Of consolidation and counterweights

If the CRTC is hoping for concrete guidelines on how to regulate the increasingly consolidated broadcasting industry to come out of the Diversity of Voices proceeding, day one must have been disappointing. While CBC/Radio-Canada kicked off the hearings yesterday by recommending three new media-ownership rules, the broadcasters that followed urged the commission to stay its current regulatory course. "This country has levels of media concentration that would not be acceptable in other parts of the world," said Jane Chalmers, VP of CBC radio, during questioning from the commission. Specifically, some Canadian corporations would run afoul of the law in Australia where companies are prohibited from owning more than two of the three types of media outlets - television, radio, newspaper - in a given market. CBC recommended the commission adopt this rule, as well as the provisions that no broadcaster own more than 33% of all the discretionary channels in Canada and no company own more than two BDUs in any one market. The public broadcaster intends the guidelines to be proactive rather than used retroactively to alter any recent acquisitions, but when chairman Konrad von Finckenstein asked the private broadcasters - CTVglobemedia Inc. and CanWest MediaWorks Inc. - their thoughts on these guidelines, he didn't receive enthusiastic responses. CanWest president Kathy Dore called the CBC proposal "arbitrary," and recommended, "the commission should work within the rules in place." Indeed, on the matter of any new media-ownership policy the CRTC could have simply let the Canadian Association of Broadcasters' panel, which included representatives from CTV and CanWest, speak for its members; diversity was not served by hearing the individual opinions of the broadcasters on this issue. For instance, the following are excerpts from the opening remarks to the commission by the CAB, CTV and CanWest: "The current system is working very well and no new rules are necessary....While critics suggest that consolidation undermines format diversity, the opposite is true," said Glen O'Farrell, president and CEO of the CAB. "We believe that the policies currently in place to encourage the existence of a diversity of voices have been successful....Certain participants in this proceeding have tried to argue that consolidation of ownership lessens diversity. In fact, consolidation of ownership can actually result in increased diversity," said Rick Brace, president of CTV. "We believe that the commission already has the tools it needs to move forward without resorting to rigid policy-making," said Dore. Steve Wyatt, CanWest's senior VP of news and information added that "CanWest's acquisition of WIC seven years ago did not lessen editorial news diversity in Canada, in fact, it enhanced it." Obviously a united front. But the broadcasters also had to respond to commissioners' questions. During this time O'Farrell said that "what some of the interveners are suggesting is a solution looking for a problem that doesn't exist," adding that Canada has a "diversity surplus, not a deficit." He backed up his stance by noting that Canada has more indigenous services available to Canadians on a per-capita basis than American broadcasters offer. As owner of the Globe and Mail, the A-Channel stations, as well as its original CTV assets, CTVglobemedia was grilled intensely on news quality, self-censorship and ownership interference. To defy the all-is-well claims of the broadcasters, and to challenge what he called their suggested "let-‘r-rip" approach to regulation, commissioner Stuart Langford said that, in his view, the quality of news on commercial radio is "appalling," and there are no guarantees it won't get worse. "Surely we want to operate and act before we have a calamity on our hands, not after," he said to the CTV panel. Paul Ski, president of CTVglobemedia's radio division, countered that there are more choices on radio than ever before and stations target their content, news included, to the demographic they are trying to reach. "What might be quality news to you is not quality news to someone else," said Ski. "It's not enough for me to say different news for different people," replied Langford. "I know some people might want to listen to a particular radio station to find out what the celebrities are wearing, but that's not going to do much for them if World War III is declared that day." And as the conversation turned to journalistic integrity, the broadcasters had to defend the ethics of their editors and journalists. Brace pointed out that the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council is an effective watchdog of broadcasting codes, and Robert Hurst, president of CTV news, said the broadcaster has its own policies stating that reporting on its owners is conducted with the same objectivity as reporting on any other third party. But CanWest's Wyatt perhaps best brought the issue of editorial independence back into the context of media consolidation. "Self censorship is a problem that has existed since we began writing words," he said. "It exists if there are 1,000 owners or one owner. I don't see it as an issue of common ownership, we struggle with it every day." Although the commissioners' patience was visibly thinning with each successive intervener, they certainly didn't let all the suggestions of the first appearing broadcaster, CBC, pass lightly. In addition to suggesting possible future media-ownership regulations, the public broadcaster added that it was "an essential counterweight to the effects of consolidation and concentration of ownership within the private broadcasting industry....The strength and vitality of public broadcasting should continue to be a key concern of the commission and CBC/Radio-Canada should be considered by the CRTC as a key pillar in the commission's efforts to encourage diversity of voices in the system." During questioning, CBC's executive VP of television Richard Stursberg pointed to France as a country where the public broadcaster offers more channels and holds a stronger position in the system. However, he added that the French public broadcaster receives about $80 per resident of France in funding, opposed to the closer to $30 per Canadian that CBC receives. So when Stursberg said the commission could ensure diversity by making sure CBC was strong, Langford, the constant yang to the broadcasters' yin, reminded him that the CRTC was not a taxing authority. All in all, the commissioners must have been more pleased with CBC if only because the broadcaster brought some actual suggestions to the table. As the day progressed the commissioners clearly became frustrated with the lack of input, none more noticeably so than Langford and chairman von Finckenstein. While questioning CanWest, Langford asked, "Wouldn't it be fair to have some guidelines to work with going forward instead of waiting for problems to happen? Isn't it more comforting to work under a set of rules instead of operating on a case-by-case basis?" As the hearings proceed for the rest of the week and move first to the smaller broadcasters then to the industry associations and unions, more concrete suggestions are sure to surface. Whether that eases the commissioners' frustrations, however, remains to be seen.

Of consolidation and counterweights

Broadcast | September 18, 2007

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