LPIF Hearing Winds Up
The Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF) was created by the CRTC in 2008 to stimulate more local TV programming in 'markets' having fewer than 1 million people.
As far back as the 2002 Lincoln Report, "Our Cultural Sovereignty" (initiated by the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage), a fund had been recommended that would stimulate more TV AND radio content, at the "community, local, and regional levels". However, when the CRTC asked the Canadian Association of Broadcasters to design eligibility criteria for the fund in 2008, community broadcasters were not invited to the consultation (and are not members of the CAB). Eligibility criteria were subsequently defined that stated that the fund was only available for "conventional broadcasters" (i.e. those in the public and private sectors) and that a qualifying station must establish "local presence" by producing at least 5 hours of "local news" per week and by the employment of local professional journalists.
The CRTC is currently reviewing the LPIF. CACTUS spokesperson Cathy Edwards appeared before the CRTC last week, making the case that community broadcasters have in fact the most true "local presence" (almost 100% of what they produce is typically made for the local market) and that funding community broadcasters would stimulate content at a rate six times greater than funding 'conventional broadcasters', since a community production on average costs just one sixth what it costs a public or private broadcaster to produce, thanks to the multiplier effect of volunteer labour.
We went to some length to describe how community broadcasters--while they typically don't produce a daily 'newscast' consisting of short segments--in fact produce more in depth content in all the same genres typically produced by a conventional broadcaster: politics, local affairs, arts and culture, sports, health, and so on.
We asked that commmunity TV licence holders be eligible for the LPIF at 1/6 the rate of a conventional broadcaster in recognition of our more efficient production model, and also of the fact that most current community licence holders are active in markets considerably smaller than 1 million.
Other questions under consideration by the Commissioners were:
- whether to keep the fund at all. Cable and satellite companies have to pay into it at a rate of 1.5% of their revenues, yielding a total of just over 100 million per year. All the large cable and satellite companies except Bell consequently want to see the LPIF discontinued.
- whether CBC local stations should continue to be eligible. CBC stations received roughly 40% of the Fund in its first year of operations. Some argue that the CBC already receives funding from Parliament, and that therefore Parliament should make up any shortfalls. Given heavy cuts to the CBC announced in the most recent budget, however, many feel the CBC should continue to be eligible for the LPIF.
- whether recipients should be automatically awarded funding for meeting the minimum eligibility criteria, or whether funding should recognize incremental additions to the amount of local programming created in a market by a particular broadcaster in each year
- whether the LPIF is still necessary given that many of the private broadcasters whose local stations were under threat of closure in 2008 due to the economic downturn have now been purchased by cable and satellite companies with deep enough pockets to continue to fund them without specific incentives or the LPIF.
If you'd like to see CACTUS' written brief, it can be found in our Resources section here:
If you'd like to see what we said at the oral hearing and what questions the Commissioners asked us, the full hearing is available in CPAC's Video-on-Demand service here:
CACTUS April 18th Presentation Before CRTC
(We are second, after Crossroads Television, roughly 44 minutes in.)
On May 2nd, we filed our final comments, including endorsement a set of principles for the LPIF which was signed by ten other industry groups:
Let us know what you think!
Manager of Valemount Community TV Elected Mayor
Submitted by Cathy Edwards on Mon, 2012-03-26 20:54.The station manager of Valemount Community TV, Andru McCracken, was elected to mayor in November of 2011.
He now splits his time between the TV station and the mayor's office. For the full story, see the Rocky Mountain Goat.
Over $1 Billion Squandered as Cable Companies Fail to Meet Regulatory Requirements for Community Programming
Submitted by Cathy Edwards on Fri, 2012-03-23 19:56.Ottawa (January 3, 2012) In the summer of 2011, the CRTC initiated the most comprehensive audit of cable community channels ever undertaken. Shaw, Rogers, Cogeco, Videotron and Eastlink were asked to submit logs showing how much local programming they air, and how much is made by cable company staff versus volunteers who live in the community. Most cable companies failed to meet minimum criteria for local programming (60% of the program schedule) and the requirement that 30% of the programming be produced by community members.
