OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Along with today’s numerous decisions regarding license application requests and renewals and mandatory carriage status, the CRTC also invited Canadians to participate in a review of its policy on the licensing of Canadian national news television services.
Today’s notice of consultation to conduct a review of the state of Canada’s national news services originated from evidence presented during the public hearing in April on mandatory distribution, where a number of issues and concerns came to light over the challenges faced by new entrants offering Category C national news specialty services.
Canadians collectively watched more than 138 million hours of news programming a week in 2011-2012, according to the Commission, 45% of which was on specialty news services.
Presumably the majority of those hours were spent watching non-Canadian news services, which, for the most part, are distributed in popular packages and have favourable access to Canadian viewers, the Commission said.
On average, non-Canadian news services receive wholesale fees from cable and satellite companies of $0.73 per subscriber per month, while Canadian news services receive half of that amount in monthly wholesale fees, at $0.36 per subscriber.
“Television news channels provide an important public service by ensuring that Canadians are exposed to different opinions and perspectives on matters that concern all citizens,” said Commission chair Jean-Pierre Blais in a release. “We are concerned that, under the existing rules, Canadian news services are not being given a pride of place in our broadcasting system.”
The CRTC is proposing a regulatory framework that would treat all Category C national news services – new and existing – as one group that should be given equal distribution access by all BDUs. Some of the Commission’s recommendations include: that distributors must place Canadian news services in close proximity in their channel lineup; national news services must be available in a package and on a stand-alone basis; and they should be offered in the most appropriate packages according to their content.
While the proposed framework would focus primarily on newer entrants, the Commission says that “these challenges are not unique to any given service, but rather an indication of a wider and more systemic issue regarding the distribution of Canadian national news services under equitable and commercially reasonable conditions.”
The deadline for submitting comments is September 9, 2013.
