Specialty news channels don’t need to be regulated, say dissenting commissioners

Dissenting opinions filed by four CRTC commissioners in the CTV Newsnet proceeding signal the beginning of a movement within the CRTC toward a more open and competitive licensing regime for specialty television services. While the commissioners advocate doing away with the longstanding policy of licensing only one specialty service per genre in the news category, some observers believe such a move would eventually spread to other genres. In Decision 2001-711, released Nov. 23, the CRTC by majority vote ruled that Newsnet must run two minutes of headline news programming every 15 minutes. It did grant the specialty channel some flexibility by allowing it to broadcast programming longer than 15 minutes a maximum of 25 times a week. In those cases, Newsnet must run an onscreen display of headline news items. The decision also applies to the French-language Le Canal Nouvelles (LCN), owned by Groupe TVA Inc. The ruling followed a series of complaints by CBC Newsworld and its French-language counterpart RDI, which continuously argued that Newsnet and LCN were breaking their conditions of licence as headline news services by broadcasting long-form news programming. Four written dissents were issued with Decision 2001-711, but a CRTC source says at least one other commissioner dissented from the decision but chose not to publicly spell out the reasons why.Commissioners Martha Wilson, Cindy Grauer, David McKendry, and Stuart Langford note in their dissents that the CRTC should have granted Newsnet even more flexibility. "In my view, the principles of genre diversity and complementarity, which were introduced to ensure the survival of Canadian specialty services in the early days of this industry, were placed above the overarching principle of freedom of the press for regulatory reasons, and this rationale was used to justify the fettering of the delivery of news in a regulated broadcasting industry," Wilson writes in her dissent. She continues: "It was an approach that was appropriate seven to 14 years ago, but it is my view that this approach is no longer valid for the genre of news and should be revisited by the commission." In their joint dissent, commissioners Grauer and McKendry write: "The time has come to cease regulating the format of news on Canadian specialty television news services." They point out that the news formats of conventional television, radio, newspapers, magazines, books, newsletters, and the Internet are not regulated. They call the regulation of specialty television "not necessary nor desirable." However, McKendry cautions against drawing a parallel to other areas of the specialty television market. "This deals strictly with the CBC complaints. You can’t say because of this decision or these dissents that this is how the commission will view another complaint," he tells CCR. "It will really depend on the circumstances of the complaint. You have to put each case into context and you can’t prejudge." He added: "But what we’re saying is that from a viewer’s perspective the news format doesn’t need to be regulated to ensure diversity." McKendry noted that the Newsnet process was time consuming and "put an unnecessary burden on the CRTC." The CRTC would not have to deal with any other similar time-consuming complaints, he noted, if news was not regulated. "There are countless sources of news available. This is about freedom of expression in news, which is different from, say, what is running on the food channel." In his dissent, commissioner Langford blasts the CBC for investing so much of its scarce resources on filing the complaints, and refers to the CRTC decision as "micro-regulation." "Short of actually telling Newsnet what stories to cover, it is difficult to imagine how the majority decision could be more intrusive," writes Langford. "If the intention of the majority truly is to guarantee diversity and complementarity to the benefit of Canadian viewers, the surest way to attain those objectives would have been to remove all constraints on Newsnet’s freedom to produce news programming. That is what hundreds of Canadians who intervened in the process called for, and they were right." Langford notes that Newsnet doesn’t need to be regulated to be different as it has already distinguished itself from Newsworld. He cites a Bowden Media study completed in May 2001 that demonstrated that even when both Newsworld and Newsnet aired live breaking news, the coverage was different 93 per cent of the time. Both Langford and Wilson note that Newsworld exists in a "rarefied and privileged position as a specialty service." All Class 1 and 2 cable systems are obliged to carry it on the basic tier, and it has a monthly wholesale rate of 63 cents per month. In contrast, they note, Newsnet receives a wholesale rate of 8.5 cents per month and no cable system is obligated to carry it on basic. They add that Decision 2001-711 places Newsnet at a further disadvantage in putting together an economically viable news channel. The CRTC has recently shown a willingness to loosen up rules protecting specialty television services in Canada. The licensing of competitive Category 2 digital services is a clear example, as is the commission’s recent inclusion of some foreign services previously deemed to be competitive on a new digital eligibility list for carriage in Canada (CCR, Aug. 2/01). However, not everyone is in agreement with the CRTC’s move toward a more open and competitive specialty TV market. Garry Neil, policy advisor for the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), says policies and regulations have helped foster Canada’s strong specialty television industry, and they are crucial to its continued success. "I think we need a new direction for the CRTC," he says. "I think they need to re-examine what it is and what they ought to be about. I think they have lost their focus."

Specialty news channels don’t need to be regulated, say dissenting commissioners

Broadcast | December 6, 2001

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