CBC defends its digital switch, terms of trade reluctance

On the final day of three weeks of CRTC hearings into CBC/Radio-Canada's license renewal, the public broadcaster Thursday tried to push back against some of the criticism levelled at it by intervenors. CBC's digital spending does not degrade its news coverage, and the broadcaster's maintenance of foreign rights for some of the programming it commissions is not as big of a deal as the Canadian Media Producers Association said it is, CBC executives told the panel of regulators. Referring to the shift to digital, CBC president Catherine Tait said that "the dollars would follow the obligations, irrespective of platform." Several intervenors had called on the CRTC to push back against the CBC's request for increased "flexibility" on how much of its obligations could be fulfilled through programming on its digital platforms. "Some of those intervenors have asked that our license remain rooted, frozen in the past," Tait said Thursday in the broadcaster's replies. Earlier this week, the representatives of the Canadian Media Guild -- the union which represents CBC journalists -- urged commissioners not to give a "blank cheque" to the CBC on the move to digital. “If you do, it may well mean the end of local television news shows. Will CBC local news be replaced by Facebook lives or top ten lists?” CMG CBC branch president Kim Trynacity told regulators. CBC executive vice-president Barbara Williams challenged the assertion that the CBC has cut investments into local news production. "To be clear, we did not -- as some have suggested -- stop investing in news," Williams said. "What we did do, and we were fully transparent on this front, was properly allocate our news costs to various parts of the business, including our digital assets." Williams also responded directly to the CMPA's request that the CRTC force the CBC to enter into terms of trade agreements with producers that would allow them to retain rights over foreign broadcasts of their programming. "Ninety-five per cent of what we commission is governed by rules, which clearly restrict us from taking foreign rights," Williams said Thursday, while acknowledging that "in a handful of lower budget shows where we finance close to 75 per cent of the budget, we do retain some international rights in order to recoup some of our investment." Williams said the CMPA's ire was better directed at streaming giants. "Quite frankly, the bigger concern for our Canadian producers should be the all rights deals that are the cost of entry to any deal with all foreign streamers," she said. At the CMPA Prime Time conference last January, entertainment lawyer and former executive producer of Degrassi Steohen Stohn said that terms of trade agreements are “absolutely vital, because in dealing — whether its with broadcasters, but more importantly with the OTT services — if they are allowed to actually take over the majority of the copyright, we are gonna lose all the benefits” of funding bodies like the Canadian Media Fund. — Reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

CBC defends its digital switch, terms of trade reluctance

News | January 28, 2021

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CBC defends its digital switch, terms of trade reluctance

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