21st Century Multi-Media Community Broadcasting at No New Cost
CACTUS proposes that the CRTC direct the 2% of subscriber revenues that cable companies now collect to pay for community expression (and which they spend on their own channels), to a new Community-Access Media Fund (CAMF).
Funding from CAMF would enable communities to establish multi-media access production and distribution centres that would:
Offer training and equipment to produce radio, TV, Internet, and new media/digital content
Distribute that content
over the air, free of charge
on the cable basic tier, and
- via new media, including the Internet, (live and on-demand), wireless devices, podcasts
The CACTUS plan will:
Provide Canadians with a volume and diversity of local content that is no longer possible in the public and private sectors.
Reach the ~40% of Canadians that do not subscribe to cable, as well as offer a local service to the many communities that have lost a community studio since the 1990s.
Make the latest technologies available to almost every Canadian community at no new cost to subscribers, Canadians or the broadcasting system.

How Will It Work?
1) Communities that want multimedia access centres apply for a CRTC “community-access” over-the-air television (and possibly also radio) licence.
2) Once licensed, they apply to CAMF for funding.
3) CACTUS assists communities in obtaining licences, applying to CAMF, establishing their centres and devising training programs.
4) The centres report annually to CAMF summarizing production volumes, categories and genres, community access and impact statistics, using GAAP-based financial reporting.
5) CAMF will publish an annual report detailing nation-wide community channel performance.

How Many Communities Will Benefit?
If the CRTC adopts our proposal, CACTUS and CAMF together will establish approximately 250 multi-media access centres, within reach of more than 90% of Canadians:

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