GATINEAU – After seeing the broadcast license renewal applications from Canwest Global, CTV, TVA, and Citytv in all their frightening uncertainty (or so we’re told), the CRTC has decided to push the full hearings back another year.
However, it will still tackle the very serious issues facing conventional broadcasters in a hearing on April 27th.
In a public notice released this morning, just weeks after the Commission said it was going to “review the scope” of the proceedings, it was determined there are way too many factors and pressures in play right now to possibly decide on new, full, seven-year license terms.
The four main issues the Commission identified are:
* the current economic uncertainty facing the broadcasting industry;
* the need for completion of distant signal negotiations between conventional broadcasters and broadcasting distributors;
* the need, prior to the consideration of full-term licences, to carry out stakeholder consultations and public hearings in order to set the terms for the administration of the Local Programming Improvement Fund (the LPIF set out in last year’s new policy on BDUs and specialties) for conventional broadcasters, including eligibility to access the fund and the method for calculating incremental spending on local programming; and
* the need, prior to the consideration of full-term licences, to conduct stakeholder consultations and public hearings to consider the industry plans for the conversion of the conventional television sector to digital transmission.
So, “the Commission is of the view that, given the increased consolidation of conventional and discretionary television holdings by the major broadcasters, assessing licence renewal applications by ownership group rather than on a sectoral basis would be more effective in furthering the objectives of the Broadcasting Act. Such group-based renewal applications will be heard at a public hearing to be scheduled for April 2010,” reads the PN.
This summer, the CRTC plans to ask for more comments on how to structure and conduct group-based renewals, “taking into account systemic changes in the broadcasting industry, including those relating to the horizontal and vertical integration that has taken place throughout a number of its sectors, and the transition to digital technology. The aim is to establish an overall regulatory framework that provides all broadcast groups with the flexibility to adapt to the rapidly changing communications environment, while ensuring that the Canadian broadcasting system is distinctly Canadian in its content.”
As for what’s going to happen this spring, the Commission’s hearing will consider these four issues only:
* the appropriate contributions to Canadian programming (local, priority and independently-produced programming), given the current economic conditions;
* the terms of administration and delivery of the LPIF, including the method of establishing the base-level expenditures for the purpose of determining incrementality;
* whether to impose a 1:1 ratio requirement between Canadian and non-Canadian programming expenditures, both on a trial basis during a short-term licence, and on a longer-term basis; and
* consideration of the terms for the digital transition by August 2011, in light of an industry working group report being prepared for the current public process.
The Commission has set out a number of questions it wants answered for the spring 2009 hearing here – with a deadline of just 10 days, February 23rd.
