The Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) on Wednesday said it is “very disappointed and frankly shocked” by the CRTC’s decision to exclude community television from the base contributions to the Canadian broadcasting system that will be required from online streaming services.
The CRTC announced June 4 that foreign and standalone online streamers that make $25 million or more in annual contributions revenues will be required to contribute five per cent of those revenues into certain funds supporting the broadcasting system in Canada.
In its breakdown of how the base contributions from audio-visual online streaming services will be distributed to various funds, the CRTC said 0.5 per cent would go to the Certified Independent Production Funds supporting official language minority communities (OLMC) producers and producers from diverse communities. In addition, 0.5-per-cent contributions would go respectively to the Indigenous Screen Office Fund and the Black Screen Office Fund (or the Canadian Independent Screen Fund for BPOC Creators, and/or the Broadcasting Accessibility Fund). For audio-only online undertakings, 0.5 per cent of their contributions will go to the Community Radio Fund of Canada.
CACTUS, which represents not-for-profit community-owned TV stations across Canada, had been asking for a fund specifically to support community TV to which foreign streaming companies would be required to contribute.
“CACTUS is at a loss to explain why Broadcasting Undertakings (BDUs) must contribute to the funding of community television but online companies continue to be exempt,” says a CACTUS press release.
“Community television is recognized in [the] Broadcasting Act as one of three pillars in the broadcasting system and the need for a robust community broadcasting sector has never been greater. Newsrooms are being gutted by commercial broadcasters whose business models are struggling to adapt to digital competition. Communities outside major centres find themselves in expanding news deserts. Numerous studies have concluded that the lack of local representation is undermining our democracy, not to mention the proliferation of ‘fake news’ on the internet. Community media address both these issues, by providing accountable platforms for local voices,” the release says.
CACTUS goes on to say it “applauds the CRTC’s creation of several national funds to support production by minorities and to promote inclusion. However, it missed the fact that those funds may generate only a handful of programs annually that tell minority stories for a national TV audience. The vast majority of minorities will remain without a voice at the community level. They will have no way to develop the skills they might need to produce content or be heard locally, regionally, or nationally.”
“We can’t see the logic behind the CRTC directing base contributions to community radio while excluding community TV,” Catherine Edwards, CACTUS’s executive director, said in a statement. “The Community Radio Fund of Canada already provides funding to community radio. By refusing to create a similar fund for community TV, the CRTC further undermines community TV.”
CACTUS says the CRTC’s decision to exclude community TV from base contributions “does not reflect the critical importance of the work done by our members nor the will of government, which clearly instructs the CRTC in its ministerial directive to ensure the sector’s sustainability. The Broadcasting Act itself stipulates that community programming should be ‘available throughout Canada’.”
The number of community television stations in Canada has declined from more than 300 in the 1980s to fewer than 100 today, CACTUS says, adding this is “reflective of successive CRTC policies that sideline the community element in favour of vertical and horizontally integrated BDUs.”
CACTUS says the CRTC’s latest decision “undermines Canadian democracy, contrary to Parliament’s intent that the new Act ensure more inclusion, representation, and diversity.”
“CACTUS urges the CRTC to reevaluate its decision to continue to undermine community television in Canada. We encourage Canadians to reach out [to] their member of parliament to demand better. The amendments made to the broadcasting act in 2023 in support of community broadcasting were supported unanimously by all political parties.”
