ARCHIVED - Broadcasting Commission Letter Addressed to Various Parties
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Ottawa, 29 June 2016
By e-mail:
Susan Wheeler
Vice-President, Regulatory, Media
Rogers Media Inc.
susan.wheeler@rci.rogers.com
Sylvie Courtemanche
Vice-President, Government Relations and Compliance
Corus Entertainment Inc.
sylvie.courtemanche@corusent.com
Kevin Goldstein
Vice-President, Regulatory Affairs, Content and Distribution
Bell Media Inc.
Kevin.goldstein@bellmedia.ca
Peggy Tabet
Senior Director Regulatory Affairs – Broadcasting
Québecor Média inc.
Tabet.Peggy@Quebecor.com
Re: Joint request for clarification – Additional information in regard to the new Policy framework for local and community television (Applications 2016-0020-6, 2016-0022-1, 2016-0017-2, 2016-0012-2, 2016-0015-6, 2016-0009-9, 2016-0018-0, 2016-0019-8)
This is further to your letter dated 20 June 2016, in which you request clarifications of the follow-up questions published by the Commission after the release of the new policy framework on local and community programming (Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2016-224).
The requested clarifications are provided below. Each of your questions has been repeated in bold, followed by the response.
In the section entitled “Funding of community programming” in the Community television policy at Appendix 2 of BRP 2016-224, the Commission states:
Licensed terrestrial BDUs operating in markets with a population of over one million people may allocate all or a portion of this contribution to local expression to community programming made in other markets or to the creation of locally reflective news programming by television stations.
All other licensed terrestrial BDUs may allocate up to 50% of their contribution to local expression to community programming made in other markets or to the creation of locally reflective news programming by television stations. The remainder may only be counted for community programming made in the BDU's market.
Exempt terrestrial BDUs may allocate all of their required 5% contribution to Canadian programming for contributions to local expression.
Where a BDU allocates a portion of their contribution to local expression to the creation of locally reflective news programming by television stations, would these funds then qualify as Canadian Programming Expenditures (CPE) on local news for the purposes of reporting by the local television stations? Given that the reason the allocation was allowed was to help make local news more economically viable, if it is not eligible as CPE, it would seem to be frustrating the intent of the new policy.
In responding to the letter sent 15 June 2016, please provide projections based on the following two scenarios, to which you allude above, separately:
Contributions allocated to the creation of locally reflective news would be eligible as CPE, and the group CPE requirements would increase by the amount allocated; and
Contributions allocated to the creation of locally reflective news would be eligible as CPE, while the group CPE requirements would remain unchanged.
In both scenarios, assume that PNI requirements will remain unchanged.
In paragraph 58 of BRP 2016-224, the Commission states that it will only count the program segments that meet the definition of “local reflection” for the purpose of the requirements for the broadcast of locally reflective news programming. We note that this approach of counting local news segments is markedly different than the current approach where broadcasting licensees will count an entire local news program as local programming. Under the current approach, the advertisements are also counted as local programming as they are logged as the same category of programming in which they appear. Pursuant to this new approach to only counting program segments as local news programming, will licensees be permitted to include a pro-rated portion of the advertisements as local news programming? For example, where 40% of the program segments of a 60-minute local news program qualify as locally reflective news programming, would 40% of the advertisements be included as locally reflective news programming as well?
Advertising will not be calculated as local news programming. Local news programming, for the purpose of this discussion, is defined as a program segment that must be entirely comprised of programming drawn from categories 1 News, 2(a) Analysis and Interpretation, as defined in Broadcasting Regulatory Policy 2010-808 and set out in the definition of local news provided in BRP 2016-224 (paragraphs 56-57).
Sincerely,
Julie St-Pierre,
Senior Policy Analyst, French-language Television Applications
Broadcasting
Julie.st-pierre@crtc.gc.ca
Pierre-Marc Perreault
Manager, English-language Television Applications
Broadcasting
Pierre-marc.perreault@crtc.gc.ca
cc. serge.bellerose55@gmail.com and dean.shaikh@sjrb.ca
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