The battle over foreign ownership has begun. In April 2003, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology released its report Opening Canadian Communications to the World and recommended that existing foreign ownership restrictions be lifted for telecommunications carriers and broadcasting distribution undertakings, such as cable companies. According to the Industry committee, the foreign ownership restrictions are an impediment to investment and serve no useful purpose.

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The three members of Persona Inc.’s special committee investigating the best options for the sale of the cableco are Doug Kirk and Terry Lyons, independent directors of the company, and Thomas Pippy from Burns Fry. They will try to get the best price for the company. Kirk will serve as chair of the special committee.

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Corus to drop Category 2 digital rock music channel Edge TV
Corus Entertainment Inc. announced June 12 that it has given up on its Category 2 digital channel EdgeTV. The alternative rock channel will come off the air on July 12. The decision to drop EdgeTV follows an unsuccessful appeal to the CRTC for a change in the rule that requires distributors to carry five unrelated Category 2 channels for every affiliated Category 2 channel carried. Corus is affiliated with Shaw Communications Inc. and Star Choice. EdgeTV is not carried by either of those two distributors, which reach about 1.5 million digital television households. The channel has 255,056 subscribers.

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An influential media analyst has harsh words for Canada’s broadcasters, which have recently cried poor over their inability to replace government funding with private resources to create domestic drama – despite spending billions on convergence gambles. Gordon Pitts, author of Kings of Convergence: The Fight for Control of Canada’s Media, argued in his keynote speech at the Banff Television Festival that it was time for Canada’s media moguls "to invest in and create new and imaginative content." (CCR, Nov. 7/02). He also warned that changing media ownership rules in the United States could result in Canadian broadcasters becoming an endangered species in the face of global consolidation and deregulation.

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Ottawa should consider implementing tax credits for advertisers that buy time during Canadian programming to help the ailing television industry, says CHUM Ltd. president and CEO Jay Switzer, though he was short on specifics.

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Canada shouldn’t try to compete head-on with big-budget Hollywood shows, but should instead try low-budget dramas to solve its current production woes, author Guy Fournier suggests. During a panel discussion on the future of Canadian television drama at the Banff Television Festival last week, Fournier repeated comments contained in his recent report, What About Tomorrow? A Report on Canadian French-language drama, that French-language dramas on average cost a quarter of what they do in English Canada while reaching five times more people (CCR Update, May 28/03).

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CRTC commissioners are left to separate fact from fiction in the current process to license a new over-the-air television broadcaster in Calgary and Edmonton, with a retransmitter in Red Deer (CCR, April 25/03). Commissioners must have felt a sense of déjà vu as CHUM Ltd. in its bid for the stations adopts many of the arguments made by rival Craig Media Inc. when it was successfully licensed for a Toronto station during a similarly raucous process last summer. On the other hand, Craig officials trying to block the move found themselves making many of the arguments that CHUM made when it opposed Craig’s Toronto application (CCR, June 7/02, May 23/02).

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The long-awaited House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage report on the Canadian broadcasting system has been described as being both daring and a dud. The 872-page report, Our Cultural Sovereignty: The Second Century of Canadian Broadcasting, makes numerous wide-ranging recommendations aimed at strengthening Canada’s broadcasting system, including an overhaul of the responsible bureaucracy.

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