ACTRA, CMPA express cautious optimism towards group-based licencing policy

TORONTO and OTTAWA – Canada’s creative community used words like “optimistic” and “pleased” to describe their reaction to the CRTC’s group-based licencing policy released Wednesday.As Cartt.ca reported, Bell, Corus and Shaw will now be required to spend 30% of their revenues on Canadian programming, while Rogers will have to spend at least 23% of its gross annual revenues on Canadian programming for its conventional television stations. Bell and Shaw must allot 5% of their revenues to programs of national interest, Corus 9% and Rogers 2.5%.Noting that it had hoped that the CRTC would require the English-language broadcasters to spend at least...