GATINEAU – The CRTC today announced it’s allowing RDI to increase its hourly advertising by up to 50%, amending its licence from a former maximum of eight minutes per hour, to a new maximum of 12 minutes.
The CBC applied for the RDI change, saying it would give the French-language information channel the same maximum as its English-language Newsworld service. The CBC also pointed out that most specialty channels can air up to 12 minutes of ads in each clock hour.
The proposal was opposed by private broadcasters, including TVA, Astral, Cogeco Radio-Télévision, and Corus, who were upset that the CBC refused to increase RDI’s advertising minutes when its licence came up for renewal, because the CBC instead opted for a wholesale rate increase of $0.10 per month. According to the commission, the CBC refused to increase ad time at that point because it felt it would have “affected the quality of its programming.”
The private broadcasters asked the commission to defer increasing the ad minutes until RDI’s next licence renewal.
Quebecor (owner of TVA) also intervened to oppose the increase, saying it would hurt ad revenues for private broadcasters, and that advertising should only be allowed for private channels since the CBC gets public funding. Quebec also claimed that the CBC gives free spots on RDI as part of advertising bundling, allowing it to claim it’s sold the RDI inventory and justifying its application for more airtime.
The CBC refuted this claim, saying it does not sell advertising bundles in which RDI spots are free, and pointing out that RDI does not get a Parliamentary appropriation.
In approving the CBC’s request to boost RDI ad airtime, the commission said it “is not convinced that approval of the present application to increase the number of advertising minutes that RDI is authorized to distribute from 8 minutes to a maximum of 12 minutes during each clock hour would disrupt the French-language television advertising market to the point of causing undue harm to the private over-the-air television undertakings currently operating in that market.”
