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CRTC: Broadcasters united for fight
Sunday April 20th 2008GATINEAU, Que.- Two of Canada’s largest television broadcasters set aside their fierce rivalry yesterday and presented a united front, imploring the federal regulator to put consumers first by resisting demands from cable and satellite companies to relax the regulations governing the television industry.
The top executives of CanWest Global Communications Corp. and CTVglobemedia Inc. sat shoulder to shoulder as they made an “unprecedented” joint submission at the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, warning the very survival of Canadian TV is at stake.
Encircled by a small army of regulatory experts, CanWest president and chief executive Leonard Asper and his CTVglobemedia counterpart, Ivan Fecan, told commissioners that consumer choice would suffer if current rules are dismantled.
The men accused cable and satellite companies of using consumers “as their shield” as they push for sweeping deregulation merely to exploit new opportunities for fattening their already plump bottom lines. “We do not begrudge the fact that they have built a profitable business,” Asper told the CRTC. “We would just like the same opportunity.”
Winning the public relations battle has been a key aspect of these hearings for broadcasters and TV service providers alike, with both sides professing to be the real consumer champions. CanWest and CTVglobemedia – which operate the Global and CTV networks, respectively – claim the only way they can serve Canadians is to properly fund local television by charging cable and satellite companies a fee to carry their signals.
That “fee-for-carriage” proposal, however, has raised the ire of cable and satellite operators. They argue that broadcasters want a “cash grab” after emptying their coffers on American programming and billion-dollar acquisitions in recent years. Rogers Communications Inc. has warned the CRTC that fee-for-carriage would inflate cable bills by as much as $10 a month, provoking a “consumer revolt.”
But CanWest and CTVglobemedia said such estimates are “erroneous” because their proposal would only amount to about $2.40 per subscriber each month. They also accused Rogers and its peers of misleading the public on the issue because broadcasters never asked consumers to pick up the tab.
“It is the BDUs (broadcast distribution undertakings) who have indicated that they would pass the fee on to their subscribers,” said David Goldstein, senior vice-president of regulatory affairs for CTVglobemedia.
And while the companies argued that local TV remains “the cornerstone” of Canadian broadcasting, when it came to outlining their specific funding commitments for Canadian programming through fee-for-carriage, they were noncommittal.
CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein suggested that if fee-for-carriage were approved, he would likely insist the money be tied to funding more Canadian programs and local news.
That did not sit well with the broadcasters, although they said they were willing to discuss a trade-off.
“We have been wronged for a long time and we’d like to have that wrong righted and we shouldn’t have to do something extra to right that wrong,” said Asper.
– With files from The Canadian Press
Source: The Toronto Star
Front Page, Industry News
CRTC: Broadcasters united for fight
Sunday April 20th 2008GATINEAU, Que.- Two of Canada’s largest television broadcasters set aside their fierce rivalry yesterday and presented a united front, imploring the federal regulator to put consumers first by resisting demands from cable and satellite companies to relax the regulations governing the television industry.
The top executives of CanWest Global Communications Corp. and CTVglobemedia Inc. sat shoulder to shoulder as they made an “unprecedented” joint submission at the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, warning the very survival of Canadian TV is at stake.
Encircled by a small army of regulatory experts, CanWest president and chief executive Leonard Asper and his CTVglobemedia counterpart, Ivan Fecan, told commissioners that consumer choice would suffer if current rules are dismantled.
The men accused cable and satellite companies of using consumers “as their shield” as they push for sweeping deregulation merely to exploit new opportunities for fattening their already plump bottom lines. “We do not begrudge the fact that they have built a profitable business,” Asper told the CRTC. “We would just like the same opportunity.”
Winning the public relations battle has been a key aspect of these hearings for broadcasters and TV service providers alike, with both sides professing to be the real consumer champions. CanWest and CTVglobemedia – which operate the Global and CTV networks, respectively – claim the only way they can serve Canadians is to properly fund local television by charging cable and satellite companies a fee to carry their signals.
