OTTAWA and GATINEAU – The CRTC outlined details today of its previously announced formal public review of issues relating to the ownership of Canadian broadcasting companies.
At the same time, it also issued a call for comments on a code prepared by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC), to which member broadcasters will be required to adhere.
CRTC Chairman Konrad von Finckenstein said the ownership review, whose broad strokes were outlined last month, will focus on media ownership and its impact on the range of voices that the broadcasting system provides to Canadians.
“The goal of this proceeding is to develop a clear and predictable policy that will ensure a diversity of voices, including editorial voices. The adoption of such a policy will further the evolution of the Canadian broadcasting system,” von Finckenstein said. “The Commission intends to adopt a holistic approach that will include all components of the broadcasting industry.”
The review of media ownership regulations will consist of an intervention period that will give Canadians sufficient time to express themselves fully, followed by a public hearing, starting on September 17th in Gatineau.
In its notice issued today (Broadcasting Notice of Public Hearing CRTC 2007-5), the Commission invites comments from interested parties on various issues, particularly those relating to the ownership of broadcasting companies.
Comments must be received by the Commission no later than July 18th.
The Commission cited a series of developments for its decision to undertake the ownership review, among them the fact that the CRTC’s approach to common ownership in television was developed for analog, over-the-air (OTA) undertakings at a time when these services were largely locally owned and were the dominant force in the Canadian TV programming.
As well, it said, the CRTC has no common ownership policy in place with respect to specialty, pay, pay-per-view and video-on-demand (VOD) undertakings. These services together now account for more viewing in Canada than OTA services. However, OTA viewing is still dominant in the French-language market.
Canadian broadcasting and distribution licensees are increasingly operating in an environment where they face competition not only from other licensees but also from largely unregulated new digital platforms. The Commission’s ownership policies need to be examined in light of this evolving reality, it said.
As well, the Commission’s policies with respect to the vertical integration of distribution, programming and/or production undertakings may need to be reviewed in order to respond to new realities and to provide the industry with clear guidelines for any future transactions. The CRTC has never assessed whether policies need to be in place with respect to the ownership of new media undertakings in order to ensure an appropriate diversity of voices on these important new platforms, it said.
In light of the changing Canadian demographics, the CRTC also said it is appropriate to review whether Commission policies need to be adapted in order to ensure that the voices of Aboriginal and ethnic Canadians, as well as those with disabilities, have appropriate access to the system.
In its second notice today (Broadcasting Public Notice CRTC 2007-41), the CRTC calls for comments on the proposed Journalistic Independence Code prepared by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC). Comments should also be submitted by July 18th.
The Commission will examine the comments it receives as part of its diversity of voices review.
Among other things, the code addresses procedures to ensure that broadcasters maintain news management and presentation structures that are separate and distinct from those of their affiliated newspapers. Over the past few years, the CRTC imposed conditions of licence on TVA, CTV, Global Television, and Sun TV, with respect to independence between the news operations of their television stations and affiliated newspapers.
In response to their complaints, the CRTC said that if the CBSC adopted a self-regulatory code of conduct concerning cross-media ownership applicable to the industry as a whole and that code was approved by the Commission, the CRTC would be prepared to consider suspending the application of the conditions of licence.
