TORONTO – Canada’s television industry is not in crisis, Rogers told Parliament’s Heritage Committee in Ottawa on Monday.
Encouraging the Committee to evaluate CTV and Canwest’s broadcast assets “as the sum of their parts, not as though each segment were a standalone business”, the cable giant argued strongly against the notion of fee-for-carriage which has been advocated by conventional broadcasters CTV and Canwest.
"Fee for carriage would set up the worst of all public policy solutions, a two tier taxation system,” said Phil Lind, vice chairman of Rogers Communications, in an announcement. “Those who subscribe to cable or satellite would pay more, a lot more, while those who receive television via rabbit ears or a roof-top antenna, would pay no consumer tax, and continue to receive free over-the-air local television. Such a system would be patently unfair."
Rogers summed up its position by naming off the many “advantages” its cable division provides to over-the-air broadcasters (i.e. guaranteed carriage, priority position on the cable dial, financial support of programming initiatives of over $50M per year, simultaneous substitution for U.S. shows).
Lind called any fee designed “to boost one business division of an otherwise profitable integrated business entity" unfair to consumers and bad public policy.
