Government rejects appeal of CRTC decision granting CFTF local advertising

The federal government has turned down a petition by some Quebec-based radio stations and newspapers to set aside a CRTC decision that granted a TV station the right to broadcast local advertising. Canadian Heritage announced March 2 that the government had decided not to set aside the commission’s renewal and amendment of the licence of CFTF-TV because it was found to be "consistent with the policy objectives of subsection 3(1) of the Broadcasting Act." CFTF-TV is a local affiliate of the TQS network in Rivière-du-Loup PQ that serves the regions of Lower Saint Lawrence, Gaspé, and northern New Brunswick. The CRTC in granting the licence renewal also approved a request by Télévision MBS inc., which owns the station, to eliminate a condition of licence prohibiting the solicitation of local advertising. In exchange, CFTF-TV stated it would hire four new full-time employees to produce local and regional newscasts (Broadcasting Decision 2004-538). In a petition filed January 12, five radio stations and three newspapers serving the region as well as the Syndicat des Travailleurs et Travailleuses en Communication du KRTB argued that the CRTC erred in its decision because it did not consider the economic situation of the region, did not factor in media concentration, or the effect that allowing CFTF to sell local advertising would have on other media in the area. The petitioners pointed out that MBS is owned by a numbered company controlled by Marc Simard, who also owns the Radio-Canada affiliate and TVA affiliate TV stations in the region. The latter two stations are allowed to broadcast local advertising. The newspapers and radio stations pointed out that Simard had a TV monopoly in the service area, and that the local news was the same across the three stations, except that it is delivered in a different order and by different hosts on the three TV stations. "Additional (advertising) money doesn’t exist," the petitioners wrote in their brief. "The request by CFTF-TV is not justified, given the excellent financial standing of the three TV stations in Rivière-du-Loup." They also contended that advertising dollars are limited in the region, where there are 18,000 residents and 871 businesses. The petitioners said that the radio stations would lose advertising because their ad rates were about the same as TV, but did not have the same impact. The situation was unlikely to change, they argued, because the region was on a downward economic spiral. The city’s population fell by 4% between 1993 and 2002, while the overall Quebec population rose by 7% in that same period. As well, citing a study by Cossette Media, they note that the average revenue in Rivière-du-Loup was about $5,000 lower than the Quebec average, and that from now until 2007, sales in the region would not rise at the same rate as the rest of the province. "The advertising market and the demographics of Rivière-du-Loup won’t permit the entry of a new player that has the right to solicit local advertising," they write. Many of these arguments were made during the licence renewal hearing, and the federal government, like the CRTC, found them not to factors that would require the continued ban on CFTF from airing local advertising. "The commission also notes the licensee’s argument that most of the local advertising revenues of CFTF-TV will come from media other than radio. The licensee is aiming at advertisers who have abandoned local television when it was not carried by direct-to-home satellite distribution undertakings and advertisers who tend to use print media rather than radio."

Government rejects appeal of CRTC decision granting CFTF local advertising

News | 03/11/2005 5:00 am EST

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