“The time is long overdue for Canada to join other democracies and empower its citizens to administer their own community media. Communities desperately need outlets for local expression and they are currently paying more than $130 million annually for services they don’t receive.” says Catherine Edwards of the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS).
“These channels are meant to provide a local platform for free speech, debate, and cultural expression. For over a decade, they’ve been predominantly programmed by cable company staff, not the communities they were meant to serve. Cable operators ignore regulatory requirements for community-access and local programming in favour of regional programming, and more than 80% of the nearly 300 community-access facilities that Canadians once enjoyed have been shut,” she continued.
In New Westminster, residents saw no local programming during the audit period. Resident and community activist Deepak Sahasrabuhde has been outraged by this situation. “This is unfair to cable subscribers. We pay about $1 on each $50 cable bill for these channels. Our community has no influence on program content as envisioned in the CRTC Regulations.”
Another $30 Million Handed to Cable Companies that Could Have Stimulated True Diversity in the Digital Economy
Submitted by Cathy Edwards on Fri, 2012-03-23 19:53.Ottawa (March 22, 2012) The CRTC released a decision last week (CRTC 2012-154) that hands another $30 million annually to cable companies that could otherwise have stimulated both the diversity of voices in broadcasting in Canada and our digital economy. In the fall of 2010, the CRTC announced a new community TV policy for Canada, but it failed to update Canada’s forty-year-old strategy of allowing cable companies to manage "public access” to the airwaves. While other countries have long since been licencing and actively encouraging community groups to create broadcast television, and while Canada itself has been licencing community groups to produce radio since early in the 1900s, the CRTC (and cable companies) still can’t let go the leash on TV. This... even in the new Internet environment where anyone with a camcorder can shoot and upload to YouTube.
The issue is in fact, not whether community TV licences are available (they are, but there are only 9 in Canada, compared to more than 150 community radio channels), it’s whether money is made available to support them. Public and private broadcasters have access to a range of funding mechanisms including tax dollars, industry subsidies, cable and satellite subscription revenues, and advertising. Community licence holders are expected to rely on advertising, which runs counter to their public-service mandate and is difficult in small markets even for private broadcasters showing popular US series. Meanwhile, the more than $130 million annually that has been earmarked to support “community programming” within the Canadian broadcasting system is still firmly in the hands of cable companies and their so-called ‘community channels’, despite the fact that these channels are accessible to a bare majority of Canadians: cable subscribers.
Downloading a Program for Playback on Your Channel
Submitted by Cathy Edwards on Thu, 2012-01-19 18:41.To download or preview a program:
- Go to Telvue Media Exchange.
- Fill in your information to request a login.
- Telvue will send you back a login, with directions how to download programs.
Submitting a Program for Playback on Other Channels
Submitted by Cathy Edwards on Thu, 2012-01-19 18:17.There are two steps to share a program with other CACTUS members:
Post info about the program on the CACTUS site:
- Log in to this site using your CACTUS login and password (if you haven't already).
- Either: Click "Create Content" on the Navigation bar to the left and click "Program Exchange" or use this link: Program Exchange.
- Fill in the program information fields (name, description, and so on). Select "MPEG-2" as the format. Select the province or territory where the program was made and make sure your description tells others why it might be relevant to their viewers. Copy your description so that you won't have to retype it in step 10 below.
- Click Submit. You will now see your program listed on the "Program Sharing" page.
Upload your program to the Telvue Media Exchange web site:
- Go to Telvue Media Exchange.
- Fill in your information to request a login.
- Telvue will send you back a login, with directions how to upload your program.
- Send CACTUS an e-mail and we will advertise that your show is available to member channels.
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Executive Summary of CACTUS Analysis of Cable Community Channel Logs 2011
The three-page executive summary of CACTUS' full analysis of cable community channel logs submitted for March 6-12, 2011.
2011 CRTC Community Channel Audit
In 2011, the CRTC conducted the most comprehensive audit of cable community channels ever undertaken. CACTUS has examined these logs and has published a comprehensive analysis of cable company claims (regarding local and access contents).
