OTTAWA – The CRTC has denied an application by Bell Media to increase the amount of drama and comedy programming allowed on Bell’s Category A channel, Book Television.
In Wednesday’s decision, the Commission denied Bell’s application requesting an increase to the amount of programming it can draw from program category 7 (drama and comedy) from 35% to 50%. Also denied was Bell’s request to remove the 30% limit on the amount of programming that Book Television can draw from in category 7 between 6 p.m. and midnight each broadcast week.
Bell argued the request for the licensing amendments was necessary to Book Television’s overall success by being able to offer more “flexibility regarding the scheduling of drama programming based upon the printed word,” and ultimately increase its subscriber base. As of December 2012, it noted Book Television had been suffering from low ratings and subscribers were at approximately 926,000, an estimated decrease of 62,000 over the previous two years.
The Commission said Bell did not provide any concrete proposals – like a sample of new programming, for instance – that showed the proposed changes would stay true to the channel’s nature of service definition.
The Commission agreed with arguments submitted by interveners, which included CMPA, Rogers, and the Writers Guild of Canada, that Bell’s proposed amendments would allow Book Television to compete with other drama and movie-based specialty services.
It also agreed with the Writers Guild that Book Television had not demonstrated financial difficulty, adding that between 2008 and 2012 the channel had reported a 66.3% profit before interest and taxes margin for 2012 despite a drop of approximately 2% in subscribers in the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 broadcast years.
The Commission had already denied a similar request for amendments made by Bell in 2011, when Bell applied for a similar request for Book Television as part of its group-based license renewal in 2011. Book Television’s broadcasting license was renewed at that time until August 31, 2016 as part of the group license renewal.
