CACTUS Participates in "Media Math" Consultation by the Public Policy Forum
CACTUS and its members participated in two of the roundtable discussions held by the Public Policy forum in connection with the study it conducted entitled "Media Math:
Democracy, News & Public Policy in Canada", instigated and in part commissioned by the Department of Canadian Heritage.
In addition to participating in the roundtables, CACTUS submitted written answers to the questions posed by the Public Policy Forum in its "Media Math" discussion paper.
To see what we submitted, click here:
CACTUS Written Submission to "Media Math" study
CACTUS Asks CRTC to Reconsider Community and Local TV Decision
CACTUS has written to ask the CRTC to reconsider its community and local TV decision, based on the number of erroneous statements in the decision and its setting aside of the testimony by the very communities the policy is meant to serve.
Click here to read the request.
The policy will go into effect in September of 2017 unless enough Canadians complain to the CRTC, federal MPs, and to the Heritage Minister.
To support the request, fax the CRTC Secretary General at (819) 994-0218. The policy goes into effect in September of 2017.
To e-mail to your federal MP, most MP e-mails have the form firstname.lastname@parl.gc.ca. You can check here.
To e-mail the Heritage Minister, use Melanie.Joly@parl.gc.ca.
CRTC DEFERS ACTION ON CABLE COMMUNITY TV COMPLAINTS... AGAIN
Ottawa (August 3, 2016) According to a letter received by the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS), the CRTC has deferred consideration of almost 60 complaints against community TV channels operated by Eastlink, Cogeco, Shaw and Rogers until their cable license renewals this fall. The complaints were filed by CACTUS in partnership with community groups in March and April, 2016. Data regarding local and community-access programming produced by cable community channels was also placed on the public record of the CRTC's recent community and local TV hearing, and can be viewed online at www.comtv.org. The channels either fail to air adequate local content (generally 60% of the program schedule) or adequate citizen-generated content (generally 50% of the schedule)—or both. The deferral is the latest in a series of CRTC failures to enforce community channel policy:
Under Access to Information requests, CACTUS discovered that CRTC audits of community channels from 2002 to 2005 revealed that the majority of cable companies did not air enough local and access content. No remedial action was taken.
CACTUS filed data during the 2010 community TV policy review showing that only 19 of more than 100 cable community channels met the 60% local threshold. The rest shared programming across multiple cable systems.
After inviting CACTUS to produce an 170-page analysis of cable community channels logs in 2011, revealing widespread non-compliance with CRTC policy, the Commission itself refused to consider the data. CACTUS received a 4-page letter from CRTC staff stating “In most cases, BDUs meet the minimum requirements regarding the broadcast of access and local programming.” Staff refused to share the basis for this conclusion.
New "Community and Local TV" Policy Deals Death Blow to Community TV
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CRTC DEFERS ACTION ON CABLE COMMUNITY TV COMPLAINTS... AGAIN
Submitted by Cathy Edwards on Fri, 2017-03-17 22:48.Ottawa (August 3, 2016) According to a letter received by the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS), the CRTC has deferred consideration of almost 60 complaints against community TV channels operated by Eastlink, Cogeco, Shaw and Rogers until their cable license renewals this fall. The complaints were filed by CACTUS in partnership with community groups in March and April, 2016. Data regarding local and community-access programming produced by cable community channels was also placed on the public record of the CRTC's recent community and local TV hearing, and can be viewed online at www.comtv.org. The channels either fail to air adequate local content (generally 60% of the program schedule) or adequate citizen-generated content (generally 50% of the schedule)—or both. The deferral is the latest in a series of CRTC failures to enforce community channel policy:
Under Access to Information requests, CACTUS discovered that CRTC audits of community channels from 2002 to 2005 revealed that the majority of cable companies did not air enough local and access content. No remedial action was taken.
CACTUS filed data during the 2010 community TV policy review showing that only 19 of more than 100 cable community channels met the 60% local threshold. The rest shared programming across multiple cable systems.
After inviting CACTUS to produce an 170-page analysis of cable community channels logs in 2011, revealing widespread non-compliance with CRTC policy, the Commission itself refused to consider the data. CACTUS received a 4-page letter from CRTC staff stating “In most cases, BDUs meet the minimum requirements regarding the broadcast of access and local programming.” Staff refused to share the basis for this conclusion.
2016Jul28-CRTC DEALS DEATH BLOW TO COMMUNITY TELEVISION
Submitted by Cathy Edwards on Thu, 2016-07-28 20:41.Ottawa (July 28, 2016) The Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) estimates that the CRTC's new local and community TV policy will slash the budget for community TV to one sixth what it was under its 2010 policy, crippling Canada's forty-year tradition of prioritizing media literacy and public access to the airwaves. The CRTC's June 15th decision redirects money for community TV to private news production in a handful of mid-sized Canadian cities where local news is no longer profitable for Canada's media giants, such as Rogers, Bell, Shaw, and Videotron. “But the same money could have facilitated citizen-generated local news and information in 250 smaller communities that have no TV coverage,” said CACTUS President, Ivan Traill. “These horizontally and vertically integrated companies were allowed to buy our last private TV networks—CTV and Global—because they had the deep pockets to subsidize news and drama from mobile, Internet, and pay TV services,” he said. “Why raid community TV?”
Communities Have Until April 15th to Ask for Cable Company Budgets to Manage “CommunityTV"
Submitted by Cathy Edwards on Thu, 2016-03-17 20:36.Ottawa (March 22, 2016) Canadians have until April 15th to share their experiences as viewers and producers at cable community TV channels.
The vast majority of cable community TV channels do not meet the minimum criteria for operating a community TV channel under CRTC policy, according to Deepak Sahasrabudhe of Newwest.tv in BC, and a member of the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS).
