BROADCASTERS SHOULD COMPETE FOR LICENCES, CRTC TOLD Grant Robertson – Globe and Mail Canada's broadcasters should be required to compete for their licences when they come up for renewal, which would make incumbent companies more accountable and ensure new players can break into the industry, regulators were told Wednesday.
On the third day of federal hearings held by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to debate new rules on broadcast mergers, one of Canada's largest media unions said opening up licence renewals to competition – a major change to existing regulations – could bring more diversity in an era of consolidation.
The argument came after two days of testimony from broadcasters in which the country's commercial networks said Canadian companies must get bigger through mergers and takeovers to compete on a global stage that is increasingly being reshaped by the Internet.
On Wednesday, media guilds, arts advocates and production industry groups took the floor to argue that consolidation is dangerous to the diversity of broadcast voices in Canada.
Requiring networks to compete for licences on renewal, which has been tried in England, would make it easier for new broadcasters to enter the business if they think they can do a better job, particularly on local news and domestic programming, said Peter Murdoch, vice-president of media for the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union.
Currently, broadcasters must apply for licence renewal every several years, but the process is not open to other applicants.
The idea was questioned by CRTC commissioner Michel Arpin. He pointed out that the approach tried in England, which introduced competitive licence renewals and later abandoned them, resulted in networks scaling back capital investments considerably in the final years of their licence. Companies did not want to ramp up spending if they weren't assured they would win renewal, he said.
Mr. Murdoch acknowledged that risk, but said the current licence rules aren't an incentive for Canadian broadcasters to boost spending on news and domestic programming either.
“We have a system that now isn't working in terms of encouraging competitive investment,” Mr. Murdoch said.
The CRTC is governed by the Broadcast Act, which requires broadcasters to further Canadian objectives, such as the production of domestic programming.
The CRTC called these hearings in March after three major media deals, starting last summer with CTVglobemedia Inc.'s $1.4-billion takeover of CHUM Ltd. (CTVglobemedia is the parent company of CTV and The Globe and Mail). That deal was followed by the buyout of Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. by CanWest Global Communications Corp. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. for $2.3-billion in January. Then in February, Astral Media Inc. bought radio giant Standard Broadcasting Corp. Ltd. for $1.1-billion.
Those transactions will be evaluated under existing rules on media ownership, but this week's hearings are featuring the debate whether a new regime is needed to guide the industry on future consolidation.
Allan Pineau, national director of the Canadian Conference of the Arts, questioned what evidence exists to support the networks' assertion that companies need to get bigger.
The debate highlights how contentious the hearings are. On the first day of hearings, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters argued diversity has increased in the broadcasting sector over the past decade, even in the face of consolidation. The proliferation of ethnic, multicultural, religious and other specialty channels on cable has led to more than 40 different languages represented on TV, which did not exist a few decades ago, the association said.
But Mr. Pineau said it is more important to scrutinize the types of programming that are shown on such channels, rather than look at the existence of those networks themselves.
Similarly, the Canadian Media Guild testified Wednesday that the number of broadcasting voices focusing on immigrant and ethnic issues remains a chief concern in Canada.
Several intervenors called for the regulator to mandate requirements that broadcasters invest in local news. A decision by CITY-TV last year to cut back its news operations to save costs, which resulted in more than 200 layoffs across the country, was cited as a reason for the regulator to step in.
However, CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein said the regulator is concerned about mandating news, tantamount to the federal government organization influencing the independence of the networks on what, and how much news, they cover.
“We're very reluctant to interfere in any way with journalistic independence,” Mr. von Finckenstein said. “A rigid rule would exactly have that effect.” |