Canadian Heritage Committee on April 22nd, 2009

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

As my three minutes are almost up, I would like to come back to Mr. Mayrand.

Mr. Mayrand, earlier I read to you an excerpt from your opening remarks that I found to be the most fascinating. It concerned the future of the television industry. I would like to know whether you have expounded on that observation in a speech or in some other document.

[Yves Mayrand]

No, we have not set that out in detail simply because we are no longer in broadcasting. As I said in my opening remarks, we produce a large amount of local programming. In total, we produce some 12,000 hours of original programming a year in Ontario and Quebec.

That is considerable. And we produce this programming with very modest means, much more limited than the ones available to conventional broadcasters.

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Do you own those community television stations?

[Yves Mayrand]

Absolutely.

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

That work is done by volunteers.

[Yves Mayrand]

In part, but not only by volunteers. We also have people on site who contribute, along with our volunteers, to creating that original programming.

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Very well.

[Yves Mayrand]

With regard to the news service in North Bay—Ms. Tilson Dyment could talk to you about that—we have allocated specific resources for that purpose.

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Can you assure us that the quality of the news provided in North Bay is equal to the quality of that provided by any other private company or local station?

[Maureen Tilson Dyment, Senior Director, Communications and Programming, Cogeco Cable Inc.]

It's certainly unique. It has been a learning curve for the group, as far as being able to provide the news went. And because we also use community partnerships in presenting it, it's probably more comparable to a local UHF station. We don't have the facilities or the full staff numbers. We have four people dedicated to the news. But I do say that in service of the customers who are watching it, they have a 95% very satisfied or satisfied rating in regard to the content they see. The content is the relevance, the immediacy, and the timing, etc.

I have to point out that we know how to do content in a very efficient manner. We always have. But as far as the additional content is concerned, we do a lot of other things as well. We cover community sports, community events in full. We have online programs, etc. So where there is a need, we move in and we fill it. But we're not there to compete against local broadcasters. If a local broadcaster happens to be providing news in the area, then we will do alternate programming to support and provide more indepth understanding of other community events and so on that aren't covered by our colleagues in our broadcasting environment.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Thank you.

We'll go to Mr. Del Mastro for the last question.

[Dean Del Mastro, Conservative, Peterborough, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you once again to our witnesses for appearing here today.

I just want to say something from the outset to Canwest. A question was posed earlier by my colleague Mr. Bruinooge to a previous witness about what would be lost if Canwest were to be lost. I want to make it clear that I don't agree with the answer. I think a lot would be lost, frankly. I have had the opportunity to meet with David Asper and his family, who I know have made considerable contributions to Canada, frankly. I just wanted to put that on the record.

I do have a couple of questions. Specifically, with respect to fee-for-carriage--we've heard an awful lot about it--I want to ask you, Mr. Viner, why the money from fee-for-carriage wouldn't just be used to fuel the bidding war for U.S. programming. If you have more money, and if there are really good U.S. shows, and that's the only place CTV and Global are making money on U.S. programming, why wouldn't fee-for-carriage just be taken and used to fuel a bidding war when, ultimately, the money would wind up in Hollywood?

[Peter Viner]

That's a good question. Your question underlines a knowledge of the business.

The reason we run American programming is that it subsidizes Canadian programming. The reason we're having difficulties in local--and particularly in smaller--markets, is that the American programming we once bought, which had a big margin and was able to subsidize the news, is no longer attracting the audiences it once did. People are watching online or they're watching cable.

I think it would be up to the regulator to ask how we were going to use our fee for carriage. As quoted earlier, our CEO has made it quite clear that we would use a fee for carriage to support local stations and local programming.

[Dean Del Mastro, Conservative, Peterborough, ON]

As a bit of a follow-up, when Quebecor was here and they were talking about their TVA operation, they said the CRTC was preventing them from bringing their platform into the modern era. They could be more profitable with TVA with a few changes if they were prepared to make a few changes to assist them in getting there.

Setting aside fee-for-carriage, are there regulations right now or changes that could be made that would make Canwest more viable and make your operations more profitable?

[Peter Viner]

The problem with the present regime, and all of them, is that most of the licences are long-term, and it's difficult to react quickly to changes in the marketplace.

For instance, fee-for-carriage is one aspect that we've obviously been talking about for a long time. Distant signals is another. Cable companies have been allowed to flood markets with three or four signals, the same signals but on different time shifting. Part II fees would be very helpful, as you've heard from others, fees that we don't feel were collected legitimately. There could be a relaxation in some forms of advertising.

The fact of the matter is that we have to meet with the commission more regularly. We have to have an honest relationship, and we have to be able to move more quickly.

[Dean Del Mastro, Conservative, Peterborough, ON]

First of all, Maureen, I had the opportunity to meet you a few weeks ago in Burlington at the groundbreaking of the new performing arts centre. Cogeco was there, filming it for the local people to see, and I think probably to see it again and again, if I know the Cogeco format. Once again, thank you for being there and covering that.

Mr. Mayrand, you mentioned a couple of things that I think were very interesting. One of them is the fact that you picked up news coverage in North Bay. I think that's interesting to note. You talked about the broadcasting switchover, and you talked about the switchover to digital and the fact that this poses some difficulties. On that broadcasting switchover, is it possible, for the cable networks, that people would actually switch back to a digital antenna and not use as much cable? If you can get these crystal-clear digital pictures for free from your antennas, is there a risk to Cogeco? We're spending a lot of money for the 8% or 9% of people.

[Yves Mayrand]

I'll try to make the answer short. Again, where broadcasters will deploy digital transmitters, people within the coverage area of that transmitter will be able to get clear, HD digital signal straight off the air through their own apparatus. For those signals, they will be able to dispense with any other vector.

The issue, though, is this. Where will the broadcasters actually deploy these new transmitters? Each one of them will have to answer it for each market.

[Dean Del Mastro, Conservative, Peterborough, ON]

Just so I can understand, we have about 8% or 9% of people who are getting their television over the air--

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Excuse me, Mr. Del Mastro--

[Dean Del Mastro, Conservative, Peterborough, ON]

Do you see that changing with that deployment?

[Yves Mayrand]

Probably not in a significant way.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Thank you for the short question and the short answer.

Again, I thank our witnesses for being very candid as they answered their questions.

Thank you to everyone around the table.

This meeting is adjourned.