CRTC grants CBC flexibility for push to digital

The CRTC has granted a sweeping flexibility that paves the way for CBC/Radio-Canada to shift toward a focus on digital outputs and away from its linear programming. Wednesday, the regulator released its long awaited decision on the renewal of the CBC's licence. In some cases, the regulator loosened requirements for the CBC beyond what the broadcaster had even asked for. The CBC's new licence, which will run through 2027, also includes a number of new diversity programming and reporting requirements. The CRTC's decision gives the CBC approval to spread its Canadian programming expenditure requirements out across its linear and digital offerings, and places no minimum expenditure requirement on its linear television services. In hearings into the renewal, the CBC had requested a level of flexibility from the regulator in terms of being able to spread its obligations out across its platforms, a request which critics said amounted to the CBC behaving like a private broadcaster. "By replacing the exhibition requirement with an expenditure requirement and allowing expenditures made for programming on DMBUs to be included," the CRTC wrote in the licence renewal released Wednesday, "the CBC would gain the flexibility it has clearly indicated it needs to continue to fulfill its mandate and serve Canadians on the platform of their choice." In a release, the CRTC said that it was "adapting the way in which it regulates the national public broadcaster to provide it with more flexibility to fulfill its mandate across traditional and online platforms, while recognizing the need to make the new framework adaptable for the years to come." However, in a rare occurrence, two CRTC commissioners issued their own dissenting opinions. Ontario commissioner Monique Lafontaine wrote that by establishing no minimum spending requirements for Canadian programming on the CBC's linear services, the decision neglects certain populations. The licensed television stations are, she wrote, are "most readily accessible" to all Canadians, including Indigenous people and those who live in rural settings. "Under the majority decision, CBC/RadioCanada can spend as much of its annual budgets as it chooses on its unregulated online platforms during the next licence term," Lafontaine wrote. "This element of the majority decision does not sufficiently balance the interests of Canadians and industry stakeholders." The CRTC's vice-chair of broadcasting, Caroline Simard, also criticized the flexibility of the expenditure requirements in her own dissent. "I consider that the general laissez-faire approach proposed in the majority decision in regard to traditional and digital platforms carries real and unnecessary risks of undermining the mandate of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and the Canadian broadcasting policy as set out in the Broadcasting Act," she wrote. In addition to granting the CBC more flexibility across platforms for expenditure requirements, the CRTC's decision also lifted a number of exhibition requirements for its audiovisual services, and pointed specifically to the rise of digital platforms. "The commission agrees with interveners who suggested that counting hours of programming online is not the best way to make the public broadcaster accountable on its DMBUs, which operate on an 'on-demand' basis," the regulator wrote in the decision. "Where the commission is removing certain exhibition requirements, it finds that the risk of the CBC no longer performing as it has been during the current licence term is low given the CBC’s mandate." For Simard however, lifting the exhibition requirements for the upcoming licence based on how well the CBC did in its previous licence term is risky. "ot imposing a minimum number of hours of exhibition in a condition of licence relating to local programming, including news, broadcast in metropolitan markets because the CBC far exceeded the minimum targets imposed in 2013 seems short-sighted," she wrote. Instead of stated requirements, the CRTC will create a new reporting framework that requires the CBC to regularly report on its own exhibition of Canadian programming. For Simard, that reporting framework will "have no binding force" and demonstrates a "net loss in transparency" when compared to exhibition requirements as a condition of licence. In a statement provided to the Wire Report, Friends executive director Marla Boltman said that the CRTC's decision to leave in place the CBC's branded-content initiative, known as Tandem, the subject of some controversy during the hearings, was disappointing. The initiative had come under criticism from former employees of the CBC, who in November filed a Part 1 application with the regulator asking it to investigate the program. The CRTC ultimately declined to open a Part 1 proceeding. In its decision, the CRTC wrote that it believed "the revenue-generating activities of the Tandem initiative are onside with the general approach that has been taken with the CBC in the past and consistent with the context in which the CBC currently finances its operations." The regulator further wrote that it believed that "it should not limit the CBC’s commercial activities any further than they already are." "e are disappointed to see that the CRTC has failed to put a stop to CBC's branded content program, Tandem. Friends supporters as well as numerous organizations had argued against this program as it does not reflect the CBC's public service mandate and poses a threat to journalistic integrity," Boltman said in the statement. The Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA), which had called on the CRTC to require the CBC to sign “terms of trade arrangements” with the organization, expressed disappointment about the lack of a requirement in the new licence to work with independent producers. It "is concerning that the decision does not provide a similar baseline requirement for the CBC to work with independent producers," CMPA president and CEO Reynolds Mastin said in a statement to the Wire Report. "It’s true that CBC has a strong record of delivering Canadian programming and programs of national interest to Canadian audiences, and of collaborating with independent producers, but the lack of any expenditure requirement around independent production seems to be a significant omission, when viewed alongside the announced and requirements." The CMPA boss also said that "in failing to address the issue of terms of trade, the commission’s decision ignores the increasingly diminished bargaining position of Canadian independent producers." "This impacts on program rights ownership and potentially weakens the Canadian independent production sector domestically and internationally," Mastin said in the statement. — Reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirerport.ca.

CRTC grants CBC flexibility for push to digital

Broadcast | June 22, 2022

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CRTC grants CBC flexibility for push to digital

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