OTTAWA – On Thursday, the Supreme Court of Canada will release its ruling on whether or not the CRTC has the jurisdiction to let conventional, over-the-air local broadcasters pursue a fee for the carriage of their signals by subscription television providers. The appeal was heard back in April, as Cartt.ca reported.
The ability for local broadcasters to charge a cable, satellite or telco TV provider a wholesale fee (and by extension of course, Canadian subscribers) has been something TV station owners have pursued off and on for decades. The CBC asked for the ability to pursue such fees during its license renewal hearing last month. Known as the retransmission consent regime in the United States, it is a growing multi-billion-dollar business there.
Back in September of 2009 (before Bell Canada owned CTV and before Shaw Communications purchased Canwest Global), the CRTC held its group based licensing hearing and the March 2010 decision granted broadcasters the right to pursue such a fee, calling it a value for signal regime. However, the Commission did not outline how such a regime would work as the Commission declined to go any further, saying it wanted confirmation from the Federal Court that it had the right to do this. The Regulator’s legal eagles believe they have the right but they also knew BDUs would appeal fee-for-carriage/value-for-signal to the courts anyway, so in its group-based licensing policy decision, the CRTC said it wanted to ask the court first.
In March of 2011 the Federal Court of Canada said the Commission did in fact have the right to do such a thing, so BDUs Shaw, Rogers, Cogeco and Telus appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada. Standing in opposition is Bell Media, which wants a VFS regime installed.
However, if the Court sides with Bell Media and the CRTC, sources with knowledge of the Commission’s current, 2012 opinion now believe the Regulator will then issue a new notice. Those sources say the Commission will ask whether or not we still need to pursue such a regime, given the industry consolidation and other developments in media since the fall of 2009 and that such a fee would raise retail prices and hurt consumers, whom CRTC Jean-Pierre Blais has been quite clear he wants to protect.
“I think that notice is already written and ready to go,” one BDU regulatory executive who asked not to be named told Cartt.ca.
For now, we’re all waiting to hear the latest, but probably not final, chapter in this ongoing saga.
