GATINEAU – Corus Entertainment executives strongly defended the choices it has made in in bringing Oprah Winfrey’s cable channel to Canada in front of the CRTC Tuesday.
The company brought all of its big guns to the Commission hearing earlier today after being called on the carpet for being in non-compliance with the license that applies to the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) Canada – a channel which was Canadian Learning Television a decade ago.
John Cassaday, president and CEO of Corus, was accompanied by Doug Murphy, executive VP of Corus Entertainment and president of Corus Television, regulatory chief Gary Mavaara, John MacDonald, VP of television, head of programming and production and former COO of OWN in the U.S., among others. There was even a life size cutout of Oprah Winfrey herself in attendance.
Corus maintained that it is, and has been, in compliance with the educational nature of service for OWN Canada, but has proposed some programming changes for the license which, it says, are to demonstrate its commitment to the Commission’s licensing processes. “We hope to demonstrate that through our revised programming approach we will deliver on our commitment to provide a Category A educational service in compliance with the nature of service definition,” Cassaday said during his opening remarks.
Among the new initiatives Corus plans to implement, two new programs have been proposed. They will be supported by an investment of $500,000 in fiscal year 2013 to support 30, 30-minute episodes and $750,000 in 2014, bringing the number of episodes to 50. “Each concept is supported by an online component that will provide clear learning and instructional opportunities for the viewers. Subject experts in their fields will provide viewers with concrete opportunities to acquire useful and relevant knowledge,” explained MacDonald.
After the Group Licensing Proceeding last year, Corus was put on notice by the CRTC for not adhering to the nature of service. The company tried on numerous occasions to satisfy Commission, but was ultimately unsuccessful. (We at Cartt.ca had our say on the matter here.)
Under questioning, Cassaday acknowledged that the Commission found OWN to be in non-compliance in July 2011, but said the company never considered itself to be in a position of non-compliance or “even pushing the envelope.” He added the hope to was to come to sort of consensus on what an educational services could resemble now and in the future, with less of a historical definition.
“The full spectrum in our view should not be viewed as limiting but rather as expansive. In other words, to be in compliance the service should be allowed to use any educational formats that are at its disposal. And I think we did,” said Cassaday. “It was our view that effectively the condition was amended by interpreting the word “will” to “must” and as a result it ended up making in our view the definition of educational programming more narrow than we interpreted it.”
While insisting that OWN is in compliance with its nature of service, Corus said there should perhaps be a discussion on the definition of educational programming. “We are very open to discussing broadening the definition of education for this network and including a broader array of educational programs to Oprah Winfrey Network,” said Cassaday.
Sylvie Courtemanche, VP of government relations for Corus, chimed in, noting that the company is looking for help in terms of an appropriate interpretation of what constitutes Category 5(a) programming (which is called “formal education and preschool”). “We’re not attempting to change 5(a), we’re just attempting to… look for interpretation guidelines that will help us [give producers direction on programming],” she said. “We’re really trying to figure out what is the sandbox… because the definition in and of itself doesn’t create a very clear and established sandbox.”
Commissioner Suzanne Lamarre delved into the details of specific programs and how they meet the Category 5(a) criteria. Grocery Bag was one program she pointed to as not meeting the 5(a) guidelines. Courtemanche noted that this show is a good example of a program where viewers walk away with information on specific product groups.
“They actually research products, they show demonstrations comparing one product to another. It’s a lot like reading Consumer Reports magazine. Again the primary function is to get the knowledge, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be entertaining,” she said. “But anybody watching that show is walking away with knowledge about a product group and things that they should be looking at when they are making a decision on which product to buy in that group. So it’s all about education and research.”
Transitioning OWN to a Category B service is another option open to Corus and while the company offered this as a potential solution at one point, it now dismisses this as being “very problematic” for three reasons. First the company wouldn’t have the leverage it needed to negotiate distribution agreements. Secondly the linkage rules (Corus and Shaw Communications are affiliated) could result in the loss of a substantial portion of 1.8 million subscribers for OWN Canada. And lastly, by forcing Shaw to carry three non-affiliate Category B services, as the regs dictate if Shaw kept OWN as a Cat B, Shaw subscribers could end up paying upwards of $20 million to $30 million in incremental costs resulting from subscriber fees.
“So for all those reasons, we, as you suggest, would certainly accept a Category B as a last step, fall back position to this hearing. But it is far from being our first choice which is to continue with our Category A licence,” said Cassaday.
The Commission decision on this will come in the new year.
