ARCHIVED -  Decision CRTC 95-104

Decision

Ottawa, 24 March 1995

Decision CRTC 95-104

Power Broadcasting Inc./Diffusion Power Inc.

Kingston, Brighton and Prescott, Ontario - 940627300

Licence Renewal for CKWS-TV Kingston, CKWS-TV-1 Brighton and CKWS-TV-2 Prescott

Following a Public Hearing held in Toronto beginning on 3 October 1994, the Commission renews the broadcasting licence for CKWS-TV Kingston and its transmitters, CKWS-TV-1 Brighton and CKWS-TV-2 Prescott, from 1 September 1995 to 31 August 1999, subject to the conditions in effect under the current licence, as well as to those specified in the appendix to this decision and in the licence to be issued.

This term will enable the Commission to monitor and to review at an early date the licensee's performance in implementing its commitments and in responding to the concerns set out in this decision.

The licensee operates these undertakings as affiliates of the CBC English-language television network. The licensee is indirectly controlled by Paul Desmarais of Westmount, Quebec through Power Corporation of Canada. Power Broadcasting Inc./Diffusion Power Inc. (Power) is the licensee of a number of other radio and television stations operating in Ontario and Quebec.

Local Reflection

In Public Notice CRTC 1995-48 introducing this and other television renewal decisions issued today, the Commission reiterated the importance of the principle of local reflection and reminded television licensees that they have a special responsibility to serve the public within the particular geographic areas they are licensed to serve.

(i) Local News

 CKWS-TV - Kingston

In its last application for licence renewal, approved in Decision CRTC 89-134 dated 6 April 1989, the licensee made a commitment to broadcast a minimum average of 10 hours 38 minutes of original local news each week. According to the Commission's monitoring of CKWS-TV's logs, the station, in fact, broadcast an average of approximately 8 hours of original local news weekly in the 1991-1992 and 1992-1993 broadcast years. In response to questioning on this issue, the licensee stated that it met its commitment during the first years of the current licence term until early 1992.

According to Power, the shortfall in the amount of original local news programming broadcast by CKWS-TV is attributable to a number of factors, including increased competition from new Canadian and U.S. specialty programming services, internal realignment of staff and a labour disruption during the current licence term as well as the "continuing failure of the CBC and its affiliates to reach an agreement." The licensee stressed that the impact of "severely-reduced revenues" in local and national sales during the economic recession of the 1990s forced it to cut operating expenditures. The Commission notes, however, that CKWS-TV has maintained a level of profitability throughout its licence term that is higher than most private television stations.

 CKWS-TV-1 Brighton and CKWS-TV-2 Prescott

During the current licence term, the licensee also failed to fulfil its commitments to provide 12 minutes of original local news daily, Monday to Friday, specifically for broadcast on its undertakings serving the Belleville-Trenton and Brockville-Prescott areas, approved respectively in Decisions CRTC 91-59 dated 22 January 1991 and CRTC 91-304 dated 14 May 1991. Beginning only in late summer 1994, the licensee instituted separate weekly, half-hour, news reviews for broadcast over these undertakings.

The licensee stated that, during the current licence term, individual, full-time reporters assigned to cover the communities in the Brockville-Prescott and Belleville-Trenton areas had provided reports of local events in these localities for inclusion in CKWS-TV's local newscasts. For the new term, the licensee made a commitment to maintain the news reviews.

The Commission notes with concern that this commitment represents only half the amount of separate programming that the licensee undertook to broadcast when it applied for authority to operate the Brighton and Prescott undertakings. Moreover, the Commission notes that, at the hearing, the licensee acknowledged that the proposed half-hour news journal would consist largely of news items already aired by CKWS-TV over the preceding seven days. Such programs would not serve the Belleville-Trenton and Brockville-Prescott areas with timely news reporting to the extent that the licensee's originally proposed "split-feed" newscasts would, especially given the fact that these areas have no other source of local television news.

 The Commission's Expectations

At the hearing, the licensee stated that it "would have been wise to advise the Commission of our new strategic direction and its impacts on our undertakings" during the current licence term. The Commission agrees with the licensee's observation.

The Commission reminds the licensee that, while in Public Notice CRTC 1991-22 dated 15 February 1991 and entitled "Policy for Local Television Programming", the Commission relieved most licensees of quantitative commitments to local programming in most categories, it nevertheless maintained the requirement that licensees meet their minimum quantitative commitments to local news programs.

Accordingly, the Commission expects the licensee to adhere to the commitment made in its application to broadcast a minimum average of 9 hours 10 minutes of original local news weekly on CKWS-TV Kingston during the new licence term.

The Commission also expects the licensee, during the new licence term, to re-examine fully the feasibility of providing separate news feeds on CKWS-TV-1 Brighton and CKWS-TV-2 Prescott, as originally proposed.

(ii) Other Local Programming

In its last renewal application, the licensee made a commitment to broadcast a minimum average of 16 hours 23 minutes of original local programming weekly, of which 5 hours 45 minutes was to be in programming categories other than news. With the implementation in September 1991 of the policy set out in Public Notice CRTC 1991-22, the licensee was no longer required to meet its quantitative commitments to local programming in categories other than local news. The Commission notes, however, that CKWS-TV's programming logs for 1991-1992 revealed that the station broadcast an average of approximately 2 hours 30 minutes weekly of original local productions in categories other than news, and an average of just over 2 hours weekly in the broadcast year 1992-1993. As noted earlier, the licensee claimed that it reduced the amount of local programming after mid-1992 because of the reduction in revenues caused by the recession.

