Rogers’ OMNI application a ‘band-aid’ solution, critics say

Rogers Communications Inc.’s proposal for a new national ethnic programming service is neither innovative nor appropriate in today’s TV environment aimed at providing consumers more choice, critics of the application said in interventions filed with the CRTC. “Rogers, with their correct assertion that there exist many options for Canadians to choose from to access ethnic programing, prove the point that OMNI is not unique, not rare, and certainly not exceptional,” Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. argued as part of its submission to the broadcast licence renewal proceeding for large ownership groups. As part of its renewal application, Rogers included an application for mandatory carriage of a not-for-profit OMNI Regional channel, which would have four regional feeds of the national network, and re-establish third-language daily newscasts in Italian, Mandarin, Cantonese and Punjabi. In its intervention, SaskTel also took issue with Rogers’ claim that the mandatory carriage idea is “an innovative model” to ensure OMNI's survival. “In fact, it’s arguable that the request… is the least innovative solution possible,” SaskTel said. “Being shielded from competition with a guaranteed proposed wholesale fee for OMNI Regional of $0.12 per subscriber per month from BDUs like SaskTel operating in English-language markets is unjustified for a programming service that is not exceptional.” Bragg Communications Inc.’s Eastlink also weighed in with its opposition to the application, saying that while it recognized the value that channels such as OMNI offer, Rogers is proposing a duplicate service since “Rogers already operates OMNI stations that enjoy mandatory carriage in all markets where they qualify as a ‘local’ or ‘regional’ station” and that it is “an inefficient approach to regulation at a time when the Commission has been promoting increased consumer choice and flexibility.” Eastlink also points to the new community TV framework and said Rogers and the CRTC should first investigate the option of reallocating money from community TV “before taking the drastic step of mandating carriage of OMNI Regional on the basic service.” Rogers filed its licence renewal application with the OMNI proposal before the community TV framework was released in mid June, so it wasn’t taken into consideration, Telus Corp. noted in its intervention. “It is clear that the Commission’s Local TV Policy addresses the same issue that Rogers seeks to address with its proposal for a new mandatory OMNI Regional service.” There’s evidence that Rogers won’t explore that avenue, instead opting to redirect money to its City stations, said an intervention from a coalition comprising of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), Canadian Ethnocultural Council, Consumers’ Association of Canada, Council of Senior Citizens’ Organizations of B.C. and the National Pensioners Federation. “Therefore, while Rogers has been granted the flexibility to redirect funds from its community channels towards the production of local news for its OMNI stations, despite OMNI’s financial challenges and the demand for news programming, it has chosen not to,” the coalition said. The application “reflects a mere revisiting of OMNI’s past programming” instead of a new long-term vision, the group said in its submission, adding that it’s concerned that given the issues Rogers has previously stated in the past with OMNI’s profitability, the new application “reflects a ‘band-aid solution.’” Shaw Communications Inc. also disagreed that Rogers’ application met the threshold for mandatory carriage on skinny-basic service but said its “primary concern” was that the proposal was being considered as part of the broader licence renewal process. Shaw cited a 2013 proceeding where the commission said that it “considers mandatory distribution on the digital basic service a great privilege,” that mandatory carriage “can also have a direct impact on consumers’ bills and on the choice of services they receive” and that it had “set the bar very high for obtaining mandatory distribution.” Rogers’ application “represents such a significant policy shift that we strongly believe that it should not be considered in isolation,” BCE Inc. said in its intervention, encouraging the CRTC to initiate a proceeding to cover it more broadly “as there are numerous local stations struggling in the same way as OMNI.” The structural problems cited by Rogers, such as declining ad revenue, aren’t just OMNI's problems, Bell said. Last month, a group of five legacy ethnic programming services wrote to the CRTC asking for separate consideration of the OMNI proposal. An Aug. 12 response from the commission denied the request. The significance of mandatory distribution “has only increased” with the introduction of skinny basic, Shaw said. At 12 cents per subscriber, Rogers has said OMNI Regional’s wholesale fee is only 0.5 per cent of the total value of the $25 max package price, but Shaw said it “strongly disagrees with the suggestion that the impact is minimal as the proposal would result in a substantial payment by all BDUs to Rogers that cannot be recovered by an increase to the price of the basic service.” In a 2013 decision, “the Commission did not find that any applications relating to third-language services met the criteria” for a mandatory distribution order,” Telus pointed out. Additionally, with one exception (The Weather Channel), all approved since have been not-for-profit services. “This is not the time to make an exception to this rule,” Telus said, adding that if the CRTC were to start “subsidizing commercial business models through mandatory distribution orders, the broadcasting system would implode under its own weight.” A public hearing will be held in November. — With reporting by Charelle Evelyn at cevelyn@thewirereport.ca and editing by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca

Rogers’ OMNI application a ‘band-aid’ solution, critics say

News | 08/18/2016 7:14 pm EDT

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