulated options.”
The first commercial radio policy update since 2014, one of the review’s key changes offers greater flexibility to Common Ownership Policy. For markets with eight commercial radio stations or more operating in a given language, an individual may now be permitted to own or control as many as four stations, with a maximum of three stations within one frequency band (FM or AM) in that language. For markets with fewer than eight commercial radio stations operating in a given language, one may be permitted to own or control as many as three stations operating in that language, with no limits on frequency band.
The commission is also removing restrictions around the use of local management agreements (LMAs) and local sale agreements (LSA), understandings or agreements between two or more licensees allowing a licensee to manage aspects of another station as a way to decrease costs by sharing resources, advertising costs and revenues in a market or adjacent market. Unprofitable stations will be allowed increased flexibility, however the commission would still review proposed LMAs to ensure policy objectives are being met, with each licensee required to maintain distinct and separate programming and news services, as well as management, including a program director and news director.
While organizations, including the CAB, noted in their inventions that the current 35% Canadian content requirement for popular music was out of sync with consumer tastes, the review upholds the current percentage. The CRTC also maintained the quota for French vocal music (FVM) for French-language broadcasters at the current level of 65% in each broadcast week and 55% between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., Monday to Friday. At the same time, it has eliminated the “hits policy” in Montreal and Ottawa-Gatineau, stating that it “finds that the evolution of the audio market in Canada has made it such that the hits policy is no longer effective in achieving its stated intent of protecting French-language broadcasters from a loss of revenues or audience share.”
“With a few small exceptions, the updated Commercial Radio Policy does not include any meaningful changes for commercial radio broadcasters,” the CAB said in a statement following the release of the decision. “In fact, it instigates further processes through Canadian Content Development (CCD) initiatives and the review of Canadian content requirements.”
In reference to the current MAPL (Music, Artist, Performance and Lyrics) formula, the point system that determines whether a song is Canadian, the commission says it is moving towards new criteria and refining some content categories that will broaden the eligible songs that stations can play to meet their Canadian content requirements.
“We applaud the Commission for maintaining current Canadian content regulations,” Patrick Rogers, chief executive officer of Music Canada, said in a statement. The non-profit trade organization that represents the major record companies in Canada added it is looking forward to helping the commission modernize the definition of Canadian content under the current MAPL system, as the commission moves toward new criteria to broaden the eligible songs that stations can play to meet their Canadian content requirements, better reflecting how music is made today.
The CRTC says it’s also working to implement a new digital monitoring system and open music database “to simplify and automatize the process of identifying musical selections” that will reduce the regulatory burden on broadcasters.
“This system relies on probative data that can be verified and anchored in existing metadata that are internationally standardized, such as the International Standard Recording Code (ISRC), the International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI) and the International Standard Musical Work Code (ISWC), codes that can be used to confirm the accuracy of the information for any musical selection. Such accuracy is essential to ensure the database is of high quality and that new selections can eventually be added to it automatically. Once it is made public, this database will greatly facilitate identification of Canadian musical selections and mitigate the risks of non-compliance with regulatory requirements,” the review states.
It additionally sets out an expectation that commercial stations that were not already required by condition of licence to broadcast music by emerging artists, play at least 5% of songs from emerging Canadian artists, defined by a 48-month window following the release of the artist’s first commercially marketed song. Commercial radio licensees will have to report annually on the percentage of selections from Canadian emerging artists and the number of distinct artists they broadcast. The commission is also expecting commercial radio broadcasters to include Indigenous music in their playlists, noting it continues co-development on a new Indigenous Broadcast Policy that will impact all facets of the industry.
“While we would have liked to have seen a higher play requirement for plays by emerging artists, a 5% requirement will act as an important tool to help ensure the next generation of great Canadian talent is heard,” added Music Canada’s Rogers.
The commission says in a follow-up proceeding, it will seek comments on “multiple elements” related to Canadian content development, including how to ensure better contributions to Indigenous and diversity initiatives. It will also examine whether broadcasters should collect gender and race-based data about Indigenous Peoples, persons with disabilities and people who identify as 2SLGBTQI+ from the initiatives benefiting from their contributions.
To that, Rogers added Music Canada supports “the Commission’s efforts to help create an environment where music from equity-deserving and sovereignty-affirming groups can grow in that it is done so in ways informed by the voices from those communities.”
But the CAB is not too happy about additional proceedings. “The Commission chose to defer important aspects of the decision into further proceedings without providing a timetable for those processes,” the organization stated. “At a moment when the market for audio listening is exploding with unregulated options, the Commission must change course for the future viability of the sector.
“After a drawn-out process of well over two years, we are dismayed that the Commission has missed this critical opportunity to establish a forward-looking policy for the sustainability of radio broadcasting in Canada,” CAB President Kevin Desjardins said in a statement. “Instead, we have been presented with regulation through the rear-view mirror, which uses past policy touchstones that do not create the conditions for future success for a radio sector already in crisis.”
At the time of the issuance of this regulatory policy, a new legislation, the Online Streaming Act, with substantial changes to the Broadcasting Act is awaiting approval by Parliament. The revised act would provide new for the commission tools to address some of the structural issues affecting conventional radio stations, especially as they compete directly for listeners with streaming services. Accordingly, the elements of this regulatory policy are meant to work both under the current act and in the environment of a new Act, and future proceedings that are being announced as part of this regulatory policy are meant to work seamlessly in either legislative environment.
“The radio industry is in a transition period and is competing with digital services for listeners,” said CRTC Chairman Ian Scott. “A flexible approach will help it remain competitive, while ensuring that Canadians continue to have access to the content that serves their needs and interests. Radio is a very important medium to entertain, inform, discover new artists and ensure that local voices are heard.”
This story has been merged with another from Broadcast Dialogue and is reprinted with permission. It also contains a file from Denis Carmel.
