The future of local TV and the financial health of the broadcast television industry in Canada may rest with community television, and initiatives to reinforce the creation and distribution of local community programming.
As such, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, (CRTC, or the Commission) will hold public hearings into policies for community television beginning April 26, 2010. While the Commission has identified a number of issues and a broad scope for this review, it encouraged participants to raise other issues and concerns, and make submissions to the hearings.
The deadline for submission is February 1, 2010.
However, the CRTC has now announced it has now pulled some submitted documentation to the hearings.
Previously, the Commission had placed documentation on its website for consideration as part of its review of the community television policy framework – including Community Television Policies and Practices Around the World, The Community Access Programming Sector: A Quantitative Analysis and The Impact of New Technology on Community Television.
All were commissioned by the CRTC, and intended to form part of the public record of the proceeding.
The Commission encouraged interested parties to monitor the public examination file and the Commission’s website for additional information that they may find useful when preparing their comments, noting that electronic versions of all interventions/comments submitted would be accessible from the online list.
While Section 3(1)(b) of the Broadcasting Act (the Act) establishes "community" alongside "public" and "private" as one of the three elements of the Canadian broadcasting system, reviews of the community channel policy have been a long time in coming.
The CRTC’s Public Notice 1991-59, dated 5 June 1991, reinforced the notion that “the role of the community channel should be primarily of a public service nature, facilitating self-expression though free and open access by members of the community.” It also stated “Operators of community channels are expected to meet a number of objectives designed to foster the development of programming that reflects the local community and actively promotes public participation.”
Nevertheless, in Notice of Hearing 2007-10, the CRTC noted that it "considers that it might be appropriate to eliminate the regulatory requirement that the community channel, if offered, be distributed as part of the basic service, and requests comment on that possibility."
The upcoming hearings have therefore attracted much attention and input from industry participants and community advocates.
For more Mediacaster Magazine and Broadcaster Magazine coverage of this topic, please see:
Community TV Offers Solution for Local, Canadian Content
Home
Calendar
Search
Register
Login
Logged