That “fee-for-carriage” proposal, however, has raised the ire of cable and satellite operators. They argue that broadcasters want a “cash grab” after emptying their coffers on American programming and billion-dollar acquisitions in recent years. Rogers Communications Inc. has warned the CRTC that fee-for-carriage would inflate cable bills by as much as $10 a month, provoking a “consumer revolt.”
But CanWest and CTVglobemedia said such estimates are “erroneous” because their proposal would only amount to about $2.40 per subscriber each month. They also accused Rogers and its peers of misleading the public on the issue because broadcasters never asked consumers to pick up the tab.
“It is the BDUs (broadcast distribution undertakings) who have indicated that they would pass the fee on to their subscribers,” said David Goldstein, senior vice-president of regulatory affairs for CTVglobemedia.
And while the companies argued that local TV remains “the cornerstone” of Canadian broadcasting, when it came to outlining their specific funding commitments for Canadian programming through fee-for-carriage, they were noncommittal.
CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein suggested that if fee-for-carriage were approved, he would likely insist the money be tied to funding more Canadian programs and local news.
That did not sit well with the broadcasters, although they said they were willing to discuss a trade-off.
“We have been wronged for a long time and we’d like to have that wrong righted and we shouldn’t have to do something extra to right that wrong,” said Asper.
– With files from The Canadian Press
Source: The Toronto Star
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Front Page, Industry News
CRTC: Broadcasters united for fight
Sunday April 20th 2008GATINEAU, Que.- Two of Canada’s largest television broadcasters set aside their fierce rivalry yesterday and presented a united front, imploring the federal regulator to put consumers first by resisting demands from cable and satellite companies to relax the regulations governing the television industry.
The top executives of CanWest Global Communications Corp. and CTVglobemedia Inc. sat shoulder to shoulder as they made an “unprecedented” joint submission at the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, warning the very survival of Canadian TV is at stake.
Encircled by a small army of regulatory experts, CanWest president and chief executive Leonard Asper and his CTVglobemedia counterpart, Ivan Fecan, told commissioners that consumer choice would suffer if current rules are dismantled.
The men accused cable and satellite companies of using consumers “as their shield” as they push for sweeping deregulation merely to exploit new opportunities for fattening their already plump bottom lines. “We do not begrudge the fact that they have built a profitable business,” Asper told the CRTC. “We would just like the same opportunity.”
Winning the public relations battle has been a key aspect of these hearings for broadcasters and TV service providers alike, with both sides professing to be the real consumer champions. CanWest and CTVglobemedia – which operate the Global and CTV networks, respectively – claim the only way they can serve Canadians is to properly fund local television by charging cable and satellite companies a fee to carry their signals.
That “fee-for-carriage” proposal, however, has raised the ire of cable and satellite operators. They argue that broadcasters want a “cash grab” after emptying their coffers on American programming and billion-dollar acquisitions in recent years. Rogers Communications Inc. has warned the CRTC that fee-for-carriage would inflate cable bills by as much as $10 a month, provoking a “consumer revolt.”
But CanWest and CTVglobemedia said such estimates are “erroneous” because their proposal would only amount to about $2.40 per subscriber each month. They also accused Rogers and its peers of misleading the public on the issue because broadcasters never asked consumers to pick up the tab.
“It is the BDUs (broadcast distribution undertakings) who have indicated that they would pass the fee on to their subscribers,” said David Goldstein, senior vice-president of regulatory affairs for CTVglobemedia.
And while the companies argued that local TV remains “the cornerstone” of Canadian broadcasting, when it came to outlining their specific funding commitments for Canadian programming through fee-for-carriage, they were noncommittal.
CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein suggested that if fee-for-carriage were approved, he would likely insist the money be tied to funding more Canadian programs and local news.
That did not sit well with the broadcasters, although they said they were willing to discuss a trade-off.
“We have been wronged for a long time and we’d like to have that wrong righted and we shouldn’t have to do something extra to right that wrong,” said Asper.
– With files from The Canadian Press
Source: The Toronto Star
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