CRTC chair grills HDTV Networks over lack of local news

CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein said the regulator would have to create a new class of broadcasting licence for HDTV Networks Inc., which wants approval to deliver its high-definition television to large cities without the requirement to include local news. At a CRTC hearing this morning in Gatineau QC, von Finckenstein told HDTV Networks that allowing the company to broadcast its service to eight cities, without local news or community programming, would be difficult to justify to other broadcasters. "People will say you're cherry picking," said von Finckenstein. "You're just taking the best of everything. How will you explain it?" HDTV Networks' owner John Bitove said it's time the commission licensed a network that reflects current market realities. "I was at a conference where everyone was saying newspapers, radio and television are dying and we should run for the hills," said Bitove. "I don't agree with that. We're not afraid to try and do what others haven't done before. We're not cherry picking, we're just trying to make a viable network." What HDTV Networks is proposing would be a first -- a nation-wide, OTA service that broadcasts entirely in HD. Bitove pointed out that HDTV Networks began as a response to the CRTC's disappointment in the lagging high-definition television conversion. Three of the company's five overall goals focus on HD and emerging technologies, added Doug Hoover, executive director of network programming and promotions. "The stark reality is that today's conventional television industry has been slow to deliver HDTV programming to Canadians, yet it is the fastest growing global consumer technology," said Hoover. "Currently, the only way to receive HD programming for most Canadians is to pay for it through cable or satellite. We do not think this is appropriate, and leaves HD programming out of reach for many Canadians." If HDTV Networks is licensed, it will be the only OTA source of HD content in four of its eight proposed markets - Halifax, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary. The goal, said Bitove, is to serve the estimated 40% of Canadian HD television set owners who are unaware they need a separate set top cable or satellite box to receive HD signals. Viewers will also need to spend about $50 for an antenna to receive the HDTV Networks' service. Bitove listed HDTV Networks' five reasons for applying for a conventional licence instead of Category 2 specialty status: The channel can be offered free-to-air; It can be received without a cable or satellite subscription It can be a general programmer with no limits to a particular genre; It can negotiate simulcast and simultaneous-substitution rights with US networks; and It will be granted must-carry status for BDUs. With other OTA broadcasters demanding fee-for-carriage of their signals by BDUs, vice-chair Michel Arpin asked HDTV Networks if it would decline carriage fees should the commission implement them following a hearing scheduled for April. "If you change the rules going forward we trust you'll be fair on everyone," said Bitove. "When we built this application it was at a time when we didn't consider the commission might mandate an industry-wide carriage fee." HDTV Networks developed its application at a time when the commission was looking for ways to spur the HD conversion, and in an era of unprecedented media ownership concentration, two facts the company hopes will sway the CRTC. But if it's justification the commission is asking for, the answer could be as simple as Bitove's last line from this morning's opening presentation: "Just because it hasn't been done before doesn't mean it can't be done now."

CRTC chair grills HDTV Networks over lack of local news

News | 02/12/2008 9:21 pm EST

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