I’m a man of my word: von Finckenstein to BWTVF crowd

Konrad von Finckenstein said he'd do it, and he is. In an address to a breakfast crowd at the Banff World Television Festival, the CRTC commissioner reaffirmed his vision for "smarter and lighter regulation" in broadcasting, and enumerated some examples to date.Von Finckenstein weighed some high-profile recent decisions against the four-point framework he articulated at the Canadian Film and Television Production Association's Prime Time event last February, just a month after moving into his new role. At that event, von Finckenstein said his time at the head of the commission will be characterized by transparency, fairness, predictability, and timeliness.Perhaps the most emphasis was placed on the latter of those four ideals. "In Ottawa there's a tendency to want to do things right, rather than in a timely fashion," von Finckenstein noted. However, he continued, for broadcasters, "time is money."As an example of the more nimble CRTC, von Finckenstein held up Friday's ruling on CTVglobemedia Inc.'s proposed acquisition of CHUM Ltd. While others in the industry pegged the time to a decision at half a year at least, it in fact took just 39 days, he pointed out.On the fairness front, the CRTC chair said the commission's handling of last November's review of conventional television - in particular, the fee-for-carriage regime proposed by several over-the-air broadcasters - made the point best."The evidence simply wasn't there" to justify a move to allow conventional broadcasters to collect carriage fees, he said. "We had one year of bad data...we felt it wasn't fair to make such a decision." However, he added, should a subsequent, more robust set of data become available that makes the case for a carriage fee, the commission would revisit the issue.Von Finckenstein said another piece of the conventional television review - the decision to fix August 31, 2011 as the shutdown date for over-the-air analog transmissions - illustrated his maxim of predictability. "After that day, if you want to stay in broadcasting you'd better go digital," he cautioned.He then ventured further into the rationale behind the decision in the CTV-CHUM matter, namely the requirement for CTV to divest CHUM's five CityTV stations in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Toronto.Last month, at hearings on the proposed acquisition, CTV protested that CanWest Global Television's ownership of stations in close proximity to one another - for example, its Global Toronto station and CH in Hamilton ON - set a precedent for exemption from the one-station-per-language-per-market policy.However, while von Finckenstein admitted that the CRTC in years past "made exceptions to this rule - probably too many," he asserted that "even the most flexible interpretation" of the policy would disallow "two stations in two blocks," as would have been the case in some markets.Finally, von Finckenstein expounded on his objective to bring more clarity to the broadcasting regulatory system. He highlighted last week's release of a circular outlining timeframes, steps and other aspects of the commission's licensing and policy review processes, as well as the commissioning of lawyers Laurence Dunbar and Christian Leblanc to conduct a wide-ranging study of broadcasting regulation and report back. The results of that effort will be made available at the end of next monthWith his background as a judge at the Competition Bureau of Canada, many in the industry had hoped he'd lean more towards business interests in his decision-making at the CRTC. Indeed, von Finckenstein points to the handling of requests to raise the 12-minutes-per-programming hour cap on advertising on conventional TV as an example of sensible, get-out-of-the-way rule-making."Today, I don't see any connection between advertising and the objectives of the Broadcasting Act," he said of the not-universally-welcomed decision.But despite that light-handed approach, von Finckenstein said the industry shouldn't expect the laws of the free market to always prevail in Canadian broadcasting. He noted that the market won't safeguard equitable access to the system and Canadian content, the two cornerstones of the CRTC's mandate."I don't think we'll ever get to the point where we are on the telecom side market forces rule, and regulation is the exception," he said.Interestingly, von Finckenstein may have revealed some of the commission's thinking on the pending applications of several unlaunched specialty services - most notably Diversity Television Inc.'s Canada One TV and the National Broadcast Reading Service's Accessible Channel - when the topic turned to access to the system, particularly in reflecting Canada's cultural and ethnic diversity.He stated that "programming should reflect the changing multicultural, multiracial and demographic nature of Canadian society," and that "Canadians of all cultures and backgrounds should have opportunities to create that programming as participants in the industry."

I’m a man of my word: von Finckenstein to BWTVF crowd

Broadcast | June 11, 2007

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