GATINEAU – Canadian convention broadcasters have had their licenses renewed for a year, won’t face a one-to-one foreign-Canadian programming spend requirement – and will have a LOT of regulatory work to do in the next 12 months,
As first reported by Cartt.ca this week, the CRTC announced its preliminary decisions on a few matters from the public hearing to renew the licences of most of Canada’s private conventional television broadcasters.
“We are making our initial determinations public to provide a measure of guidance to conventional broadcasters as they prepare for the upcoming broadcast year and embark on program purchases,” said Konrad von Finckenstein, chairman of the CRTC, in this morning’s press release. “In the case of the large networks, we have opted for shorter licence terms to give these broadcasters some flexibility during the current period of economic uncertainty.”
The Commission will grant:
• A one-year licence renewal term for the television stations operated by CTV, Canwest and Quebecor’s Sun TV, as well as the Citytv stations operated by Rogers Broadcasting. This will allow the Commission to consider these stations in the context of group-based licence renewals in spring 2010, says the press release
• A two-year licence renewal term for the television stations and discretionary services operated by TVA Group Inc. This will allow the Commission to consider a group-based licence renewal for TVA at the same time as it reviews the licence obligations of TQS Inc., and for the French-language television stations operated by the CBC, it said.
• A six-year licence renewal term for the OMNI television stations operated by Rogers.
• Seven-year licence renewal terms for the RNC MEDIA Inc. and Télé Inter-Rives ltée television stations.
The new licence terms will take effect on September 1, 2009 and the specific licence terms and conditions will be made public in the coming weeks.
As for Cancon spending, “(t)he Commission has decided that it will not impose a condition on English-language broadcasters requiring a 1-to-1 ratio between Canadian and non-Canadian programming expenditures. Such a condition would not be practical for the upcoming broadcast year, given the sector’s production timelines and the programming commitments that are already in place,” says the release.
However, the Commission will continue to explore various regulatory measures to ensure that English-language television broadcasters devote an appropriate proportion of their expenditures to Canadian programming.
Up next, the CRTC will now begin new work with the industry to find “a systemic and structural solution to the challenges facing conventional broadcasters,” reads the release. A follow-up proceeding will be launched this summer, culminating in a public hearing in the fall, to address certain unresolved policy questions. The scope of the proceeding will include, among others, the following issues:
• Determining the modalities and conditions for group-based licensing to be employed in 2010.
• Providing revenue support for conventional television stations by: investigating alternative support mechanisms for local programming; protecting the integrity of Canadian broadcaster signals; and exploring a mechanism for establishing, through negotiation, the fair market value for the signals of conventional television stations distributed by cable and satellite companies.
• Elaborating further details regarding possible models for the digital transition.
• Establishing the appropriate minimum levels of spending on Canadian programming by English-language television broadcasters and the regulatory mechanism to ensure these levels.
A notice of consultation will published shortly to provide further details on a public hearing that will be held in fall 2009.
