OTTAWA – Regina-based Access Communications Co-operative has told the CRTC that it no longer wishes to pay into the country’s Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF).
Canada’s cable and satellite companies must contribute 1.5% of their gross broadcasting-related revenues per year to the fund, which can then be accessed by broadcasters serving markets with less than 1 million people to help fund local programming.
In an application made public earlier this week, Access asked the Commission to amend its BDU licence to relieve it from its LPIF contributions, citing its “unique corporate structure” as compared to other BDUs (Access is a community-owned not-for-profit cooperative with approximately 90,000 subscribers). It also questioned the need for the LPIF in light of the industry’s trend towards vertical integration, called the fund “a subsidy that (Canada’s largest media companies) do not need, and said that “the economic downturn that threatened the viability of conventional television stations has passed”.
Interventions or comments are due by June 21, 2011.
