Let's not forget the origins of BDU contributions to Canadian television production. In 1993 the CRTC held a structural hearing to review the evolving communications environment. One result from the hearing was the identification of a need to provide “aggressive encouragement to the production and distribution of more and better Canadian programming”.
The commission called for comments on what form a new funding mechanism should take. The Canadian Cable Television Association proposed at the time the creation of a new fund financed with contributions from the cable industry, which would provide top-ups to the licences paid by broadcasters to independent producers for certain types of under-represented programs.
Reaction to the proposal by most parties was generally favourable, so the CRTC accepted it, with some modifications. Cable companies benefited greatly, because they were able to keep 50% of subscriber fee increases tied to capital expenditures. The arrangement was slated to sunset that year. Some cable companies have tried to undo that initiative ever since, and Shaw and Vidéotron's actions are another attempt to achieve that goal.
Over the years, cable companies asked for and won the right to direct up to 40% of their contributions to help fund their community channels. DTH satellite TV distributors were later permitted to allocate 0.4% of their contributions to support small-market conventional television stations in lieu of performing program deletion. The CFTPA was alarmed by proposals made at the CRTC’s recent review of its regulatory framework for over-the-air television that any additional financial contributions that BDUs might be required to make should be taken from their existing mandatory contributions to Canadian programming production.
In our view, it is time for the CRTC to restore the full 5% BDU contribution to independently administered funds intended for independent production. Doing so would help alleviate the CTF's inability to meet all the demands on its funds and would balance the additional financial input we have asked conventional television broadcasters to make to original Canadian programming. The CRTC has stated on numerous occasions that such financial contributions to production funds provide essential support for the production of Canadian programming. The commission has also considered it important that funding not be diverted further from the Canadian Television Fund.