BCE paints itself as white knight that can save CTV & Canada’s broadcasting system

BCE Inc has voluntarily exceeded regulatory and Canadian content obligations to convince federal regulators that its plan for CTV Inc is the best remedy for Canada’s largest private broadcaster and for the country’s broadcasting industry as a whole. In an application that’s sure to impress even the most skeptical industry watchers, BCE subsidiary BCE Media has tabled a $230-million benefits package that hits virtually every public policy hot button. BCE wants to buy CTV’s 25 television stations, its interests in 11 specialty and pay-TV channels and its production, music publishing and new media operations, for $2.3 billion. Something for Everyone:BCE’s Benefits PackageDrama Development$5 millionCross-cultural development initiatives$2 millionNew ‘Movies of the Week’ series$45.5 millionDrama Series Extensions$25 millionThird-party promotion$7 millionDocumentaries$18 millionToronto Documentary Forum$1 millionDocumentaries at Banff$1 millionInteractive entertainment series$23 millionThe Great Big Canadian Show$10.5 millionNational Broadcast Reading Service$2 millionRegional Journalist Training$14 millionDiversity in News$3.5 millionCurrent Affairs Show for Youth$11 millionFive new foreign bureaus for CTV$12 millionSatellite links for foreign news feeds$10 millionAboriginal Peoples Television Network$3 millionBCE Content Innovation Network$5 millionNational Screen Institute$1 millionWomen in the Director’s Chair Workshops$100,000iTV Specialists in the Development Offices$3 millionBell Broadcast and New Media Fund$10 millionCanadian Media Research Consortium$3.5 millionBCE Chair in Convergence at Ryerson$2.5 millionBC Institute of Technology$1.5 millionCommunity Journalism Initiatives$2 millionAboriginal Production Training$250,000CFTPA Mentorship Program$800,000St. John’s Women’s Film & Video Festival$100,000Canadian Women in Communications$750,000History of Canadian Broadcasting$250,000Museum of Canadian Broadcasting$250,000Canadian Television Image Bank$3.5 millionAcademy of Canadian Cinema & Television$1 millionMNet: Media Awareness Network$500,000Broadcast Journalism Bursaries$500,000Total$230 millionThe expenditures – the most ever pledged in a broadcasting takeover – represent 10 per cent of the value of the entire CTV acquisition, including CTV’s interested in non-regulated companies such as Dome Productions, Agincourt Productions Inc, Replay Networks Inc and Landscape Entertainment. The benefits package was made public this week as part of BCE’s application to the CRTC. The commission has also released its list of policy priorities that must be addressed in September’s hearings into the acquisition. The benefits devoted to "on-screen" initiatives are the most substantive, totally $212.6 million or $92.4 per cent of its total benefits package. The remaining 7.6 per cent – representing $17.4 million – will go to talent development, culture and innovations. (See list) The expenditures, which will be spread over seven years, translate into 175 additional hours of Canadian content on CTV— without requiring money from the Canadian Television Fund (CTF) – over the minimum three-year licence term. Industry watchers say Bell’s pledge would effectively mean that CTV productions would no longer have to rely on the CTF, nor would producers need to seek foreign partnerships. "This application sets out BCE’s vision of a future in which CTV is the anchor of its media activities," the company said in its application. "CTV is the right partner for us, as we move to enrich broadcasting through deeper, more rewarding content; and as broadcasting morphs into additional new forms, and across higher bandwidth distribution systems." Not only is this deal good for BCE and CTV, the application makes the case that Canada needs this merger to compete commercially with the U.S., particularly in the area of dramatic programming. "The grand ambition of this package of benefits is to overcome the simple challenge that has bedevilled every attempt to make the Canadian broadcasting system truly Canadian: to make Canadian programming, particularly drama, that is commercially profitable," BCE Media writes in its supplementary brief. As part of its review, the CRTC will look at concentration and cross-ownership issues that will arise from the country’s first takeover of a television network by a telco. The CRTC will also look at the potential market power that BCE could enjoy as well as the potential undue preference that could result from such a position. The commission will be examining this question closely during the fall hearings, to make sure the broadcasting sector actually benefits from the convergence of a telephone company and a television network. It will also review the implications of bringing conventional TV services to the Internet and interactive digital television.

BCE paints itself as white knight that can save CTV & Canada’s broadcasting system

Broadcast | July 19, 2000

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