Commission to launch ILNF review after C-10’s fate is known
GATINEAU — The CRTC announced today it has approved an application by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) to increase the maximum percentage of proceeds from the Independent Local News Fund (ILNF) that can be allocated to any one station or group of stations operated by the same licensee in a given market from 10% to 12% in any given broadcast year.
The change will be effective on September 1, 2021, which is the beginning of the 2021-2022 broadcast year.
The CAB, which administers the ILNF, submitted its Part 1 application in August 2020, asking the Commission to increase the fund’s market cap to 12%.
In its application, the CAB noted Bell Canada’s acquisition of the V television network (now Noovo) and five other French-language TV stations from Groupe V Média in May 2020 made those stations no longer eligible for funding from the ILNF. As such, any funding that could have been allocated to those stations was now available to be redistributed to other ILNF recipients.
The CAB argued the funding cap should be increased to 12% to ensure an equitable redistribution of the newly available funds while not increasing the number of stations whose funding was capped under the 10% guideline.
In its decision issued today, the Commission said it considered the CAB’s proposal to be appropriate and has approved the ILNF funding cap increase, effective September 1.
Several interveners to the CAB’s application had suggested a proceeding be initiated to review various aspects of the ILNF, including linguistic issues, eligibility criteria and allocation methods.
The CRTC established the ILNF in Broadcasting Regulatory Policy 2016-224 to support the production of local news and information by private independent television stations. The ILNF is funded by licensed BDUs, which are required to contribute 0.3% of their gross revenues from broadcasting activities in the previous broadcast year to the ILNF. Private conventional TV stations that provide locally reflective news and information and which do not belong to a vertically integrated group are eligible to receive ILNF funding.
When the ILNF was created in 2016 (it first took effect September 1, 2017), the Commission indicated it would conduct a review of the fund after five years (i.e., in 2022).
“However, matters related to the production and broadcast of local news could be affected by the possible passage of Bill C-10 (An Act to amend the Broadcasting Act and to make related and consequential amendments to other Acts),” the Commission says in its decision today. “Given that the ILNF is part of a suite of supports and requirements for the creation of local news and information in the private television sector, the Commission considers that conducting a review of the ILNF before there is certainty about the future regulatory framework could lead to incomplete results. The Commission is further of the view that the issue at hand with respect to the funding cap can be decided without a broad review of the ILNF.
“Accordingly, the Commission considers that it is appropriate to conduct a review of broader issues related to the ILNF and other measures to support the production of local news and information at a later date.”
