GATINEAU – Five Canadian ethnic broadcasters have written a letter to the CRTC saying Rogers Media’s application to make OMNI-TV a national, must-carry specialty service is off-side.
Last month, when the CRTC made public the license renewal applications for the major Canadian broadcasters (which it will hear in November), Rogers had filed an application that caught the industry by surprise: It has asked the CRTC for a new license for a must-carry, multilingual and multicultural specialty channel to be known as OMNI Regional.
The proposed national channel would be comprised of four feeds: Pacific, Prairies, and East, mirroring OMNI’s local stations in those regions, plus ICI Quebec via a strategic partnership with Montreal ethnic television station International Channel/Canal International (ICI) aimed at French-language ethnic communities in that province.
The proposed new classification for OMNI would see the company use new funding (up to $0.12 per subscriber per month) to re-establish recently cut news programming and add more shows as well, especially regional multicultural Canadian programming. Of course right now, OMNI is an over-the-air conventional broadcaster which, according to Rogers, is losing millions of dollars every quarter and facing heavy criticism due to recent programming cuts.
A joint letter sent Saturday to the CRTC from Asian Television Network, Fairchild TV, Odyssey Television Network, Talentvision and Telelatino says it isn’t right for the Commission to consider such an application under the auspices of a license renewal and if the CRTC truly believes there should be a must-carry Canada-wide multicultural station, it should be considered on its own in a separate proceeding.
“We do not believe, given the particular context of the renewal hearing announced by the Notice and related Commission documents, that an application for a new specialty service on basic should be heard at this hearing,” reads the letter. “The Application for an entirely new ethnic programming service could have significant consequences for the Commission's existing ethnic broadcasting policy, for existing ethnic broadcasting services and also for ethnic audiences, if not for the whole broadcasting distribution system.”
The letter also notes that the Commission’s recently announced new policy framework for local and community television, which potentially will make up to $67 million available to conventional TV stations for local news, could stabilize OMNI without making it a specialty service.
The letter quotes a passage from that CRTC decision – which references Rogers and OMNI directly – to support its case: “Therefore, for example, the Rogers terrestrial BDU serving Toronto will have the option to reduce its contribution to community programming in Toronto in order to redirect its allowable contribution to local expression to support the creation of either a) community programming by other Rogers community channels or b) local news by City or OMNI stations in Toronto or elsewhere,” reads the quote from the local news decision.
Adds the letter: “The hearing of an application by Rogers for a new national multilingual specialty service licence at a RENEWAL hearing where the Commission has announced that it would review the adequacy of Rogers' response to a new framework for its local ethnic television OTA stations is not procedurally appropriate or fair to interested parties.”
“Simply put, Rogers is looking for a financial bailout for OMNI.” – Aldo DiFelice, Telelatino
When reached by phone Monday by Cartt.ca, TLN president Aldo DiFelice said while he applauds Rogers’ recognition that we have never had a Canadian multicultural channel that showcases those Canadian communities all across the nation, and he likes the fact the CRTC seems to want to fast track such a proposal “both the process and the proposal are suspect,” he said.
A new, rewarmed OMNI that returns a few things which have been slashed and adds some hours of Cancon “is not an inspired vision for Canadian multicultural TV in the rapidly evolving digital world,” he added, saying he was speaking now only for himself and not the group which cosigned the letter.
“This failing is understandable since the application arises from the commercial circumstances of OMNI’s inability to evolve its business with the changing times and continue to generate the level of annual profits enjoyed for almost 30 years,” DiFelice added. “The proposal is built on the quick-fix of adjusting the financial model without developing a new programming vision for the changing times.
“Simply put, Rogers is looking for a financial bailout for OMNI… This country needs a new vision for multicultural TV whose mandate, orientation and programming is quite distinct and different from that of OMNI itself.”
