GATINEAU – Broadcasters, distributors and special interests all took predictable stances on the CRTC's proposed framework for the distribution of national news services in interventions published this week.
The comment period for the framework, which launched from the Commission's August decision to deny mandatory distribution to Sun News Network, ended on Monday night. Last-minute submissions were posted to the CRTC site Tuesday and Wednesday. The Regulator’s proposals include rules on carriage, packaging and channel placement for national news services licensed as Category C, which would categorize all such services – new and existing – as one group that should be given equal distribution (or “pride of place” as CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais said last month) by all BDUs.
Broadcasting distributors that don't own national news channels were against new rules to restrict the way they operate. "There is no crisis," wrote Rogers in its submission. It argued that an "alleged problem" with a single service, Sun News, should not require "such a massive regulatory intrusion into the marketplace."
BDUs Rogers, Telus, Cogeco, Eastlink and MTS challenged the CRTC's assertion that non-Canadian news services get higher fees than Canadian ones. They said it's actually the Canadian services that get more money because of higher penetration, even if their per-subscriber fee is lower. Cogeco said that even Sun News receives more in affiliation payments from it than five of six non-Canadian news channels.
Rogers and Cogeco each commissioned surveys showing Canadians are satisfied with the amount and variety of Canadian news channels in their basic packages and opposed changes to how they're distributed, whether adding Sun News to basic or moving others out of it. Rogers said that 70% of its digital subscribers have Sun News through tiers, theme packages or à la carte selections, and "it is safe to assume that those of our customers who do not subscribe to the service (30%) have made a conscious decision not to receive it in their homes."
Rogers and Telus also predicted that adopting this new framework would, in Rogers's words, "encourage others to launch low-budget national mainstream news services."
"Canadian news services are financially healthy," wrote SaskTel, including statistics showing the number of services, subscribers, Canadian programming spending and revenues all going up, and all services but one (Sun News) showing comfortable profit margins. "Quite simply, some services – whether Canadian or non-Canadian – are better than others and that determines their success or failure and ability to garner more favourable rates, packaging and channel placement."
Shaw warned of "unintended consequences" for new rules that it said would harm consumer choice. But it suggested that if imposed, services that qualify should have "minimum thresholds" imposed on them, including bureaus in at least 9 of 13 provinces and territories, compliance with the RTDNA Canada code of ethics, at least 16 hours a day of original news coverage, and overseas reporting assets.
Many BDUs objected to rules on channel placement, an area which the CRTC has moved away from regulating. They argued an FCC case imposing rules on a single distributor, Comcast, was a result of apparent undue preference, which is already prohibited under CRTC rules. The BDUs said that channel number changes are disruptive to consumers and should be avoided.
The Canadian Cable Systems Alliance, which represents more than 100 small cable services, said new packaging rules would force it to violate its contracts with CBC and CTV or distribute all news services on basic.
Quebecor, which owns Sun News and French-language news channel LCN, and Bell, which owns CTV News Channel, generally supported the framework. But Bell and CBC called for stronger criteria for news services. Bell suggested that 70% of a service's operating budget must be "spent directly on editorial and production operations", and it must broadcast at least 10 hours a day of live news.
The CBC opposed any measures that would disadvantage CBC News Network or RDI in order to create parity with other news services.
Cogeco and Eastlink stressed that if services like Sun News are having trouble getting carriage, that issue should be solved using the existing dispute resolution system.
Turner Broadcasting, which owns CNN, HLN and CNN International, wrote in to challenge the CRTC's comparisons. CNN and HLN, it said, have been distributed here for 30 years and have strong viewer loyalty, and CNN has a higher wholesale rate in part because it cannot be distributed on basic.
Unifor, the new union that resulted from the merger of CAW and CEP, focused on what it sees as the Commission's failure to consider employment when making decisions. It noted that of 167 specialty television services reporting to the CRTC, 136 "operated with one or fewer staff," though none of these are the news services.
Unifor and some BDUs also called on the CRTC to define unclear terms like "best available package" and "consistent with their genre" when setting distribution rules.
David Anderson, Conservative MP in Saskatchewan, wrote to the Commission on official letterhead to say that "all national news providers must be given an equal opportunity to reach Canadians with their coverage."
Other recommendations included:
* Graham Fraser, the Commissioner of Official Languages, wants a rule imposed that would require news packages include news channels in both English and French.
* Rachel Laperrière, Quebec's deputy minister of culture and communications, recommended that French-language news services be given channel numbers near other French-language channels instead of near English all-news channels.
* Stornoway Communications, which owns the Category A service ichannel, and the Independent Broadcast Group said the new rules should apply to services in other genres, too.
* Activist group Avaaz, which has a long feud with Sun News, said regional news services should also be permitted to be licensed as Category C, with the benefits that come with it.
* The Public Interest Advocacy Centre recommended banning the distribution of Canadian news channels on basic (except those with mandatory distribution orders), and called for the CRTC to monitor retail rates of basic cable to ensure consumers are not charged more.
* Telus proposed that the new rules apply only to BDUs distributing affiliated national news services (i.e. Bell and Videotron).
The deadline to file replies is September 24th.
