Pick and pay will likely produce less choice as specialty channel offerings narrow to the broadly popular. Most Canadians say they value local news but they no longer watch it in sufficient numbers to make it reliably profitable. Meanwhile, when it comes to comedy and drama, U.
The broadcasting proposition is a three-legged stool — industry, creator and consumer — and Blais has got to be able to work with the first two. His harsh judgments on Canadian creators show little understanding of how art and entertainment get made: without recognizing that it is quantity of production that creates the occasional hit, he has suggested the system needs to concentrate on quality, as though creators routinely set out to make bad shows. He has also stressed international competitiveness, although English Canada already has an enviable track record selling programming abroad while making export your first motive can produce generic mediocrity and discriminate against shows based in fiercely local tastes, especially in comedy.
As the sometimes irascible Blais speechified and browbeat his way through the fall, some observers began wondering if this was not a man busy building his legacy. After all, his five-year mandate expires in June and a CRTC chair sometimes gets an extension but rarely a second term.
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Full Comment. Marni Soupcoff Full Comment. Financial Post. FC Video Full Comment. The required programming will be supported by a re-allocation of the resources provided by television service providers, such as cable and satellite companies. The support that these companies currently provide to Canadian programming will be modified to facilitate the funding of the production of locally reflective news. The stations initially eligible are located in 18 communities across the country, including Prince George, Lloydminster, Thunder Bay, Rouyn-Noranda, and St.
John's, Newfoundland. In addition, we are giving large private broadcasters the flexibility to keep local stations open and to fund the production of local news programming. These large integrated companies will determine where and how to best use money to ensure the presence of programming that reflects those local communities.
To benefit from this flexibility, the companies will be required to keep all of their local TV stations open. News programming will be considered locally reflective if it meets three criteria: one, the subject matter relates specifically to the local market; two, it portrays an image of the market onscreen by, for example, featuring coverage of its municipal or provincial government; and, three, it is produced by the station's staff or by an independent producer specifically for that station.
Our new policy framework also addresses community television, which is still valued by Canadians, especially in smaller communities. We are encouraging access programming—that is, programming produced by members of the community—and we are encouraging community reflection, which enables viewers to see local realities that are rarely covered by other kinds of media.
Community programming provides a means for thousands of community and amateur sports groups across the country to be seen and heard in their communities. It also provides information on municipal politics and public affairs outside the major centres.
That is essential to full participation in the democratic process. Community television will continue to be financially supported by television service providers, such as cable distributors and similar services.
And we are taking measures to ensure that priority is given to programming content rather than facilities and indirect costs. That is a brief summary of our new policy for local and community television. Establishing this policy was an important first step, but it was only the first step, because policies of the commission are not self-implementing and binding. While I've been able to discuss our policy as it was published last June, I can't comment on how it will be applied in the future, as certain implementation elements are still before us.
To implement these changes, we must establish new conditions of licence for the television broadcaster. In fact, in November we will be holding public hearings to renew the licences held by the large private ownership groups. For the English language ownership groups of Bell, Corus, and Rogers, the hearing will begin on November 28 here in the national capital region.
The fact that these hearings are pending, as I mentioned earlier, Madam Chair, means that I may not be able to answer all the questions that you would like to ask me today. The CRTC is unique in that it is not only a policy-maker but also a quasi-judicial tribunal. We have a duty to ensure that our evidence-based proceedings are conducted in an open and transparent manner. All parties have the right to rely on our procedural fairness and our impartiality as a decision-making body.
To protect the integrity of the process, the clear legal advice I have received is that I can't say anything that might give the impression of pre-judging any of the issues that may come before us in our proceedings later in November, nor can I speculate on what decisions we might make. There are also other matters currently before the CRTC that may be of interest to the committee.
I trust that you will understand that in that respect, I won't be able to discuss them for the same reasons, to the extent that we haven't finalized those proceedings.
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