Bell asks for fewer licence requirements, less Cancon, for five specialty channels

BCE Inc. division Bell Media asked the CRTC to expand its programming categories for five of the company's specialty channels, according to regulatory filings. In four applications filed with the CRTC in February, Bell said its requests are in line with the commission decisions to give broadcasters more regulatory flexibility, and requested that its Animal Planet, Discovery World HD, Investigation Discovery and Comedy Gold channels be permitted to draw programming from “all categories.” Bell also asked in another application that some requirements for Canadian content on The Comedy Network be removed. Richard Paradis, president of media and consulting firm Groupe CIC in Montreal, said in a phone interview that Bell is asking for more programming flexibility because moving around shows and content is more cost-effective, particularly in a media sector experiencing consolidation and technological convergence. “They’re maximizing the use of their programming inventory to put it across different channels,” Paradis said. Animal Planet is a standard Category B specialty channel, which according to the most recent public data reported to the CRTC, reported 1.92 million subscribers and $1.4 million in pre-tax profits for the 2011 broadcast year. In its application for Discovery World HD, Bell said changes to its nature of service would not have a material financial impact and would provide the channel with more scheduling flexibility. “ allow the service to remain competitive in an increasingly fragmented marketplace,” the application said. A Category B service, Discovery World reported pre-tax profits of $13.8 million for 2011 and 1.44 million subscribers. Bell said CRTC approval of its applications would be in line with CRTC broadcasting decision 2008-100, issued in 2008, which outlined a policy for greater programming flexibility for specialty channels. In its application for Investigation Discovery, which reported pre-tax profits of $892,676 in 2011, Bell said it wants the service to have the freedom to draw programming from “all categories.” Bell noted that in broadcasting decision 2012-156, the CRTC approved an application from numbered company 8064750 Canada Inc. to add programming categories for Category B channel FX Canada, and that this “was consistent with the program flexibility” set out in decision 2008-100. For its Comedy Gold Category B channel, which reported pre-tax profits of $1.7 million and 968,217 subscribers in 2011, Bell requested the freedom to draw from all categories, including news, reporting, religion, formal education, informal education and pre-school, as well as music video clips and music video programs. “While these changes will not have a material financial impact on the service, approval of these amendments will provide Comedy Gold with more scheduling flexibility and allow the service to remain competitive in an increasingly fragmented marketplace,” Bell said. The CRTC announced a hearing last year to review Category A channels—which are more strictly regulated than Category B as broadcast distributors must offer them to television subscribers—because the channels did not appear to be following their nature of service descriptions. At a hearing in December, Corus Entertainment Inc. defended its Oprah Winfrey Network Canada (OWN Canada) channel to CRTC commissioners, who had called the company before it to review an apparent breach of licence conditions. OWN, a Category A “must offer” service, was originally licenced as education channel Canadian Learning Television, and was later rebranded. The CRTC had also called on Rogers Communications Inc. to appear at the hearing for apparent violations of the nature of service for G4TechTV, a Category A specialty channel licenced to cover computing, technology, and the Internet. The commission said last November that Rogers' appearance at the hearing was no longer necessary after the company had taken steps to address the issue. Paradis said it will be interesting to see how the CRTC responds to Bell's applications as the specialty channels in question were originally licenced to offer more specialized programming. “Now they want to be able to do pretty well anything they want with the channels,” he said. “They want to have an open house in terms of the programming that they can carry.” Bell requested that the conditions of licence for Category A service The Comedy Network be changed by removing a requirement that all programming, from the categories of theatrical feature films and animated TV and films, be Canadian. Total revenues for The Comedy Network were $56.6 million in 2011, up from $55.5 million a year earlier, according to CRTC data. Total subscribers were 6.14 million in 2011. Bell's application referred to CRTC decision 2010-362, which granted Bite TV permission to air non-Canadian theatrical feature films, and said its request is “entirely reasonable in light of the branding of Blue Ant Media ’s specialty Category B service BITE TV.” Bell said it would be “illogical” to restrict The Comedy Network from doing the same. Paradis said it is surprising to see Bell make the requests after the CRTC addressed the issue of Canadian content levels in its licensing renewal decisions for large broadcast groups, and that the Bell applications will be seen in the context of the company's proposal to purchase broadcaster Astral Media Inc. for $3.38 billion. “For them to be coming back before the commission and asking the commission to once again, reduce their obligations to Canadian content is a very strange occurrence,” he said. “It’s quite surprising that they’ve done this right now and why they haven’t waited.” Bell declined to comment for this story. —With reporting by Danika Grenier at dgrenier@thewirereport.ca and editing by Simon Doyle at sdoyle@thewirereport.ca

Bell asks for fewer licence requirements, less Cancon, for five specialty channels

Broadcast | March 5, 2013

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Bell asks for fewer licence requirements, less Cancon, for five specialty channels

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