CACTUS and various community groups filed complaints of non-compliance with the CRTC's community TV policy against 75 cable community channels operated by Shaw, Rogers, Cogeco, Eastlink, and Videotron.
Catherine Edwards, spokesperson for CACTUS, said, “Deepak took it upon himself to examine the online programming schedules of cable license areas in Canada: all those that currently hold cable licenses from the CRTC, as well as many smaller systems that are exempt from licensing, but which are still expected to offer community TV services. He wanted to find out whether they air at least 60% local content and at least 50% 'access' content―created by ordinary community members, not cable company staff.”
Mr. Sahasrabudhe elaborated, “I discovered that New Westminster cable TV subscribers pay about $400,000 per year for community television services, yet Shaw airs almost nothing from New Westminster. Everything we see is piped out from downtown Vancouver. I wanted to find out whether the same situation is happening across Canada. Are subscribers getting the services they pay for? In Montreal, citizens have launched a class-action suit against Videotron for a failure to provide them with the community TV services they pay for.”
CACTUS Proposal to Revitalize Community TV in Canada as Part of Multimedia Digital Vision
CACTUS made a detailed submission to the CRTC's review of local and community TV on Tuesday, January 5th.
After consulting with its members, researchers, and community media practitioners from all media at the Community Media Convergence in November (radio, online, and gaming groups as well as traditional community TV), CACTUS filed an updated version of the proposal it made first in 2010: to use funding collected from Canadian subscribers from cable, IPTV, and satellite subscribers for "local expression" to fund multimedia training, production, and distribution centres that would bring back meaningful access to broadcasting and content creation to more than 90% of Canadians from coast to coast to coast.
CACTUS' spokesperson Catherine Edwards: "We're satisfied that this idea has had a chance to circulate among community media practitioners beyond our own members. We've consulted public libraries, community radio stations, former CAP sites, community online media, First Nations groups, and the gaming community. Everyone agrees: stable operational funding needs to be found to support community media in the digital environment. Community TV (audio-visual content however distributed) in particular has been neglected for more than a decade, and the upcoming CRTC hearings are a chance to rectify this situation. Furthermore, the proposal takes into account the growing role of new media, and how best to make sure Canadians have the access to skills training, equipment and production support that they need to participate in the digital economy and in the wider culture we share on digital platforms."
To read CACTUS' intervention, click the files below:
Vast Majority of Cable Community Channels Do Not Meet Minimal CRTC Criteria for 'Community TV'
Submitted by Cathy Edwards on Mon, 2016-01-11 16:40.Ottawa (January 7, 2016) The vast majority of cable community TV channels do not meet the minimum criteria for operating a community TV channel under CRTC policy, according to Deepak Sahasrabudhe of Newwest.tv in BC, and a member of the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS).
As the CRTC and industry and community stakeholders gear up for a review of the Commission's local and community TV policy starting on January 25th, CACTUS and various community groups filed complaints of non-compliance with the CRTC's community TV policy against 47 cable community channels.
Catherine Edwards, spokesperson for CACTUS, said, “Deepak took it upon himself to examine the online programming schedules of 87 different cable license areas in Canada: all those that currently hold cable licenses from the CRTC, as well as many smaller systems that are exempt from licensing, but which are still expected to offer community TV services. He wanted to find out whether they air at least 60% local content and at least 50% 'access' content―created by ordinary community members, not cable staff.”
Mr. Sahasrabudhe elaborated, “I had noticed that Shaw airs almost nothing local to New Westminster, yet by my calculation, the company collects about $400,000 per year from all of us who live here to provide community TV services. Everything we see is being piped out from downtown Vancouver. I wanted to find out whether the same situation is happening across Canada. Are subscribers getting the services they pay for? In Montreal, citizens have launched a class-action suit against Videotron for a failure to provide them with community TV services. It's a condition of the license of these companies.”
Community Media Convergence Ramps Up to Welcome Visitors to Ottawa
CACTUS is helping to organize and host the Community Media Convergenge at Carleton Univeristy which kicks off next weekend. The following article is cross-posted from the web site of the conference at www.ComMediaConverge.ca:
(Ottawa) Nov. 11, 2015 With less than two weeks to go, things are heating up in the community media world, with the first ever gathering of community media practitioners from all sectors (community TV, community radio, community online media such as The Media Co-op and gamers) at Carleton University Nov. 22-24th.
The conference features two days of panels about everything from “Social Media: Is it Community Media and How Do We Leverage It?” to “Community Media 3.0: Games and Interactivity?” The third day is a policy development forum, where attendees will have the opportunity to help shape a policy proposal to support community media in the digital environment.
Speakers include grandfathers of our broadcasting system such as:
Clifford Lincoln, author of Our Cultural Sovereignty: The Second Century of Broadcasting
Florian Sauvageau, author of the 1986 Report on the Task Force on Broadcasting
... to the new generation of bloggers and podcasters, including Mark Blevis, Victoria Fenner of rabble.
... and gaming organizations such as Dames Making Games and the Hand Eye Society.
Conference goers will be able to check out the latest from technology companies in the Tech Fair and watch the best community media the country has to offer in the evening Media Festival.
The conference is timely, and organizers hope it will help inform the CRTC's on-going review of its community TV policy, which is 40 years old and lags behind the reality of the digital distribution and creation of content.
For more information, contact Jess Wind at (613) 883-0698 or Jess@ComMediaConverge.ca. Student and single-day pricing is available. The evening Media Festival is by donation. If you can't be part of the action in Ottawa, follow the stream at www.ComMediaConverge.ca.
