GATINEAU – The CRTC said Tuesday it wants the opinions of Canadians about additional information provided by the large French- and English- language television groups as part of the reconsideration of decisions to renew their television licences.
The CRTC will gather comments until January 23, 2018.
On May 15, 2017, the CRTC issued a series of decisions to renew licences for the television services of large English- and French-language private ownership groups (Bell Media, Corus Entertainment, Rogers Media, Groupe V and Quebecor Media). On August 14, 2017, the Governor in Council referred back to the CRTC certain aspects of the renewal decisions for reconsideration. Mostly, creatives and others were angry about promised levels of spending on programs of national interest and the decisions were primarily returned because of that issue alone.
However, the groups updated their licence renewal applications and have made new requests focusing on the aspects in the order in council:
For the French-language market:
- The creation and presentation of original French-language programming and music programming.
For the English-language market:
- The creation and presentation of programs of national interest, music programming, short films and short-form documentaries.
The companies answered some questions about these issues and submitted new financial data and other requests. For example, Bell Media has asked for permission to shut down five rural OTA TV transmitters and has offered to raise the PNI floor from 5% to 6%, but in exchange has asked for the rules that call for 75% of that PNI money being spent with independent producers to be trimmed to 50%. This new information can be consulted here.
“In our original licence renewal filing, we highlighted the daunting competitive environment in which Canada's television broadcasters operate. Only 18 months later, that environment has transformed beyond expectations and the challenge is even more urgent,” reads Bell’s submission.
“Traditional broadcasters must now compete with a growing roster of foreign streaming services and international Internet giants for program rights, subscriber and advertising dollars, and viewers. These players acquire worldwide distribution rights and put pressure on our services, not only by introducing a new OTT competitor into the market, but also by increasingly challenging our ability to acquire territorial programming rights for Canada, either by outbidding us or driving up our costs, all while remaining free from any regulatory obligations. They also draw advertising away from traditional media. Cord shaving and cord cutting continue to accelerate in the context of this fierce competition, helped along by the Commission's mandated unbundling policy. Canadians do not differentiate between traditional providers and OTT services – they watch content, not platforms.”
