OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Canada’s largest broadcast companies will inject billions of dollars into original Canadian programming over the next five years after the CRTC renewed the English-language TV licences for Bell Media, Corus Entertainment, Shaw Media and Rogers Media on Wednesday.
The widely anticipated group-based licencing decision saw the broadcasting licences for services owned by Bell Media, Corus Entertainment and Shaw Media renewed until 2016. Citing the smaller number of specialty services owned by Rogers Media, the Commission renewed its licences through 2014.
Over the next five years, Bell Media, Corus Entertainment and Shaw Media must allocate at least 30% of their gross annual revenues to the production of Canadian programs. They must also direct at least 5% of these expenditures to finance programs of national interest, with the exception of Corus Entertainment who will have to earmark at least 9% of its gross annual revenues.
Noting that one-size of regulations does not fit all, the CRTC directed Rogers Media to spend at least 23% of its gross annual revenues on Canadian programming for its Citytv conventional television stations, however, it will not have the flexibility to shift financial resources between its television services to meet its spending requirements.
Additionally, in the first two years of its renewed licence term, Rogers Media must funnel 2.5% of these expenditures to programs of national interest and direct 2.5% to new local programming. In the last year of the renewed licence term, its spending level on programs of national interest will rise to 3% while the spending level on local programming may decrease to 2%.
Wednesday’s decision follows a public hearing held in April. At that time, the CRTC said that it wanted to establish a group-based approach to licencing in response to “an evolving broadcasting industry, where a few large groups now control both conventional television stations and specialty and pay services”. It also noted that many specialty and pay services have become highly profitable, while the profitability of conventional stations has been declining.
The new approach focusses less on exhibition and instead requires the private ownership groups to fund Canadian programming, including programs of national interest such as drama and comedy series, documentaries and award shows that promote Canadian culture. In turn, it offers the broadcasters more flexibility to shift their Canadian content spending requirements between their various television services in order to meet their regulatory stipulations.
