GATINEAU – All right, we don’t recall CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein ever brandishing a gavel, the headline is just our way of saying Cartt.ca will provide daily (or even more frequent, as required) coverage of the CRTC hearing into the latest “fee for carriage” or “value for signal” hearing.
Officially, of course, BNC 2009-411 is the “policy proceeding on a group-based approach to the licensing of television services and on certain issues relating to conventional television.”
So while there will actually be some substantial, other, issues debated (like, can priority Cancon obligations be spread across all the channels of an ownership group?), thanks to the pair of multi-million-dollar ad campaigns, in the public’s eye, the issue has been boiled down to paying a fee, or not, for local TV.
Sadly, that’s meant many people are now convinced that either a) they’re being screwed by their local broadcaster; b) they’re being screwed by their cable or satellite company; or c) they’re being screwed by some nameless, faceless folks in Ottawa.
The industry is not going into this thing smelling very good to Canadians.
While Cartt.ca will have a reporter on site every day, there are a number of ways to follow the hearing. There will be the rapid-fire feeds from many Twitter accounts (the best will be by following @gregobr of course… or search the micro-blogging site with #crtc or other hashtags), an audio feed from the CRTC web site itself or watch it on CPAC.ca.
We hope CPAC is ready for the crush of visitors who will surely log on Monday morning.
But for the best daily summaries, complete with interviews and other reaction, Cartt.ca will have numerous stories and other releases throughout the hearing.
As always, we welcome all questions or comments, either in the box below or by e-mailing us at editorial@cartt.ca.
– Greg O’Brien
