CTV should share Olympics coverage with CBC: CRTC chair

CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein has urged the CBC and CTV to put aside differences hampering a deal to work together in covering the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver to ensure that French-speaking communities do not miss out on the games. A visibly frustrated von Finckenstein repeatedly told CTV executives on the second day of the minority French and English language hearing that he's concerned that sections of the French-speaking community will miss out on CTV's coverage of the Winter Olympics if both networks don't reach a compromise. A carriage deal with CBC-which has the infrastructure and facilities to enable broadcast penetration in most sections of the country-would have ensured adequate coverage in both official languages, given that CTV's stated coverage will only reach 95% of Canadians in French and English. Rick Brace, president for revenue business planning and sports, CTV, told the hearing that negotiations with CBC had broken down after both networks failed to find common ground. "The French community will suffer because you can't make a deal," said von Finckenstein in response to Brace's answer. "And here you are telling me ‘sorry, those guys aren't going to see it.' I find his incomprehensible...surely there must be a way. Help me here, what does it take to make it done?" A CTV-Rogers Communications consortium won the bid to broadcast the 2010 Winter Olympics for a whopping US$153 million in 2005. While executives from both broadcasters told the commission that the negotiations were held in good faith, they also said profound differences still stand in the way. "If it was a couple of small things, we wouldn't be talking about it now," said Brace, in a response to a question from commissioner Peter Menzies about the nature of the differences." I think what we were looking at is this, is there an interest to be together? Can we do coproduction, and how can we share that? And we looked at that and I think on both sides, it was too complicated to see it that way," says Sylvain Lafrance, CBC's VP, French Services, in an interview with Canadian Communications Reports. On May 9 last year, Ivan Fecan, president and CEO, CTVglobemedia, wrote to the CBC to reconsider an earlier request to the public broadcaster to carry CTV's over-the-air coverage of the games on Radio-Canada's transmitters outside Quebec and the National Capital Region. In a letter to CTV, the CBC rejected the request, saying it can't rent out its airwaves and have its signal replaced by CTV's. Unlike the CTV letter, which was made public, the CBC didn't disclose its communication with CTV until ordered to do so by von Finckenstein on Tuesday. At the hearing, CRTC commissioners put CTV executives on the spot, demanding to know how the network will compensate for the shortfall in airing the games to the French community. CTV executives said the games will be accessible through the Internet and since 66% of the French community in Canada has access to broadband, they expect the community will not be left out. For instance, TQS and RDS, which are partnering with CTV in Quebec, will deliver the games online. The executives also said CTV partners, Bell and Rogers, will deliver the games on mobile devices. Regarding radio, CTV said it has ensured coverage on English radio but is still in talks with possible French radio partners. Despite von Finckenstein's call for a compromise, Brace reiterated that the possibility for a deal is narrow. "We believe the negotiations are complete, they were not successful and we are very late in the process and therefore we don't see how we can get a deal done at this point," he said, adding that CTV will ensure no one is left out in accessing coverage of the Winter Olympics. "This will be the greatest number of hours, on the most platforms , delivered to the most people of any Olympic games ever in this country," he added. Elsewhere, Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) will provide live coverage of the Olympic games in a variety of Aboriginal languages, French and English, according to a press release from the network. The network will provide ten hours of coverage in HD format, reaching an estimated 10 million homes across Canada.

CTV should share Olympics coverage with CBC: CRTC chair

News | 01/15/2009 3:44 pm EST

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