OTTAWA – Hundreds of thousands of Canadians are being deprived of access to their local CBC or Radio-Canada signal, and it’s up to the CRTC to right that wrong, according to the ‘pubcaster.
CBC/Radio-Canada is asking for the public’s help as the CRTC prepares to review its policies for direct-to-home (DTH) satellite distribution. In a statement on Wednesday, it said that Bell TV carries only nine of 14 CBC stations and eight of 13 Radio-Canada stations, while Shaw Direct carries only 10 of 14 CBC stations and six of 13 of Radio-Canada stations.
Conventional television licensees have argued in the past that DTH distribution is imperative to their operation, and have proposed that DTH licensees be required to distribute all conventional television stations on a “local-into-local” basis, i.e., every local station should be distributed to DTH subscribers within at least their local market. In their view, local-into-local distribution is essential to ensure the integrity of their signals since DTH licensees serve a significant number of subscribers in each market.
CBC stations in Edmonton, Regina, Charlottetown, Fredericton, Windsor, St-John’s, as well as Radio-Canada’s stations in Quebec City, Saguenay, Rimouski, Trois-Rivières, Sherbrooke, Regina and Toronto are not being carried by one or both satellite television providers, the Corp. said. Rather, subscribers in these markets are forced instead to watch local news and programming from a different market such as Toronto or Montreal, despite the “significant investments” it’s made to strengthen its regional presence in these communities.
"For years now, CBC/Radio-Canada has been working to establish strong regional roots and provide Canadians with programming that reflects their local communities and helps protect regional cultural identities under threat in the current media environment”, said Steven Guiton, VP and chief regulatory officer, in a statement. “The rules as they stand today are undermining our efforts."
CBC/Radio-Canada is encouraging satellite subscribers who do not receive their local CBC or Radio-Canada television station to submit a comment to the CRTC. The Commission said that it will accept comments on its satellite distribution policy until September 8, and the hearing has been scheduled for November 16, 2010 in Gatineau.
