World TV files Cabinet appeal on carriage granted by CRTC in licensing decision

The owner of a proposed multicultural channel has asked the federal Cabinet to refer back to the CRTC a decision to award his operation a digital-only specialty TV licence. Dan Iannuzzi filed a petition to the Governor in Council this week seeking a reversal of the commission’s recent decision not to grant World Television Network/Le Réseau Télémonde Inc. (WTM) analog carriage. That decision marked the latest blow Iannuzzi has suffered in his 10-year battle to bring the TV station to air. On Dec. 14, 2001, the commission granted a Category 2 non-mandated digital licence to Iannuzzi after years of delays and applications dating back to 1992 – Decision 2001-757. While WTM was seeking an analog licence, the regulator has indicated that it will only grant that to channels it deems to be of "exceptional importance." Iannuzzi is asking Cabinet to refer the decision back to the commission for reconsideration and hearing at the earliest practical date on the grounds that it "derogates from the statutory objectives of the Canadian Broadcasting system." Iannuzzi believes the multicultural content of his proposed channel will help fulfill the objectives of Section 3(1) of the Broadcasting Act, which stipulates that broadcasting in the country reflect the linguistic duality, and multicultural and multiracial nature of Canadian society. But, he says, a digital specialty licence won’t reach a large enough audience to fulfill its objectives. "To deny us the widest distribution is like giving me a licence but asking me to run it through a funnel so only little bits come out and it becomes an exclusive niche," Iannuzzi tells CCR. "How many times do we have to tell the commission that we are a general interest channel? The licence is not what we wanted. We got this strange Category 2, which is going nowhere." By licensing niche-oriented, ethnic-specific channels, the CRTC is balkanizing the ethno-cultural markets, according to Iannuzzi. He points out that WTM was granted "the carriage which is least accessible to Canadians, and which is known to be uneconomic for a national multicultural service." There are about 8 million analog cable subscribers in Canada, but only about 2.8 million Canadians have digital TV service capable of receiving Category 2 channels. "Why does a new guy coming in with a priority channel have to be the one that suffers in the rollout of digital?" Iannuzzi asks. "We will migrate to digital when everyone is migrating to digital, when it is good for CHUM, for CTV – when it’s good for them." Iannuzzi is also asking Cabinet to advise the CRTC that certain issues, such as a broadcasting system that he believes currently inadequately reflects the multicultural and multiracial diversity of Canada, are material to the reconsideration of the decision. As well, he advises Cabinet to tell the CRTC that "that test for analog carriage for a Canadian programming service should give primary weight to the contribution it makes to the objectives of Section 3(1) of the Broadcasting Act compared to programming services which are presently so carried." "We are a priority service, when you read our application and the amount of Canadian content we’re talking about," Iannuzzi says. "We’re talking about only carrying five per cent British or American programming. We’re really talking world programming, which Canadians have been denied." Iannuzzi also wants Cabinet to direct the CRTC to consider putting together a panel of commissioners not involved in previous WTM decisions. WTM filed a similar request prior to the last public hearing on its licence application in June 2001. Back then, it contended that there was "reasonable apprehension of bias" against the panel since two of the five members on the panel had previously voted against an earlier WTM application. "The commission is going to have to see that there is government policy," Iannuzzi says. "Parliament should have the last word on that. When we look at our service, this is one of the last spike’s in the broadcasting system that has been lacking to have a balanced system." CRTC commissioner Martha Wilson dissented on the Dec. 14 majority ruling, stating that there was a need for "bridge" multicultural programming in the Canadian broadcasting system. She declined, however, to comment on Iannuzzi’s appeal of the CRTC decision (CCR, Dec. 19/01). "If he’s filing an appeal, it is really not appropriate for me to comment because of the way our processes work in the event that I’m involved in some kind of a follow-up. I think my dissent says everything," Wilson tells CCR. In refusing to grant analog distribution, the CRTC noted "it had discharged its obligations to provide for cultural diversity in the Canadian broadcast system, particularly by licensing services targeted to specific ethnic audiences, and by encouraging CBC/Radio-Canada, CTV, TVA and CanWest Global to include diversity of programming in their schedules." In its Cabinet appeal, WTM notes: "WTM did not apply for a digital licence of either kind (a Category 1 or 2) because neither is viable for this type of service. WTM applied for an analog licence (mandatory digital in minority English/French language markets), and made significant commitments regarding investment and telecast of Canadian programs commensurate with the commission’s long-standing analog licensing policies." WTN’s most recent application – gazetted by the CRTC on May 8, 2001 – requested dual status on the upper analog tiers for the French and English versions of the channels, and digital for the English service in Quebec and the French service outside Quebec (CCR, May 10/01).

World TV files Cabinet appeal on carriage granted by CRTC in licensing decision

News | 01/31/2002 5:00 am EST

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