TORONTO, MONTREAL and OTTAWA – Three of Canada’s largest BDUs were quick to express their mutual disappointment with Monday’s CRTC decision, and hinted that it will be the consumer who will be hit the hardest.
Rogers said that the introduction of the “major new consumer TV taxes” should have Canadian consumers “very worried”, and vice-chair Phil Lind predicted that the new fees could cost its customers an additional $50 – $100 per year depending on their cable package.
“Today’s CRTC announcement says that, not withstanding earlier rulings by the CRTC and notwithstanding the lack of support by the Canadian Heritage Committee, the CRTC is seeking to impose another new tax on consumers,” Lind said in a statement. “The only question outstanding is how much more consumers will have to pay to watch the same television signals they watch today."
Lind also said that Rogers intends to fight the fees “on behalf of Canadian consumers”.
Cogeco echoed Rogers’ sentiments, saying that it is “deeply concerned with the federal broadcasting regulator’s decision to impose substantial and growing cross-subsidies for the benefit of Canadian over-the-air (OTA) television broadcasters through a number of parallel regulatory measures.”
It predicted that the “6.5% aggregate cross-subsidy” will result in an approximate price increase of $48 per year for the average Cogeco cable video consumer.
(Ed note: Cogeco Cable currently pays 5% of its revenue derived from video distribution to Canadian television programming initiatives, including the Canadian Media Fund and Cogeco Program Development Fund. The CRTC proposed increasing the LPIF by 1.5% of BDU revenue, which would total 6.5%).
"The CRTC has embarked on a course of action that will inevitably cause cable and satellite retail rates to rise significantly, and the choice of services presently available on Canadian cable and satellite to be further constrained, through these regulatory measures”, said President and CEO Louis Audet in a statement.
Of even greater concern, Cogeco’s announcement continues, is the CRTC’s position on fees for carriage, which could mean an additional cost of up to $60 per year for its customers.
“The logic of having Canadian cable and satellite customers pay substantially more to support, in fact, the costly acquisition of prime time American television programs and its aggregation with subsidized Canadian local programs by the Canadian OTA television broadcasters should be seriously challenged", Audet continued, noting that many Canadian consumers may be away on summer vacations and therfore unable to file dissenting comments by the August 10 deadline.
Both Cogeco and Bell also expressed concern over the CRTC’s “threat” to have US television network signals removed from cable and satellite in Canada in order to further protect Canadian OTA television broadcasters.
Bell said that it was “extremely disappointed” with the CRTC’s decision, and said the Commission’s flip flop on the issue of fee for carriage made its announcement “all the more perplexing”.
“The CRTC’s new stance is especially concerning considering the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage decided last month not to recommend such fees – a decision that included the categorical rejection of a fee-for-carriage tax by the Heritage Committee’s government members”, said Mirko Bibic, Bell’s SVP of regulatory and government affairs, in a statement.
Bell said that it will begin recouping the new fees on Bell TV bills beginning in September.
"The CRTC should simply have dismissed broadcaster demands for consumers to pay yet more fees”, Bibic continued. “It’s clear that the only beneficiaries of these new TV taxes will be the major broadcasting corporations.”
