Mandatory carriage of conservative TV?
August 19, 2010 12:59 pm Canadian PoliticsThe Liberal blogosphere is rumbling that the Harper government will “go after” the CRTC. The stated reason for this animus, according to Lawrence Martin, is that the CRTC has not been sufficiently cooperative in relation to the bid for a national must-pay television licence for the Pierre-Karl Peladeau/ Kory Ten Eycke conservative television network.
The CRTC has sent a letter to Peladeau, owner of Videotron and Sun Media, saying that the Commission is reviewing must-carry rules, and that he will not get a must-carry, that is, be required to be carried by regulatory fiat in the meantime. The entrepreneur is free to expand his current Toronto television station’s reach by working out deals with the incumbent cable carriers across Canada: Shaw, Rogers,etc. Fat chance of that.
I think most conservatives would favour an explicitly Canadian conservative politics channel. But would they also favour another must-carry ruling from the CRTC? The CRTC has already established several must-carry channels and they reach into your pockets every month. Remember APTV – aboriginal people’s television? CTV’s newschannel? CBC’s Newsworld? TV5, the French-language thing you probably don’t watch? Do you want another?
The CRTC’s own statistics for 2010 show that the growth of payments we make for cable television exceed all the rates of growth of other payments we make for telecommunications, the consumer price index and the Internet. (Table 5.1.10, on page 121). Only cellular phone industry revenues show a greater increase than those for cable television, industry-wide (Table 3.1.1, on page 16). That rate of increase of revenues for them and payments by consumers is fuelled in part by the de-regulation of cable rates by the CRTC. Another large portion of that increase consists of the fees imposed by the CRTC on consumers for must-carry channels.
And consider this: how conservativeis it to ask for a must-carry? In effect you ask for government intervention to cause Canadians to pay for a “conservative” newschannel? Can you really be conservative if you live off a state subsidy?
Two questions for you conservatives and libertarians.
- Do you want the CRTC to force you to pay for a conservative TV channel?
- And is that position consistent with your views on the long-form census?
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Dalwhinnie
wilson :
Date: August 19, 2010 @ 1:59 PM
This issue is getting confusing,
because the license applied for is a must OFFER, giving Canadians the option to pick SunTV in their package,
at least that is how I understand it….????
Frank :
Date: August 19, 2010 @ 1:59 PM
You make a good point regarding whether a “must-carry” license adheres to conservative principles. I agree with you (in hindsight) that it does not. I would probably be willing to pay for the new channel if its programming and costs are both reasonable. On a similar note, I would like to have both the CBC and CTV networks removed from my cable package since even though I don’t watch them I feel it may encourage advertisers to support them.
Ted :
Date: August 19, 2010 @ 2:32 PM
SunTV applied for a Category 1 Specialty TV license which, if granted, would have required ALL digital cable and direct broadcast satellite providers to carry the channel.
There is no distinction within Category 1 between “must offer” and “must carry”, i.e. they are the same thing. The CRTC, however, does not mandate how you must bundle Category 1 and Category 2 channels, just that you must carry/offer the Category 1 channels.
That means that a channel with Cat2 must negotiate a separate agreement with every digital cable and direct broadcast satellite provider to be included in their offerings (and reach an agreement on price), whereas Cat1 do not.
It is part of why you see some odd bundles: since some of the Cat1 channels would never make money on their own, it is in the interest of the cable company to bundle it with channels that people will want.
Last October 2009 (or perhaps earlier), the CRTC announced that there would be no more Category 1 licenses until after 2011. So the decision to reject SunTV was consistent with their overall policy decision.
Canadiansense :
Date: August 19, 2010 @ 2:33 PM
I am in favour of moving CBC, Global, CTV off the meal ticket.
They can adjust to competing with Sun TV without the carriage fee.
We all win in lower basic cable fees.
All la carte only.
