Conventional crisis: Panic is palpable, as fee-for-carriage debate resumes

TORONTO – After combining what Canadian private conventional broadcasters had asked for in their license renewal applications in January with the number of layoffs in the sector and at least $3 billion in collective asset writedowns by the OTA companies, the CRTC slammed the brakes on full license renewal hearings in May for a smaller proceeding meant to more directly address the most pressing concerns of CTV, Canwest, Citytv, and TVA.The current global economic crisis is making an already bad situation worse for conventional broadcasters. A fragmented ad market could be managed if General Motors, for example, was spending on...