-Terry Field, Chair, Journalism Program, Mount Royal College
Some of the country's largest businesses - its television networks - are involved in a highly public email petition campaign to save local television. Or so they claim.
One of Canada's cable giants is now wading into the fray to defend us, the viewers, from the networks.
This real life cliffhanger is a media circus of sorts that the public can watch from the comfort of their homes. The Canadian Radio and Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is the monkey in the middle, with a mandate to regulate and supervise Canadian broadcasting and telecommunications.
Not surprisingly, the public might wonder whom can they trust.
My money is with the CRTC, but there is a catch . . . there's always a catch.
With CTV in the vanguard, the country's TV networks are enlisting citizen support for their interests in making more money, and protecting local market programming in the process. An email from [url=http://www.savelocal.ctv.ca]http://www.savelocal.ctv.ca[/url] has been circulating the country, asking viewers to show up at events in their local TV markets, or to sign a petition, and/or contact their MPs demanding action to save local television from severe production cuts, or perhaps even extinction.
The campaign coincides with network efforts, including Global and CBC, to have the CRTC allow the networks to charge the cable companies for use of network shows.
On the other side, the cable sector is mounting its own campaign.
Shaw Cable has placed full-page ads in the Calgary Herald in recent days characterizing the networks as “begging for bailouts.” Shaw claims the networks' interest in having the cable companies pay for use of network programming will cost the average Shaw customer $72.00 a year more for “no new programming and no new (broadcast) jobs.”
The networks claim they are facing severe economic issues in part because of decisions they made to expand their holdings, and exacerbated by the recession, making the production of local programming an even more precarious business.
The system as it sits is designed to prevent control of all that we see by one or two companies. Networks bid for broadcast licences, making certain promises to produce programming in return for use of the public airwaves. That programming runs with commercials, and that revenue goes to the networks.
Cable companies, which are also licensed, then put in the infrastructure to gather network signals and send them viewers in packages and bundles, bits and bytes that you pay for directly.
The networks and cable companies have never had the warm fuzzies for one another, but have been forced to play nice, mostly, because under a mandate from Parliament the CRTC independently adjudicates what is required to have and maintain a broadcast system that ensures we have Canadian programs.
To suggest the CRTC has its critics is like suggesting the National Energy Program was a mild irritant in Alberta – an understatement.
Broadcasters have always argued that the CRTC is too controlling when it should be favouring a market driven approach, based on consumer demand for programming, which generally means more U.S. programming.
CRTC supporters argue that the goal should be to have a vibrant indigenous broadcast environment with more Canadian-made and local market programs, and fewer U.S. imports.
In the current debate, the CRTC has already allowed that the networks might need wiggle room around using more American programs in prime time evening hours to generate more ad revenue. But the commission has not moved on the networks' interest in having the cable companies pay a fee for the programs, beyond suggesting the two sides see if they can come to some arrangement.
The answer is as convoluted as the circumstances. While the system is not perfect, it is generally designed to ensure networks and cable companies get a reasonable return for their investments. It is also fair to say that our networks and cable companies haven't gotten as large as they are today because there is no money in it for them. Further, one need acknowledge that television production and dissemination is profoundly expensive and the recession has had an impact.
Absent an organization like the CRTC, there would be little or no Canadian programming to even worry about. So, in this fight over dollars and sense, if you are going to write anyone, write the CRTC and ask it to ensure Canadian programming continues to get made. And if in its wisdom the commission feels cable companies need pay something to networks to maintain a certain level of local programming, then so be it.
But here's the catch: If the CRTC decides ultimately to tax the cable companies for use of network programming it must ensure that every cent of that tax is used exclusively to pay for production costs. Then down the line, when networks sell those shows to advertisers, a portion of those profits should also be reinvested into programming. The focus of any action must be Canadian-made programming.
Terry Field is chair of the journalism degree program at Mount Royal, and is a former television and radio producer with experience at both the CBC and in private broadcasting.
