At 10 years, CPAC looking to expanded programming, possibly new financing

The Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC) is expected to ask the CRTC to approve a new financing model in its licence renewal application filed with the commission this week. Although CPAC officials would not elaborate on the proposal, it is likely to include a request for a wholesale carriage fee and/or the right to seek sponsorships, similar to those afforded community cable channels. "We are proposing what we feel is a sustainable, fair, long-term financing model for CPAC, and we will be filing that with the commission today (Feb. 11)," says CPAC general manager Colette Watson. She declined to elaborate until the licence application is put on the public record, likely in a couple of months. Currently a non-commercial channel, CPAC is funded by the cable industry to a tune of $6 million annually. It is available to about 7.5 million Canadian cable homes. Under its current licence, CPAC cannot charge a fee to subscribers or broadcast commercial content. "This is CPAC’s 10th anniversary. The cable industry decided it had been languishing for a while and it was time to focus on programming a channel that would be more visible to Canadians so that Canadians would watch it," Watson tells CCR. She notes the goal is to rebrand CPAC as a timely, relevant political channel. Last year, CPAC hired veteran Ottawa journalist Peter Van Dusen to host the channel’s new flagship show PrimeTime Politics, a two-hour in-depth look at the political events of the day. It also hired local radio and television personality Ken Rockburn to front the shows Talk Politics and Rockburn Presents. These hires probably took a chunk out of the channel’s budget, which CPAC management appears to want to supplement with outside money. "Essentially, we’re happy with the changes we made last fall. We’re getting good feedback from the west, which is good because we’re now programming to their prime time as well," Watson points out. "After 9-11, our viewership went up by about 1 million viewers, which indicated to us that Canadians turn to CPAC in times of international crisis to find out what their government and Parliament are doing, as well as to hear more long-form public affairs from a Canadian perspective." She notes that more new initiatives are being planned for CPAC, but she would not elaborate until the proposals contained in the licence renewal application are digested by the CRTC. However, she did tell CCR that she hopes to sign some licence acquisitions, forge more relationships with like-minded channels overseas, and move toward interactivity on the channel, which is currently streamed over the Internet. According to CPAC spokesperson Susan Kay, the channel gets about 40,000 sessions and 3,500 webstream viewers per month. An example of a licence acquisition that CPAC is considering is a proposal by Ottawa-based Sound Ventures to produce a seven-part series on official residences. "And we’re continuing to work with international entities to bring a more global platform, if you will, for how democracy works around the world," says Watson. "We have an understanding with France and with C-SPAN in the U.S. And we’re in discussions with the United Nations, and we’ve approached the European Union to get some of their programming." Watson, who has headed CPAC for just under a year, says that the biggest change over the ten years the channel has been in existence relates to immediacy. "In the last ten months, we’ve become more current than the channel has ever been. If it happens today, you’ll see it today," says Watson, who also serves as VP of programming and external relations at Rogers Cable Inc., CPAC’s largest shareholder. She says the channel’s facelift is unrelated to the launch of a slew of digital specialty TV channels, including one that CPAC opposed during the licensing process – Stornoway Communications’ Category 1 issues and public affairs channel, called the i channel. "When we first saw their (i channel’s) programming schedule last spring, it became clear that they were not competing with us. They’re not offering the kind of Canadian public affairs programming that we offer," she adds. "Besides, I don’t know if you read about the i channel’s financial difficulties (see story above). We are more like the window on (a political event) as opposed to non-stop discussion of it. You can see the press conferences and the speeches on CPAC. I haven’t seen any of that on the i channel." CPAC was created in 1992 as an experimental channel charged with airing debates of the House of Commons. In 1995, CPAC was licensed by the CRTC as a national channel and was relaunched in 1996 to include expanded public affairs programming. CPAC took over broadcasting House of Commons debates from the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., which dropped the service following cutbacks to its budget.

At 10 years, CPAC looking to expanded programming, possibly new financing

News | 02/15/2002 5:00 am EST

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