World Television Network finally gets day before CRTC in bid for analog TV channel

A Toronto newspaper publisher is waiting for the CRTC to decide whether he will get what could be the country's last analog TV channel. A hearing held earlier this week in Kingston ON will decide whether Corierre Canadese publisher Dan Iannuzzi should receive dual carriage status on cable, following a 10-year struggle to have his specialty licence application approved by the commission. Since 1989, Iannuzzi has applied on four separate occasions for approval to launch the World Television Network/Le Réseau Télémonde Inc — a national channel dedicated to broadcasting foreign-language programming with subtitles, on an English- and French-language network. The channel would feature news, public affairs, film and entertainment programming from around the world. Iannuzzi is no stranger to operating an ethnic TV service. From 1979 to 1989 he was president of CFMT-TV, a multi-lingual channel serving Ontario. His company — MultiMedia WTM Corporation Réseau Télémonde Inc — wants to distribute to about seven million basic cable subscribers, at a wholesale rate of 30 cents per subscriber. WTM's operations would be head-quartered in Ottawa and Montreal, with subsidiary uplinks in Toronto and Vancouver. Iannuzzi says according to their studies, consumers are interested in receiving such a service. "It's one of those pent-up demands for more choice, for more international programming rather than American," he told Canadian Communications Reports. His application includes 3500 letters of support, many of them from Liberal MPs. "This is not an ethnic service, exclusive of ethnic communities. It is a multicultural service that is inclusive to all Canadians." But WTM is facing strong opposition to its application from the Canadian Cable Television Association (CCTA) and the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB). The CCTA warns that giving WTM one analog channel would mean sacrificing capacity that could otherwise be used to carry six digital channels. The association says WTM's application should be bundled with the other 452 seeking new digital licences (CCR, April 13/00). It writes in its April 13 intervention to the commission that "a new analog specialty service would consume precious network capacity which could otherwise be used to carry several new digital programming services - if the Commission were to license WTM for carriage on an analog basis, it would effectively be denying carriage to at least six new digital services". Iannuzzi dismisses the CCTA's opposition saying "they're always against anyone that asks for anything that they cannot control. It's inherent in their policy and their philosophy, which is they're not our viewers, they're their subscribers." WTM's application is unusual in that it is asking for analog carriage at a time when the CRTC - for the most part - is only considering digital licences. But since its application pre-dates the current capacity squeeze on cable, Iannuzzi says its original request should stand. He also defends the carriage request based on consumer interest in the service. "This is a service that's national in scope and in the public interest," he says. "It fills that portion of the broadcast system that was left unattended. Demand coming from across the country warrants that particular service." The CAB also believes WTM is jumping the queue ahead of numerous other applicants who have waited since 1996 to have their specialty application considers. In its April 13 comments to the CRTC, it says the reasons for denying WTM's application in 1992 are still valid. "WTM has failed to demonstrate that the proposed service is in the public interest and merits basic analog distribution...," the CAB writes. Ten years of regulatory wrangling WTM has the dubious distinction of being the longest standing specialty TV application before the CRTC. The applicant has already had four shots at a licence in an ongoing struggle that has generated a thick file of correspondence between Iannuzzi and top officials at the regulator. Iannuzzi claims the commission has consistently acted in ways that have harmed the potential success of his business. The company's first licence application was filed in March 1998. At the time, WTM's main shareholder was Standard Broadcasting Ltd of Toronto, headed by Alan Slaight. Documents filed with the CRTC show Slaight had asked that nothing of Standard's interest be made public until the application was gazetted. However, according to WTM, the application was available in the CRTC's reading room one month after it was filed. Slaight withdrew his financial support and WTM pulled back its application until a new partner could be found. Iannuzzi filed for a licence again in 1990, and this time it was granted a hearing. But the application was later rejected by the CRTC, which concluded that the service "was not in the public interest". The commission also decided that the demand for the service was uncertain. WTM appealed the decision, but later dropped the court case after then CRTC chair Keith Spicer encouraged Iannuzzi to apply one more time, which he did in 1994. WTM was one of the 42 groups which filed under a general call for new specialty applications — PN 1994-59. Again, it was turned down, this time because of deficiencies in its application. As a result, WTM never made it to the May 1996 hearing. Iannuzzi's next attempt was in December 1996, and it's this application that is currently before the commission. WTM had been responding to another call for specialty applications, but the commission delayed that proceeding until early 1999. In an April 1998 letter to the CRTC, Iannuzzi expressed outrage at what he described as unfair treatment by the CRTC. "(WTM) is becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the continuing expenditures related to the decade long WTM project," Iannuzzi wrote. "Without an appropriate decision on how to proceed the Commission will, because of the uncertainty it has created, make it difficult for WTM to succeed and our auditors will be forced to write down at least 50% of the one million dollars spent to date." In its intervention filed last month, the CCTA points out that WTM isn't the only company affected by the commission's decision to delay it's specialty licensing hearing. Consequently, the association argues that WTM should not receive preferential treatment. "All of the other applicants from 1996 and 1997 have been subject to the same delays as WTM. Those delays were the result of changes in the commercial and regulatory environment," the CCTA writes. "They have nothing whatsoever to do with the specific facts of the WTM application. In the CCTA's submission, it is unreasonable for WTM to expect to receive special treatment by being given a separate hearing from the digital specialty applications.

World Television Network finally gets day before CRTC in bid for analog TV channel

News | 05/11/2000 4:00 am EDT

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