TORONTO - Concerns about the loss of local programming were aired by a room of broadcasters Saturday as a CRTC official set the stage for "crucial" upcoming decisions by the federal regulator that will impact the future of conventional Canadian television.
With expenses climbing, ad revenues dwindling and audiences fragmenting thanks to specialty channels, a number of local television stations across the country are in jeopardy.
Three stations owned by CTVglobemedia and five E! stations belonging to Canwest have been either slated for closure or put up for sale in the past year, their fates yet unknown. Some say it's the tip of the iceberg for a previously robust local news and programming sector now on the decline.
No one yet knows what will become of conventional broadcasting, now that pay and specialty, cable, satellite, new media and On-Demand are players in the scene, said the regional commissioner of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
"We can not simply allow it to whither away," Rita Cugini told the group assembled at a meeting held by RTNDA Canada. "There is no ready replacement for the core services that it provides -- local programming, local news and programs of a national interest."
She went on to broadly outline how the regulatory body will address several issues that will impact the livelihoods of local TV stations nationwide, with answers to be delivered in an announcement set for July 6.
For example, the report will include details on how the CRTC will restructure a funding formula that could have profound impact on several stations whose licences are set to expire at the end of August.
Called the Local Programming Improvement Fund and aimed at stations with markets catering to fewer than one million people, the formula was widely pronounced useless by broadcasters when unveiled in the fall.
Should the CRTC make sufficient changes, the fund would potentially have the power to "save some of these stations that are threatened," RTNDA President Cal Johnstone said afterwards.
While several broadcasters bared their teeth in exchanges with the two CRTC officials who were present during a question and answer session, others took a more measured approach to the organization's role in the future of their industry.
Johnstone said the prevailing mood throughout the industry right now is uncertainty.
"We want some answers," he said. "We want some definitive decisions that the broadcasters and everybody else can base their decisions on."
The coming July decision follows hearings in April during which the regulator was blasted by some for contributing to the conventional television crisis. It marks the beginning of a process by CRTC over the next year that will determine the long-term fate of many small and medium market stations.
More hearings are set for September and will address the issue of vanishing local programming. They'll also set the framework for group-based licence renewals in April 2010.
"That will be the major rebalancing act that will occur," Cugini said.
She was asked how likely it is the changes to be announced will turn things around.
"I'm confident that we've done the absolute best that we can under the circumstances and with the powers or authorities that the commission has," she said.
During the candid exchange with the group, she and a colleague also revealed one station some believed was doomed to close -- CHCH in Hamilton -- may yet live another day.
"Canwest has indicated that it is looking for buyers and it is negotiating with various players and it does seem to have interest in the station," Scott Hutton, CRTC executive director of broadcasting, said later.
