Heritage Committee's TV Report

The Heritage Committee's TV report made 18 recommendations including:

• contributions to the Local Program Improvement Fund (LPIF) increase from 1% to 2.5% of BDU revenues beginning this September (a suggestion made by CRTC chair Konrad von Fickenstein), and that the CRTC should enforce that the increased fund be used exclusively to create "new, original local programming in small- and media-sized markets";
   
• any program designed to assist local broadcasting be open to CBC, Aboriginal and educational broadcasters and community television;
   
• CBC/Radio-Canada receive "stable, multi-year, and predictable financing" " including nearly half of the LPIF, and that the government consider reducing the pubcaster"s reliance on commercial advertising;
   
• the elimination of Part II licence fees;
   
• that the CRTC address the "growing discrepancy" between foreign and Canadian program spending;
   
• that the government allow the CRTC to impose fines on broadcasters or BDUs who do not comply with their licence agreements;
   
• that the CRTC add the number of hours broadcasters air original, local content to its annual monitoring report statistics;
   
• that the CRTC "consider the impact" of concentration of media ownership during its licence renewals of the private conventional TV broadcasters;
   
• that satellite operators carry the same local signals as cable systems, and the distribution of distant signals be either stopped altogether or restricted so that a prime-time show cannot be seen in any region before the local affiliate has aired it first;
   
• that public, community, Aboriginal, and educational channels be part of the basic cable package, that CBC/Radio-Canada be available outside major urban centres, and that beyond the basic package, subscribers be free to choose channels individually;
   
• that the government assist broadcasters and BDUs on the upcoming transition from analog to digital TV, as was the case in the U.S. where the federal government spearheaded a massive public awareness campaign and offered a discount on digital set-top conversion boxes to over-the-air TV consumers.

The Heritage Committee made no recommendations about a fee for carriage.  The issue will be sent back to the CRTC to handle. 

Source: Cartt, 06/10/2009