Activists are mounting a fight to wrest control of community television from Canada's cable operators.

As a series of hearings begin Monday, CACTUS — the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations — plans to argue that control of community television should be in different hands.

"We think the cable model isn't working anymore. We think it makes more sense that communities take over the reins for those channels," activist Catherine Edwards of CACTUS told CBC News.

Community TV is meant to enable the public, which owns the broadcast system in principle, to participate directly as program producers. As a result, much community TV is volunteer-driven.

Edwards cites a Shaw Communications community TV station in Calgary that used to produce 35 hours of original programming a week before 1997.

The CRTC loosened rules about community-made content in 1997 and Shaw made big cuts — idling hundreds of volunteers. Now a single show repeats several times a day or the station repeats programming from other regional stations, Edwards said.

She said two-thirds of Canada's community TV stations have since been closed or sit unused, yet cable companies added $133 million to consumer bills in 2008 to support community programming.

Hearings all week

CACTUS wants to control that cash, an argument it will make in seven days of hearings before the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

Shaw Communications didn't return phone calls for comment, but Roger's Colette Watson says her company is meeting its obligations.

"There have been no complaints at Rogers that we're not serving our community," she said.

Cable companies are required to spend two per cent of their revenues on community programming and are obligated to keep records of the programming, but CACTUS says it has not been able to gain access to those records.

CACTUS said the federal regulator has failed to consistently monitor what the cable stations are doing and, where it has done audits, it has found they fall short of their obligations.

CACTUS wants to create 250 multimedia access centres across the country.

It would reopen studios in many local centres and offer training to community members in how to produce digital content. It also wants communities to control distribution of that content.

The CRTC said it planned the hearings to review whether the goals of creating diverse, locally reflective community programming are being met and whether those objectives are still appropriate.

With files from CBC's Margo Kelly