GATINEAU – One of the things we’re learning at this hearing (if we didn’t know it already) is that consumers have sharp memories for when they felt wronged.
For example, second-year poli-sci student Kari Vierimaa (born and raised in Timmins and Sudbury) who called himself “a future broadcast journalist” lamented the losses of local news nearly a decade ago in Northern Ontario during his presentation Wednesday morning in front of the Commission as it looks into compensation for conventional broadcasters in 2009-614.
“In 2000, Robert Rabinovitch, the then newly-minted president of CBC/Radio Canada slashed and essentially destroyed quality local coverage in every CBC market in this country,” said Vierimaa. “His cuts left a meagre 30 minutes of local news on weekdays… but why cut local? Simply put, local television is no longer profitable.
“Less than a year later, in 2001, massive claw backs at CTV resulted in the elimination of locally produced news in Northern Ontario, replacing it with a regional newscast in Sudbury… Local news coverage in all areas, including Sudbury, was slashed to mere minutes per newscast… Regional news is not local news, but the reality is that it’s the only feasible way to produce quality programming in markets like Northern Ontario.
“I can tell you first hand that even though local news was cancelled in the north almost 10 years ago, the people of North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie and Timmins still wish that Dennis Chippa, Lou Ann Young or Corinna Wrona were sitting at the local news station across town, bringing the news from their neighbourhoods and city into their homes every night.”
(Ed note: As a note of disclosure, I’m from Timmins too, and Corinna Wrona, the former Timmins MCTV anchor, was a childhood friend.)
Port Stanley’s Sarah Braund confronted the Commission on the cancellation of her favourite morning show earlier this year at London’s A-Channel. “We felt the morning show was very good and provided us everything we needed to get our day started. Now, we listen to the London radio station. We need to know if there is ice on the roads, traffic tie-ups, school or other closings,” which she can’t find on the Toronto-based broadcasters.
However, it’s not as though they blame the broadcaster only. They’ve got some ire reserved for the carriers, too. “I do not favour downloading fees,” said Toronto’s Ari Berman. “Cable and satellite have been well paid, but they have enjoyed getting local content… for free.
“They have had many years of reselling free product and it is time the industry matured and paid its share of the costs of is signal. This is a business input and all businesses should pay their suppliers,” he added.
Then there was Russell McOrmond, who had an interesting idea of his own. He said he likes the new Local Programming Improvement Fund, but that it shouldn’t be paid to the broadcasters. “If preserving and enhancing local programming is the goal, this needs to be focused on individual programs and not stations or broadcasters. LPIF should fund local programming, independent of the delivery mechanism, which would include traditional broadcasting, cable access, and Internet distribution.”
He also suggested that the coaxial cable and twisted pair copper wires entering his home be considered utilities like gas or power. The Ontario Energy Competition Act of 1998 determined that electricity and gas were natural monopolies and it was ridiculous to think competing companies would dig up roads to install new pipe and conduit, explained McOrmond.
“We must do the same thing for our communications infrastructure, separating a highly regulated utility model for municipal distribution from minimally regulated services that are built on top,” he said.
“This will allow a free market to build services that actually meet the needs of consumers. This will allow local programming to become more local, lowering existing barriers to distribution of neighbourhood programming.”
And maybe then Ms Wrona could go back to broadcasting, if she wished.
