OTTAWA – Following a request by the federal government to reconsider a regulatory decision, the CRTC issued Monday a ruling that practically mirrors its first decision.
In Broadcasting Decision 2008-12, the CRTC confirmed that Avis de Recherche (ADR), a digital channel devoted to crime prevention, had to be carried on digital basic by all Class 1 and Class 2 cablecos and satellite TV distributors in Quebec at a monthly wholesale rate of 6 cents per subscriber. These are the same terms as the original decision issued in July 2007.
Mandatory distribution of the French-language channel comes into effect on January 24, according to the most recent decision.
The commission also clarified that 43% of the gross revenues derived from the operation of Avis during the previous broadcast year must be spent on Canadian programs, rather than the 20% indicated earlier.
Avis founder Vincent Geracitano in his initial proposal had indicated 45% of revenues would go to production expenditures, of which 20% would be for the production of safety and prevention messages. He said CRTC’s decision issued today will enable ADR to continue to exist.
Quebecor Media, which owns Quebec’s largest cableco, Videotron, had appealed the CRTC’s July decision that deemed Avis a service of exceptional importance under section 9(1)(h) of the Broadcasting Act and thus required mandatory carriage in digital basic packages in Quebec. Quebecor questioned why carriers should be required to pay for a crime prevention channel, and even if the CRTC had the authority to authorize mandatory carriage in digital.
The commission reaffirmed Monday in its latest Avis decision that it had the authority to issue mandatory distribution orders for any licence category of programming service, as set out in section 9(1)(h).
At the same time, the CRTC turned aside Avis’ written complaint that Videotron was giving other channels undue carriage preference. Avis has been carried by Videotron since 2004, but the diginet has always paid the cableco to carry it. In April 2004, Videotron threatened to drop Avis if it did not pay outstanding invoices.
On April 11, 2007, Geracitano filed a formal complaint with the CRTC, alleging that Avis was being discriminated against since it was the only channel that was being charged by Videotron to get distributed. The complaint pointed out that Prise 2, a Category 2 channel owned by Quebecor Media’s TVA, wasn’t getting charged to be distributed.
The CRTC found that other French-language TV channels were not charged for carriage, but also that Avis had willingly agreed to pay Videotron when it first negotiated its distribution deal. “The evidence filed by ADR is insufficient to sustain a filing of undue preference or undue disadvantage,” the CRTC ruled in Broadcasting Decision 2008-13.