The Commission notes with concern that, even more significantly, the scope of the programming has narrowed. During the 1992-1993 broadcast year, most of the station's local programming production consisted of a religious program and an instructional show. In its renewal application, the licensee identified plans for only two programs as original, regularly-scheduled local productions apart from news, namely, "Life", a religious program produced in association with the Kingston Gospel Temple, and "Kinsmen Big Money Bingo". Each program would have 52 half-hour episodes.

The Commission is concerned that the scope of the local productions proposed by Power does not adequately reflect the variety of activities pursued by the citizens of the communities CKWS-TV is licensed to serve. The Commission expects the licensee to develop, early in the new licence term, a wider range of local productions that would better reflect the particular needs and interests of viewers in the Kingston, Brockville and Belleville areas.

Expenditures on Canadian Programming

As outlined in Public Notice CRTC 1995-48, conventional private commercial television stations with total annual advertising revenues of $10 million or less are generally expected to expend a certain amount on Canadian programming. In this context, the licensee indicated, in its application, that for the new licence term, it expected to "adhere to the projected first-year expenditures for Canadian programming and to adjust expenditures in accordance with the prescribed formula". The licensee also confirmed that "our new base amount for the new licence term is expected to be the year 1 [projected] amount of $1,936,000".

At the hearing, the licensee proposed to change the above base amount to $1,292,000. When questioned as to why the Commission should expect less from a licensee than what the licensee itself projected to spend on Canadian programming, the licensee argued that this revised figure was in keeping with the continued application of the existing expenditure formula outlined for its current licence. The licensee acknowledged that this revised base amount would actually be less than the one set by the Commission in Decision CRTC 89-134 for the first year of the current licence term. Nevertheless, the licensee contended that its request was reasonable, given the decline in advertising revenues experienced by CKWS-TV in recent years.

Having considered the licensee's arguments, the Commission takes note of the amount of $1.9 million that the licensee, in its application, projects to spend in the first year of its new licence term and encourages the licensee to maintain spending levels in line with such an amount throughout the new licence term.

Program Development

In its Promise of Performance filed as part of its last renewal application, the licensee made a commitment to spend $208,500 over five years on program development. The licensee reported in its most recent renewal application that it had, in fact, spent only $80,000 on program development over that five-year period. When asked at the hearing to explain this significant shortfall, the licensee stated that the "resources that we have available to us have been redirected from program development, specifically, to news and information programming."

The Commission reminds Power of the Commission's expectations set out in Public Notice CRTC 1989-27 dated 6 April 1989 and entitled "Overview: Local Television for the 1990s" regarding the important role that local television stations play in program development. In this regard, the Commission notes that, for the proposed seven-year new licence term, the licensee made commitments to spend $8,000 annually in the first three years of the requested seven-year licence term, and $9,000 annually thereafter.

Children's Programming

The Commission notes the licensee's commitments to broadcast 7 hours 12 minutes each week of Canadian programming targeted specifically to children.

Service to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

At the hearing, the Commission discussed with the licensee its performance with respect to providing service to deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers. In this regard, the Commission notes that the licensee currently captions the early and late evening newscasts and that, in the past, the licensee also captioned some of its other local productions. The licensee further indicated that it attempts to obtain captioned versions of acquired programs, whenever these are available.

Consistent with its policy approach for closed captioning announced in Public Notice CRTC 1995-48, the Commission expects the licensee to caption all of its local news programming, including live segments, using real time captioning or another method capable of captioning live programming by the end of the new licence term. In addition, the Commission expects the licensee to increase the amount of closed captioning provided with its other programming.

Employment Equity

In Public Notice CRTC 1992-59 dated 1 September 1992 and entitled "Implementation of an Employment Equity Policy", the Commission announced that the employment equity practices of broadcasters would be subject to examination by the Commission. The Commission notes, in this regard, the licensee's intention to complete an employment equity plan. Nevertheless, based upon the Power application and the reports prepared by the Department of Human Resources Development, the Commission has determined that there is considerable room for improvement in the approach now being followed by Power toward achieving employment equity. Accordingly, the Commission expects Power to develop and implement, without delay, an effective plan of action to ensure that adequate employment equity practices are followed throughout its organization. In particular, the Commission encourages Power to promote equitable representation in on-air staff positions and in voice-overs of station-produced commercial messages. The Commission will review these matters carefully at the time it next considers an application by Power.

The Commission acknowledges and has considered the numerous interventions submitted regarding the application for CKWS-TV's licence renewal.

Allan J. Darling
Secretary General

APPENDIX / ANNEXE

CONDITIONS OF LICENCE FOR CKWS-TV KINGSTON, CKWS-TV-1 BRIGHTON AND CKWS-TV-2 PRESCOTT

1. The licensee shall operate each broadcasting undertaking as an affiliate of the English-language television network operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

2. The licensee shall adhere to the guidelines on gender portrayal set out in the Canadian Association of Broadcasters' (CAB) "Sex-Role Portrayal Code for Television and Radio Programming", as amended from time to time and accepted by the Commission. The application of the foregoing condition of licence will be suspended as long as the licensee remains a member in good standing of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC).

3. The licensee shall adhere to the guidelines on the depiction of violence in television programming set out in the CAB's "Voluntary Code Regarding Violence in Television Programming", as amended from time to time and accepted by the Commission. The application of the foregoing condition of licence will be suspended as long as the licensee remains a member in good standing of the CBSC.

4. The licensee shall adhere to the provisions of the CAB's "Broadcast Code for Advertising to Children", as amended from time to time and approved by the Commission.