Community TV advocates say review of low- power licensing regime will come too late

The general manager of a pirate TV station in Toronto is criticizing an upcoming CRTC review of low-power TV, saying by the time any licences are awarded, Internet broadcasting will have become the new medium of choice. The CRTC issued a call for comments on a licensing framework for low-power community television on September 1 (Public Notice 2000-127), about two weeks after it denied a licence to Star Ray TV to operate a community TV station in the Beaches area of Toronto (CCR, Aug. 31/00). But Jan Pachul, GM of Star Ray TV, says the opportunity to launch community TV is now, while Internet broadcasting is still in its infancy. Pachul has been testing video streaming on a hidden URL on his website. In defiance of the CRTC’s decision to deny his licence application, Pachul is also continuing to broadcast Star Ray TV as a pirate UHF station in Toronto. As Pachul carries on with the fight to gain credibility and a licence for Star Ray TV, other advocates for community access television in Canada have already moved their focus to the Internet, following what they say has been a lengthy battle with both the cable industry and the CRTC. Mark Surman, a former producer with Maclean Hunter television who has appeared before the CRTC as an advocate for community television, agrees the commission is wasting its time developing a policy for a technology that will only be around a short while. "People will find a way to deliver their programs over the Internet," says Surman, who is now president of Ecommons Consulting, an Internet consulting firm. He questions why Star Ray TV is even a television station. "Already the technology is available at very low costs to make a community station without the cable industry," he told CCR. "There’s been an increasing professionalization of local cable channels and a steady move away from programming that addresses local and neighbourhood issues." Unlike their counterparts in the U.S. who formed an independent national association, the Alliance for Community Media, Surman says community access programmers in Canada were always tied to the cable industry which impeded the development of an independent national movement. Charges that the cable industry has been moving more towards regional programming, at the expense of local programming, have been coming from various local groups (CCR, July 6/00). But Colette Watson, VP of programming at Rogers Cable, disagrees there has been a regionalization of the programming. "People think because it looks better that is not local." Vidéotron also disagrees with the charges. President Guy Beauchamp recently told the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage that through the creation of more professional local programming, local viewership for their community channel has gone up, from 19 to 27 per cent. The commission’s call for comments on low-power community TV does have its supporters. Dr. Liss Jeffrey, adjunct professor at the McLuhan Program at the University of Toronto and director of the byDesign-eLab which is building a public network online, welcomes the review of low-power television, which she says recognizes the need to encourage local community broadcasting at a time when few existing broadcasters want to exclusively serve local markets. As the broadcast industry prepares for the transition to digital, and focuses on the numerous array of specialty services, Jeffrey points out that the move to a digital system will not fill the need in communities for local broadcasting. "It is no longer acceptable that digital is going to solve everything," she told CCR. "Until one hundred per cent of the population is online, the CRTC should be encouraging local broadcasting." When it comes to new kids on the block like Star Ray TV seeking licences, Watson says, "we’re not opposed to them having an over the air licence, but we are opposed to them having mandatory carriage for something that is finite."

Community TV advocates say review of low- power licensing regime will come too late

News | 09/14/2000 4:00 am EDT

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