NEW NUMBERS PROVE BROADCASTERS NEED MORE RULES
Nice of the CRTC to release the broadcasters’ and cable co’s financials on the eve of announcing their TV policy since the numbers show YET AGAIN why we need to end the free ride for both of them!
NEW NUMBERS PROVE BROADCASTERS NEED MORE RULES
Performers anxiously await CRTC’s new Television Policy on March 22
March 18, 2010 – Toronto – On the eve of new rules for Canadian broadcasting, figures released today prove the regulator needs to take steps to ensure that Canadians can see our own stories. The CRTC is set to release a new television policy this Monday, March 22 and performers are hopeful that the regulator will focus on getting more Canadian programming in primetime.
“Today’s numbers tell the same story we’ve seen for the past 10 years. Canadian drama is dying while broadcasters feed their addiction to U.S. programming and cable companies are making obscene profits while ripping-off Canadians,” said Stephen Waddell, National Executive Director, ACTRA. “The CRTC has to seize the opportunity on Monday and get this right, our industry and our culture won’t survive another ten years of letting broadcasters and big cable off the hook.”
Figures released by the CRTC today show that despite declining revenues, private broadcasters spent a record amount on U.S. and foreign shows in 2009 – 59% of all programming expenses or $846.3 million. At the same time, their spending on Canadian programming decreased by 3.3%. In addition, cable companies’ revenues grew by another $1 billion, yet they continue to refuse to pay broadcasters for their signals and keep passing the costs of their own regulatory obligations down to Canadians.
Canadian performers have urged the CRTC to take a bold and creative approach as they re-write the rules for Canadian broadcasting:
- making over-the-air broadcasters spend a percentage of their revenues on Canadian programming, with at least 6% of their revenues dedicated to drama;
- telling corporate broadcast groups that they too must spend a set percentage of their gross revenues on Canadian drama;
- requiring over-the-air broadcasters to air a minimum of two hours per week of original Canadian drama in prime time, 8-11 pm Sunday to Friday; and
- ending the free-ride for cable companies by making them pay conventional broadcasters fairly for their signal and making sure they don’t pass the bill along to consumers.
ACTRA will be on the ground at the CRTC in Gatineau on Monday, March 22, at 4 pm ET when the decision is released and will be available for comment.
WATCH: Mark McKinney explain how the CRTC’s 1999 Television Policy has decimated Canadian TV in prime time – http://tinyurl.com/ydxrjc3
