CCTA to ask Canadian Heritage committee for broad changes to broadcasting rules

The cable industry will issue a broad-reaching set of recommendations to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage February 19, including a call to reduce the size of the CRTC to between five and seven members, and reduce foreign ownership restrictions on facilities operators - but not on content providers. The Canadian Cable Television Association (CCTA) revealed its proposals in a media briefing in Ottawa today, though it had few details to offer on combating its chief bugbear, the illegal satellite TV market. The CCTA's five-point call to reform the Broadcasting Act comes as cable operators have been forced to contend with direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV providers as equal competitors. CCTA president/CEO Janet Yale told reporters at the briefing that "competition" should be the new watchword from which other policy and regulatory considerations spring. Toward that end, Yale and the CCTA will ask committee members to: amend the objectives of the Broadcasting Act to include competition as an explicit goal; reform the CRTC to reduce the number of commissioners and introduce consistency to decisions; lift foreign ownership restrictions on carriers to allow them access to foreign capital; address the black market problem with stricter enforcement; and provide smaller system cable providers with greater flexibility in offering programming. Yale told Decima Publishing that black market satellite TV operations are costing Canadian broadcast distributors including DTH and cable operators between 600,000 and 800,000 subscribers, millions in revenue, Canadian Television Fund contributions, programming dollars, and rights and intellectual property payments. The answer, she said, is greater enforcement of criminal and other statutes against the practice of selling black market dishes, as well as a possible amendment to the Radiocommunication Act. The CCTA will attempt to hammer the message home about the costs of black market operations to the Canadian broadcasting system during its appearance before the committee. But Yale concedes that the problem will remain so long as there is uncertainty in interpreting the Act, a matter now before the Supreme Court of Canada and expected to be ruled on by this spring (CCR, Nov.21/01). In the meantime, however, the association is short on specifics on how to deal with the problem given unwillingness on the part of the federal government to act without greater legislative certainty. Though the CCTA will advocate a five-to-seven strong team of CRTC commissioners, Yale also told reporters that the association is no longer among those advocating a wholesale review of the telecom and broadcast regulator. Calling Charles Dalfen's appointment a "breath of fresh air", she said cable players are predicting a better-functioning commission with new leadership. She said the CCTA will also push the commission for greater accountability in the future, including recorded votes. More details will follow in the next edition of Canadian Communications Reports when it reports on the CCTA's appearance before the Canadian Heritage committee.

CCTA to ask Canadian Heritage committee for broad changes to broadcasting rules

Broadcast | February 18, 2002

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