Greig :
Date: August 19, 2010 @ 2:55 PM
The CRTC like the CBC has outlived any usefulness if, arguably they ever had any. Abolish the CRTC and defund completely the CBC – period. Our Liberal biased media is terrified at the thought of Canadians getting something other than their filtered left-wing lies and vile anti-Conservative agenda. Bring on Sun News. I will gladly pay to support them.
real conservative :
Date: August 19, 2010 @ 3:53 PM
The CRTC is simply not doing its job and thus needs a shakeup. They are like a black box from the outside and not comprehensible to others unless you understand the liberal ideology which they espouse. Furthermore, the CRTC has allowed the MSM to become out of control which reduces the effiacy of the entire country when you think about it.
Gord :
Date: August 19, 2010 @ 4:42 PM
I’m basically opposed to the whole concept of “must carry” and would oppose the addition of any new “must carry” channels – especially another totally redundant news channel. If the government is going to require carriage of an explicitly conservative partisan news outlet, they should remove the de-facto conservative CTV news outlet. If they are simply looking to piss off Liberal voters, perhaps they could substitute the new FoxNorth channel for CBC Newsworld as that would probably be more favorably received by their core red-neck yahoo constituency.
Sean M :
Date: August 19, 2010 @ 5:13 PM
Get rid of the CRTC ! The CRTC is a “Liberal/Progressive” battering ram that forces the Trudeauvian ideology down the throats of everyone with a T.V. or radio. By all reports SunTV News would fly in the face of the CRTC mandate, which is to promote the artificial culture that was imposed by Disco Dictator Turdo. While the CRTC forces everyone to pay for French stations that we will never watch, I can’t see them forcing Canadians to pay for a station that they would watch, especially one that doesn’t fit into the cult of Trudeauvia. It must be remembered that the CRTC rules set out by Turdo dictate that there is no majority Canadian culture. The CRTC mandate is to cast the nation adrift and help to estrange Canadians from their country. In order for SunTVNews to receive the go ahead from the CRTC they would have to behave exactly the same as the CBC,CTV, Glowball.
Jennifer Rogers :
Date: August 19, 2010 @ 7:34 PM
How about a CBC for the conservative crowd?
Create a twin government-supported TV network that functions as CBC TV does, except it could deliver news and programming from a conservative perspective.
If we must have the CBC, simply halve the budget for the CBC, allow for greater ability to generate revenues, and have CBCLeft (the current one), and CBCRight (the new one).
Tongue is slightly in cheek. But until the CBC can more closely represent more of Canada rather than less, why the hank not?
real conservative :
Date: August 19, 2010 @ 9:13 PM
Gord, CTV is conservative? That’s funny, like saying the Sun chain of newspapers are conservative. There is very little conservative media in Canada, only degrees and only on certain issues. I might characterize them as anti-liberal in terms of seeking power but cannot call them anti-liberal in political orientation.
Gord :
Date: August 19, 2010 @ 11:00 PM
All I can say is that CTV is extremely Harper and Campbell friendly. I notice that whenever there is any news story that reflects badly on Gordon Campbell, they don’t allow any comments. (Not ALL the time, but MOST of the time). They appear to be a network that is acting according to the wishes of the big puppet masters.
I totally agree that we should get rid of the CRTC. I’m sick of just about everything we have in Canada in TV that is a result of government regulation. I worry that Harper is just using CRTC to force feed us his nauseating propoganda – which is simply some idiots idea of what the 1984 -style proles want.
Wayne :
Date: August 20, 2010 @ 2:08 PM
The majority of people in Canada are either liberal or centrist. More people voted for leftist parties than right wing ones by a wide margin. The idea that there needs to be a “conservative” voice specifically disregards the fact that MOST mainstream media is now conservative. Whether it is the National Post, Globe and Mail, the various Sun newspapers, Macleans, GlobalTV, CTV, Chum/CITY, the list goes on and on. They are all fundamentally conservative outlets pushing primarily conservative views (even if they don’t necessarily support the Conservative party).
What Canada actually needs is a national LIBERAL network that actually reflects the liberal/centrist views of the majority of Canadians. The CBC is certainly quite centrist in its coverage of issues, but that really isn’t enough. If a liberal canadian wants to read a newspaper that isn’t conservative, the closest thing available is the Toronto Star. Hardly an acceptable situation for those of us who live outside Toronto.
alex :
Date: August 20, 2010 @ 5:56 PM
Exactly right. An anti-CBC is just as bad as the CBC.