OTTAWA – The CRTC has received nearly 15,000 submissions – and counting – on the issues of fee for carriage and the digital transition after encouraging Canadians to take part in the public consultation process that ended Monday.
According to the broadcaster backed coalition ‘Local TV Matters’, support for local TV has been “unprecedented”.
“We are overwhelmed by the outpouring of clear and unequivocal support for our position," said Paul Sparkes, EVP of corporate affairs for CTVglobemedia, in a statement on Wednesday. "Canadian consumers were not fooled, they understood the issues, and we can’t thank them enough."
The group said that more than 130,000 comments submitted to the CRTC confirm support for local TV. After a random sampling of some of the comments, Cartt.ca found that the broadcasters did appear to garner more support than the TV distributors, who have united behind a campaign called ‘Stop the TV tax’.
Here are a few of the comments that we looked at:
– “It’s time for my cable company to do what is right and negotiate a fair market price for the local television signals that they charge me, and that they get for free”, writes Yugchandra Harricharan from Scarborough, ON. “Without fair compensation, we will lose our local television stations, and with that, a part of our unique Canadian identity.”
– “I am deeply concerned that my cable company is already charging me for local television service through my basic cable rate, and yet, is threatening to charge me more for local television”, Brian Keller from Calgary wrote, while asking to appear at the upcoming hearing. “I believe it’s time for the CRTC to protect consumers like me by regulating basic cable rates.”
– “It is only fair and right that local stations be able to negotiate with cable and satellite for the value of local signals and programming, otherwise we will lose local choices and voices”, Donald Bastien from Laval, QC wrote.
– “No more taxes”, writes Richard Poupart from Orleans, ON. “Let the TV fat cats redirect their profits to the local television.”
– “Those of us who live near the poverty level use television as a means of education and entertainment because it is just within our budget,” writes Rebecca Cardinal from Glencoe, ON. “While people such as myself have to cut costs in order to live responsibly within our means, why would our government give our money wealthy television networks?”
The hearing is scheduled to begin December 7 in Gatineau. To see the full list of submissions, click here.
– Lesley Hunter
