3.3 Role of Private and Public Broadcasting

Role of private broadcasting

Through a series of policy and license renewal hearings, the CRTC has been addressing the regulatory issues around commercial broadcasting. The issue of further payments to commercial broadcasters from broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs), known as “fee for carriage”, has been the subject of two hearings.¹⁶ This issue, as well as a possible restructuring of programming obligations via broadcasting groups, is being engaged in a current regulatory policy hearing (PN 2009-411). The analog switch over to digital transmission has also been put on the agenda in this hearing, framed in the context of access to digital TV services for all Canadians. Terms of trade between independent producers and broadcasters constitute additional important issues to go before the regulator if the broadcasters and independent producers cannot come to an agreement beforehand.

The CRTC continues to make important regulatory decisions affecting the content production sectors and their financing for a broadcast system which is undergoing fundamental changes. The viability of general interest broadcasting is threatened and even doubtful in small markets at least in the manner in which it is organized at present. At issue, then, is whether a national digital strategy can provide a longer term strategic perspective that could provide policy guidance for the CRTC.

Given the trend toward more content accessibility via video on demand (VOD), downloading, streaming, etc., the broadcasters are not the only important stakeholders in the business of making and distributing content. Broadcasting distributors like cable operators and satellite providers are regulated as “broadcasting distribution undertakings”, but Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have so far been exempted from regulation (as noted earlier). Their future roles can hardly be avoided as a subject in a national digital strategy.

The Canadian broadcasting system operates on the dual system assumption, whereby private broadcasters as well as public broadcasters are expected to contribute to the objectives of the Broadcasting Act. Given the shift into convergent platforms, perhaps it is timely to examine this fundamental assumption – in the context of both broadcasting and content distribution.

Role and Funding of the CBC/Radio Canada

Since the CBC is such a large component of federal support for the cultural sector for both French and English communities, it has been the subject of many different reviews over the decades. Now, it is important to consider its role and funding in the context of a national digital strategy.

The CBC has been very active in adopting digital technologies. From its online news portal (cbcnews.ca) to its use of podcasting, online radio, and streaming video, the CBC has made several forays into interactive media. As the digital world transforms Canada, the CBC should be part of any discussion on the content and its distribution. The Broadcasting Act says that the CBC “should provide radio and television services incorporating a wide range of programming that informs, enlightens and entertains.” Clearly, the 1991 revisions to the Act did not predict the onset of digital technologies, nor the ways they would impact Canadians’ media consumption.

Nowhere can a well-defined role for a public service broadcaster (PSB) be seen more clearly than with the BBC in the UK. Similar to that of the CBC, the BBC’s core mandate is to “inform, educate and entertain.” However, the particulars of that mandate are systematically reviewed to ensure that – among other things – it remains relevant to the media consumption habits of the British people.¹⁷ Indeed, since 2003 the UK Office of Communications (Ofcom) has conducted two separate reviews of the role of the PSBs in the UK and has most recently concluded that “digital technologies are creating the potential for new content and services that are more participative, social and interactive than traditional broadcast content.”¹⁸ Most recently, there have been calls for some form of downsizing of the BBC, and a redistribution of their revenue source – TV set licence fees.¹⁹

Public broadcasters in all countries are struggling with their roles in the multiple platform age, and many face funding uncertainties. Indeed, the ad-dependent CBC has suffered along with commercial broadcasters in the TV ad sales downturn. The CBC’s funding base, which depends largely on Parliamentary appropriations, is an annual uncertainty and has never been increased to fund experimentation with new distribution platforms. A national digital strategy could include a review of the role of Canada’s national PSB in that context, and address the funding issues that arise from the current means of financing the CBC.