The fee-for-carriage rhetoric was cranked up another notch Thursday when CTVglobemedia president Ivan Fecan told the CRTC it might be time to start regulating cable rates again to save local television programming.
“I might ask, why everyone here in Canada is so afraid of cable,” Fecan said at a Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission hearing.
The federal regulator is reviewing the company’s TV licenses at a time when conventional broadcasters say they are struggling to survive financially—hit by both plummeting ad revenues and hyper-fragmented viewership.
Fecan and others such as Canwest Global and the CBC want the CRTC to let them charge cable companies for the right to carry their signals—known as fee for carriage.
But the cable companies say if they have to pay, subscribers will see higher bills.
Fecan wants the regulator to step in on behalf of consumers, pointing out that cable costs have been regulated in the United States.
“They’re depending on you to put their interests above any corporate or lobby group, be it broadcaster, [cable or satellite company], or union,’’ Fecan said. “If the [cable and satellite companies] insist on holding subscribers hostage, perhaps it’s time to regulate basic cable rates again.”
Broadcasters would also like to see regulators take action on the transmission of American signals, which are allowed on the cable dial but compete directly with Canadian stations who pay to broadcast the same shows and are fighting for ad dollars.
Thursday’s appearance was the third time in a week that Fecan has made an impassioned public plea for government and regulatory help. His company is set to close local stations in Brandon, Man. and in Windsor and Wingham, Ont., and Fecan said if the situation is not improved, more stations could close.
“This is not a cash grab or greed from a private broadcaster, this is real. We’re not bluffing.”
Fecan said that there is no hope for the Brandon and Wingham stations, but that Windsor might be salvageable if a proposed CRTC fund for local programming is meaty enough.
