CBC Excluded From Fee-For-Carriage Decision. Programs and Service Cuts Likely: Lacroix
The CRTC reached a decision today on the acrimonious fee-for-carriage fight.
And the CBC is the odd man out.
The decision released this afternoon allows private broadcasters to negotiate with cable and satellite companies for fees for this signals, just like the specialty channels higher up on the dial.
But the CBC has been denied the same right.
The CRTC said the CBC can’t participate in the negotiations the process could results in broadcasters pulling their signals off the air, and that doesn’t fit with the CBC’s mandate.
This latest development will be a bitter pill for CBC executives to swallow. And they seem angry.
“The CRTC’s decision defies logic,” CBC President, Hubert Lacroix, said. “The Commission wants to save Canadian programming. CBC/Radio-Canada invests more in Canadian programming than all of the other broadcasters combined.”
The decision is especially difficult because, despite some reservations, the CBC joined forces with the private broadcasters last September under the Local TV Matters campaign. And while that campaign probably helped sway public opinion and encourage the CRTC into making this decision, the CBC gained nothing.
“This will solve the economic problems of private sector players but will not bring the system back into balance. It leaves the player who delivers more than anyone else in the system without a viable business model.”
Lacroix added that the decision will impact CBC finances and operations.
“One thing is clear: this will force us to cut programs and services, and our ability to fulfill our mandate has been compromised. The independent production sector, the cultural community, and the public will all suffer as a consequence. But we need to study the decision in more detail and present a plan of action to our Board before I can share more,” Lacroix said.
For quotes from people on every side of the issue, check this page from the Winnipeg Free Press.
For more on the today’s CRTC decision, see this page on cbc.ca.
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Aw no…
(much swearing off-net ensues…)
Aside of what M. Lacroix would like us to believe, I’d say CBC is on the block, especially after reading Hansard this morning. Judge for yourselves:
“. . . If the member says that is not going to happen, well then what is the government going to sell off? If the government is not going to sell off all or part of the CBC, privatize the CBC, then it should provide me a list of what it is going to … See moresell off. The government has indicated that it is going to sell off $2 …billion in assets. If it is not the CBC, then the member should tell me what it is. The member now wants some suggestions. The member has the balance sheet of the government and it knows what the assets are. Believe me, it knows what it is planning to sell. I think the government is working quietly behind the scenes and maybe not so quietly to interest the private sector in buying. OMERS has indicated that it is going to cash. It is going to set aside huge amounts of cash to do exactly what I have just been talking about: purchase government assets. If OMERS is doing that, then the other pension funds will be in the same situation. We will see what happens with the government. As I said, I would suggest that the CBC is certainly on that list of items that the government is planning to divest itself of in the next little while. If it does not do it, it is not going to be for want of trying. It will bend over backwards to package that corporation, that asset, to make it as attractive as possible to the private sector, in essence I submit almost make it a point where it will practically pay the private sector to take it over. . .” (Jim Malloway, MP, Elmwood-Transcona, NDP, Speaking to Bill C-444, Hansard, March 26, 2010, canada.gc.ca, http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=40&Ses=3&DocId=4384755#SOB-3064195 accessed March 27, 2010).
Anyone remember my citations last Fall from the culture and heritage minister’s office, stating that CBC would be losing is public funding, that the public and private broadcasters’ playing field would be leveled–for all? Well?
Some MPs have an understanding that the CBC is on the block; I do, too. Look at what NDP MP Maloway had to say yesterday (Hansard, March 26, 2010) on Bill C-444:
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=40&Ses=3&DocId=4384755#SOB-3064195
[...] CBC is the odd man out in the fee-for-carriage fight. You can read about the CRTC’s decision here. [...]
I, never having lived in Canada, find the “charging for a TV signal” debate ridiculous. Either you’re a premium channel that makes money from subscriptions (i.e. you’re getting paid for providing your signal) or you’re an ad-supported channel that can be viewed free of charge. But you can’t be both. The CBC runs ads, gets government funding AND wants to get paid for their signal! Viewers pay three times: through their cable companies, through what they buy and through their taxes. Isn’t that a little outta whack for a public broadcaster?