Shaw under fire at close of CRTC hearings
Last Updated: Friday, February 8, 2008 | 8:07 PM ET
The Canadian Press
The largest recipient of Canadian Television Fund dollars chastised Shaw Communications Inc. on Friday for its request to pull out of the non-profit corporation that finances TV productions.
CTVglobemedia — which owns the CTV network and operates 27 local TV stations from Halifax to Victoria — told a three-member CRTC panel in Gatineau, Que., that Shaw, western Canada's biggest cable company, is misrepresenting the benefits it has reaped from the fund.
Shaw, followed by Quebecor's Videotron, touched off a storm within the Canadian television industry in December 2006 when it temporarily withheld its contributions to the fund.
Shaw and Quebecor claim the fund was squandering their money on shows that few people watch.
"We are here because some think they are allowed to cherry-pick their obligations, yet keep all the benefits of regulatory protection," said David Goldstein, CTVglobemedia's vice-president of regulatory affairs.
"Shaw is a very profitable company who has flourished due to the protective blanket you [the CRTC] provide. They can't be allowed to brag on Bay Street and come crying to the commission."
Earlier this week, Ken Stein, Shaw's senior vice-president of regulatory and corporate affairs, put forward what he called three "irrefutable facts" about the fund:
- It doesn't deliver programs that Canadians actually watch.
- It hasn't resulted in increased spending on Canadian
programming. - It hasn't created a viable production industry.
Goldstein derided them Friday as "Shaw myths."
CTVglobemedia, in addition to its conventional stations, holds interests in 35 specialty TV channels, including sports channel TSN. It also owns the Globe and Mail and CHUM Radio Network, which operates 35 radio stations throughout Canada.
According to the Canadian Television Fund, CTVglobemedia received a total of $41 million in Canadian Television Fund financing in fiscal 2007-08.
Rogers Media — owner of the Citytv stations and a division of Rogers Communications Inc., the cellphone and cable TV giant that also operates Rogers Broadcasting and Rogers Publishing — received about $1 million.
Winnipeg-based CanWest MediaWorks Inc. — which owns a string of big-city daily newspapers from Vancouver to Montreal and the Global TV network — received slightly more than $25 million, counting its recent acquisition of Alliance Atlantis Communications.
Ed Robinson, CTV's executive vice-president of programming, said his company has given, on average, more than $30 million each year to the television fund.
"It is true that we have benefited more than other private broadcasters from the existence of the CTF," he said.
"There is a reason for this. We have earned it."
At issue during a week-long Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission hearing is a proposal to split the $288-million fund into what amounts to two streams.
One stream would be for commercial shows paid for by private broadcasters, while the government would support so-called culturally-significant programming through the other stream.
CTVglobemedia and Bell ExpressVu, which also spoke at Friday's hearing, support a single fund split into two streams.
Rogers Communications floated a plan earlier this week that called for about $120 million of the fund's $288 million to be hived off to private-sector broadcasters, which include Rogers and CTV.
On Friday, MTS Allstream, the national subsidiary of Winnipeg-based Manitoba Telecom Services Inc., argued a smaller board should oversee the television fund, with those companies who "actually make a monetary contribution" getting a greater say in its decisions.
Teresa Griffin-Muir, MTS's vice-president of regulatory affairs, told the commission the company would support the fund being split into two streams.
MTS delivers digital television, high-speed Internet and conventional phone service to households in Manitoba, primarily Winnipeg, in competition with Shaw. It also has a regional wireless phone service and Allstream competes nationally in business telecommunications.
MTS could become a major player in Canada's lucrative wireless market if it bids for, then wins, a three-week auction of spectrum, or capacity, that's scheduled to be held in May by Industry Canada.
