OTTAWA – The overwhelming majority of community TV channels do not meet the minimum criteria for operating a community TV channel under current CRTC policy, says the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS).
As the CRTC prepares to review the policy framework for local and community television programming later this month, the organization said Thursday that it has filed complaints of non-compliance with the Commission’s community TV policy against 47 cable community channels for not airing at least 60% local content and at least 50% access content.
CACTUS’ allegation includes research by CACTUS member and Newwest.tv executive director Deepak Sahasrabudhe who reviewed the online programming schedules of 87 different cable license areas in Canada. That research is available here.
“I had noticed that Shaw airs almost nothing local to New Westminster, yet by my calculation, the company collects about $400,000 per year from all of us who live here to provide community TV services”, Sahasrabudhe said in the news release. “Everything we see is being piped out from downtown Vancouver. I wanted to find out whether the same situation is happening across Canada. Are subscribers getting the services they pay for? It's a condition of the license of these companies.”
CACTUS says funding should be made available to communities to operate multimedia training and production centres that would teach and distribute traditional media such as TV and radio as well as “new media” like web design and gaming.
“It hasn't made sense for a long time for cable companies to offer community TV services”, added CACTUS spokesperson Catherine Edwards. “It's (been) a long time since these companies have had a presence in small communities. Communities need to take over. At issue at the upcoming hearing is the fate of more than $150 million that is collected from cable subscribers from coast to coast every year to ensure that they have access to training and a platform for free speech in the broadcasting system.”
