OTTAWA – The Local Programming Improvement Fund, which is to be phased out by September 2014, collected $112.1 million in funding from BDUs in 2012 compared to $106.7 million the previous year. The CBC`s TV stations accounted for more than $47 million paid out from the fund in 2012. The figures come from the latest financial statements released by the CRTC, which includes a listing of all stations that received LPIF support.
Last July the Commission announced that contributions to the Fund will be gradually reduced until it is discontinued. As a result, the charge many cable and satellite companies have passed through to their customers will be removed from their bills.
The fund was originally created in 2008 to help television broadcasters in non-metropolitan markets maintain and improve local programming during the recession, as they were incurring significant costs in making the transition to digital television. In 2010, 78 stations received funding totalling $100 million and, in 2011, 80 stations received $106 million in funding.
Due to a recovery in the advertising sector and the successful transition to digital television, the financial situation of broadcasters has improved and the CRTC decided the fund would no longer be required. It added that ìt expects stations “will maintain the same quality of programming without support from the Fund.“
