GATINEAU – As the so-called softer side of the industry comes to the fore over the next few, final days of the CRTC TV Policy Review hearing, groups like producers, actors, documentary makers and unions are just hoping the Commission pays more attention to them than the consumer media.
Reporters had elbows up in a crowd most of the week as the likes of CTV, Rogers, Shaw, Bell and Global Television faced the Commission – and then the microphones and notebooks right after.
No such problem Thursday afternoon and Friday.
At one point Friday morning we counted 13 people in the room (besides Commissioners and CRTC staffers) listening to Canadian Media Guild present its case.
In the past, many of these groups were basically given the chance to say their piece, answer a few perfunctory queries and be on their way. Not so on this sleety-snowy first day of December as Commissioners, led by telecom vice-chair Richard French, challenged many of the assumptions and conclusions of the groups.
The CMG decried the broadcasters’ stated goal of walking away from providing over-the-air transmission in most small markets in Canada. "Contrary to popular belief, over the air is not a dinosaur," insisted CMG’s Karen Wirsig.
She pointed to the Kamloops market, where the CBC is only available via cable thanks to the former affiliate’s decision (Pattison Broadcasting) to drop its Ceeb affiliation, making the nation’s public broadcaster unavailable to those without a satellite or cable subscription. "We strongly urge you to make sure there’s stronger debate on the issue," said Wirsig, pointing at the opportunity of digital over-the-air multiplexing (where a broadcaster could send several TV channels within the same spectrum).
"We don’t think the (OTA) issue has been fully explored," added Barb Byers of the Canadian Labour Congress. "People feel like they’re being disconnected, like the plug is being pulled on them."
The union presentation urged further public consultation – perhaps travelling to smaller communities – by the Commission, to find out what people think.
Vice-Chair broadcasting Michel Arpin told the unions that this is the public process for that and the Commission received hundreds of submissions on the review already, many from ordinary Canadians.
"I think the CRTC is seen as an industry process, a technical process," added Wirsig. "I just think it will be a shock to Canadians in five years if we just start pulling the plug (on OTA)."
In fact, CMG presented new research conducted by Canadian Media Research that says there are a large number of consumers in small communities who say they only get their television off-air, which is in contrast to the CBC’s statement to the Commission that most small-towners have a cable or satellite subscription.
For example, said the research almost 10% of Canadians who do subscribe to DTH, for example, may only have one decoder on one TV and rabbit ears for the other televisions in the home. That’s in addition to those who get TV off-air exclusively.
CMG president Lise Lareau also lamented what she saw as the BDUs controlling the debate, which is to the hearing’s detriment, she said.
However, noting that both Rogers and Shaw are against abandoning OTA and so is CMG, and that Shaw even offered to buy small market broadcasters, French asked: "How are the BDUs framing the debate in ways you don’t like?"
Wirsig said the BDU point of view was "reflected disproportionately in the media," and that the Guild, in fact, welcomes Rogers and Shaw’s position on over the air TV.
What Shaw and Rogers won’t welcome, though, is the Guild’s request for a new subscriber fee to be levied on cable and satellite customers which would be a chunk of money administered separately and paid out to producers making original Canadian content.
"We believe Canadians would be prepared to support a very modest increase in their bills," said Lareau, as long as it was somehow explained to them where the money is going, hopefully making it more palatable. And if the money was used by a public broadcaster, such programming would have to air commercial-free, said the CMG.
The Canadian Conference for the Arts came to the Commission this morning with a few different ideas than what appears in its written submissions, much to the Commission’s chagrin. Specifically, it now wants to see a $3 per subscriber per month fee taken from Canadians dumped into the Canadian Television Fund, to "make up the gap" between what is spend on bringing foreign programming into Canada and what broadcasters currently spend on Canadian broadcasting, said CCA national director and former Radio-Canada executive Alain Pineau.
The CCA would see not only cable and satellite customers contributing $3 but also other communications companies like ISPs, telcos and wireless companies.
Commissioner French protested the CCA’s decision to bring something new to the table, so far after the deadline to file public comments, and suggested Pineau and his group study various federal acts which say the Commission isn’t allowed to impose a fee in the way CCA is suggesting.
French also strenuously objected to the overall aggressive tone and language of the CCA’s submission which hit the deadline of September 27th.
For example, the CCA notes in its submission that the CRTC is responsible for ensuring Canadians get Canadian content and then adds: "Whose interests are served when the CRTC does not fully accept this responsibility or when its main focus appears to be the financial well-being of 16 profitable, privately-owned companies?"
The CCA submission also says: "Finally, a benefits policy lends credence to the idea that Canadian programming requires some form of quasi-charitable beneficence on the part of Canada’s privately-owned, over-the-air television broadcasters and the CRTC, much like alms given to the poor as an attestation of the donors’ spiritual worth."
The CCA also mused that the CRTC’s stance on regulatory flexibility might lead to the resumption of cigarette advertising on television, or "when we next see Yo-Yo Ma performing on CTV, may we anticipate the imposition through computer magic of a Telus logo on his violin?" it reads. (Ed note: Yo-Yo plays cello.)
Commissioner French could barely constrain his disdain for the CCA filing, challenging Pineau repeatedly throughout what was an uncomfortable presentation. "If we were going through this submission line by line – I don’t think this is the time, but I don’t think you’d enjoy the process very much… there are words in there that do not belong."
The hearing resumes Monday and Wednesday with groups like the Canadian Television Fund, the Writers’ Guild, the actors union ACTRA and producers association, CFPTA.
