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By brians, July 6, 2009 11:16 pm

After being caught up today (outside my real job) listening to the Net Neutrality hearings, I almost missed this little bit from the CRTC on Fee-for-Carriage once again being opened up and hearings scheduled. (Thanks Michael Geist).

According to the filing the point of the hearing are to look into:

• providing revenue support for conventional broadcasters by:

investigating alternative support mechanisms for local programming;

protecting the integrity of Canadian broadcaster signals; and

exploring a mechanism for establishing, through negotiation, fair market value for the signals of the conventional television stations distributed by broadcasting distribution undertakings (BDUs);

They also are looking into specifically, how broadcasters can:

• adopt concrete and measurable commitments to the production, programming and airing of local content; and
• achieve a focused and systematic approach to community involvement and reflection, emulating the approach of local radio, which continues to be successful through challenging times.

What is amazing about this is that the fee for carriage is simply a short-term solution to a long term problem. The issue is that people are moving their viewing off the conventional broadcasters onto new platforms, like AppleTV, or simply file sharing through torrents. People are just not watching TV as much any more.

By adding a fee which cable broadcasters will have to add onto their bills, the cable providers will add to their already high bills, and encourage less viewers, not more. Phil Lind, in his response, is right, but only partially right: “I’m fighting mad. We’ll explore all avenues” to contest the move,  “This is such a massive tax grab by the broadcasters.”

He is looking to slow the decline of the broadcast industry by not gouging customers more than they currently are. The grab out of the pockets of Canadians of $50-100M will certainly slow the growth. Slowing the growth of broadcast will certainly not help their second goal, that of assisting the growth of Canadian content.