OTTAWA – Rogers should spend as much money proportionately on Canadian programming on Citytv as it does on baseball players, says the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada.
CEP says Rogers’ deal to buy the City stations from CTV, as required by the CRTC, “could work out” if it gives them as much attention as it does its interests in the Toronto Blue Jays.
When examining the deal, the CRTC should hold Rogers to high commitments of spending on Canadian programming, the union says. “Rogers has the money to excite competition but the question is: will it? The CRTC should demand the answer to that question before granting this acquisition,” said Peter Murdoch, Vice-President, Media for CEP.
Murdoch says the commission isn’t asking whether transactions are in the public interest and requiring “solid commitment” to Cancon—it’s only concerned about “bottom-line numbers.” “We appreciate that the requirement to sell the City stations created some competition, but we expect the CRTC to prove to Canadians whether that competition is real, and how it will benefit people watching TV before letting this deal sail through,” Murdoch said in a statement.
That the Rogers deal was announced just days after the commission approved the CTV buyout of CHUM, minus the Citytv stations in five cities, shows that broadcasters are now able to choose their competitors—something that should be left to the commission to do transparently and for the good of the Canadian broadcasting system and Canadians, the union says.
