|
March 18, 2002
Copps
pushes multicultural channel: CRTC told to rethink ruling
Barbara Shecter
National Post
The federal government has
ordered Canada's broadcast regulator to reconsider its decision to deny an
ethnic television channel a spot on the analogue dial.
If the Canadian
Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission reverses its decision
-- as it has done twice as the result of a review ordered by government --
World Television Network would have to be carried alongside ABC, TSN and
other analogue channels by cable and satellite TV distributors.
"We are asking the CRTC to
take a second look at the options for cable and satellite distributors of
services that aspire to reflect and connect Canada's multicultural
communities to a broader audience," said Sheila Copps, the Minister of
Canadian Heritage.
World Television would
feature book festivals from South America, movies from India subtitled in
English or French, and performance art from around the world.
In December, the CRTC denied
World Television a spot on analogue, referred to by broadcasters as the
"beachfront property" of TV because analogue channels reach million of
Canadians.
Instead, World Television
was granted what is called a category two digital broadcasting licence,
meaning its owner must make deals with individual cable and satellite
companies just to get on the air at all.
At present, only about 2.9
million Canadians can even receive a digital signal on their TVs.
Daniel Iannuzzi, the Toronto
businessman behind World Television whose company also publishes Italian,
Portuguese and Spanish newspapers and eight community newspapers delivered
to some of Toronto's toniest neighbourhoods, appealed the CRTC's decision
to the federal Cabinet.
As a result, the CRTC has
been told to reconsider and hold a new hearing on World Television. But
the outcome is far from certain.
Canada's largest cable
companies have fiercely opposed the channel, which Mr. Iannuzzi has been
trying to launch for 10 years. They object, in part, because other
channels would have to be bumped off the analogue dial to make room for
what they see as a niche channel they would be forced to carry.
Executives acknowledged they
are prepared to continue to fight.
The timing of any
reconsideration of the decision is to be determined by the CRTC, Ms. Copps
says. The government has the power to refer back or set aside a CRTC
licensing decision if it "derogates" from the objectives of the
Broadcasting Act.
Under law, the CRTC is an
independent rulemaker. However, the last two times the government has
referred a decision back to the regulator, both in 2000, the CRTC has
reversed its position.
In one case, the commission
had refused to issue an ethnic television station in Vancouver, but
changed its mind after the government ordered it to reconsider whether the
market, one of the most multilingual cities in the country, could support
such a channel.
The CRTC also reversed
itself that year on an application for a French-language arts service
proposed by the CBC.
The commission originally
ruled the Reseau des arts proposal was not feasible, but after another
Cabinet appeal and an order to re-examine its decision, the commissioners
changed their tune.
Mr. Iannuzzi, who co-founded
Toronto multilingual TV station CFMT -- now owned by cable giant Rogers
Communications Inc. -- has argued Canada's broadcast regulations require
that World Television be carried on analogue.
Unlike CFMT, its foreign
programs will be accessible to all Canadians through subtitling in English
and French.
In particular, Mr. Iannuzzi
has cited the Broadcasting Act, which stipulates that programming and
employment opportunities in broadcasting must serve the needs and
interests, and reflect the circumstances and aspirations, of all
Canadians.
The Act specifically refers
to "the linguistic duality and the multicultural and multiracial nature of
Canadian society and the special place of aboriginal people within that
society."
One of the core assets of
Mr. Iannuzzi's company, Multimedia WTM, is Corriere Canadese, a daily
Italian newspaper with a daily readership of 100,000 in Toronto and
Southern Ontario.
|
