Thank you.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of Parliament, and ladies and gentlemen.
When you stop and look closely at most if not all successful Canadian public policy, you invariably find a fork in the road where policy-makers chose to put Canada first. It's not always an easy choice and it's generally not the option of the more exclusive, but putting Canada first never shortchanges our long-term interests and never diminishes our national character.
As this committee reviews options to address the challenges facing our broadcasting system, we respectfully suggest that each recommendation be weighed in terms of putting Canada first.
I'm Martha Fusca, president of Stornoway Communications, owners and operators of three digital specialty channels: ichannel, the public and social affairs issues channel; bpm:tv, the dance channel; and The Pet Network. I began my career in television production upon graduating from York University and co-founded Stornoway Productions in 1983.
Stornoway has produced many award-winning, critically acclaimed investigative, geopolitical, and national documentaries produced for Canadians as well as for foreign broadcasters.
I'd like to mention but a few: Agents of Deception, an examination of the Soviets' global disinformation campaign; End of an Empire, a four-part series that foreshadowed the demise of the Soviet Union; Caught in the Crossfire, an exploration of Canadian peacekeeping and conflict resolution missions around the world that was launched at the United Nations in New York; Dragons of Crime, an investigation into Asian smuggling into North America; Does your Vote Count?--and I brought you all a copy--an examination into the life of MPs and the parliamentary structure within which they work; and A Question of Honour, a five-part series that examines the life of a Canadian soldier from their point of view in the field and here at home.
The life of the independent producer is a constant struggle and, along with actors, directors, and writers, they do what they do not because there's a lot of money in it, but because they love it. Artists are like that, and we should not forget that artists are the soul of a nation.
By 2000 I was ready for a new challenge and decided to move into the broadcasting business. I was in for a big surprise. I was positively thrilled when we got our licences and I naively believed that we would thrive if we delivered good programming to consumers and would wither on the vine if we didn't. Since we had a long track record for delivering outstanding programming, I determined that we would do very well. But it doesn't work like that.
We're very pleased that you've extended your review of these important issues to include Stornoway's voice representing small, privately funded, independent broadcasters, a scarce commodity in a market dominated by BDUs and large consolidated companies.
Yes, we need strong, well-capitalized Canadian media companies in broadcasting and distribution, but we also need to ensure that there will be room for small independents and new players.
Yes, we need balance in our broadcasting policy and regulatory framework; however, what is clearly emerging from these hearings is an unequivocal indication that an imbalance of power exists within our industry, a result of public policy, regulation, or lack thereof, where BDUs totally dominate the broadcaster-distributor relationship.
By any reasonable measure, we in Canada have three major cable territorial monopolies, with Bell ExpressVu providing an important service to rural communities, but little or no competition to the monopolies. These monopolies--not consumers--can either make or break a broadcasting business.
As early as 2004 we placed on the record with the CRTC our experiences with BDUs, and we have reported numerous examples of the obstacles and barriers that have impeded both our success and our ability to contribute to the objectives of the Broadcasting Act.
Further, a move to so-called market forces has created an untenable situation for the broadcasters, one that is flowing down the value chain to the other sectors, including the producers, the actors, the writers, directors, and crews. Market forces alone cannot be counted on to replace regulatory support for key pillars of the Broadcasting Act, such as diversity and access to the system.
This hearing can--and in my view should--go a long way toward redressing the imbalance of power that exists between broadcasters and BDUs, as well as some broadcasters and producers, by recommending policies that benefit everyone instead of one sector at the expense of all the others.
Let me cut to the chase and use the precious time we have to focus on five key recommendations, which we believe are warranted by the conclusions our company has drawn from the very careful and extensive situational analysis of broadcasting in Canada and which we urge you to consider in putting Canada first.
In our “Canada first” approach, we propose that the Canadian basic tier include mandatory carriage with a minimum mandatory fee for independent analog and category 1 services on the basic or digital basic service.These services, like our ichannel, make significant contributions to Canadian content and Canadian program expenditures and they're vital contributors to the diversity of the Canadian broadcasting system. For independent services, mandatory carriage without a mandatory subscriber fee simply doesn't work.
We recommend that you permit category 2 or new services to apply for category 1 status. Access to category 1 licences provides the opportunity for additional independent Canadian programming services to step up to the plate, meets the commission's requirements, and enhances diversity, Canadian content, and Canadian content expenditures. This is a win for the entire system: the broadcasters, the distributors, the producers, the talent, and Canadian television consumers. It also helps the smaller independent broadcasters, who currently have a fragile foothold in the industry, to develop into more stable business concerns.
We recommend that you prohibit distribution carriage fees charged by BDUs. Under the act, we have a responsibility as broadcasters to deliver our signals to BDUs. The delivery of signals by BDUs to subscribers is the responsibility of the BDUs and the cost should be borne by them. BDUs should not be allowed to levy abusive charges on programming services licensed by the CRTC. We fear that this problem will become significant as we prepare to transition to HD. Attempts by BDUs both to determine whether they will carry our HD signals and then to charge us exorbitant fees to carry our HD signals will prevent the deployment of HDTV by independent broadcasters. This would be a significant competitive setback for our services.
We recommend enforceable access to BDU-controlled marketing venues at reasonable cost. The most important and effective marketing opportunities available to us are those marketing venues controlled by the BDUs. In the case of local avails, notwithstanding clear direction from the CRTC, often these are available to independent services like ours only on very expensive and restrictive terms, so much so that we can't afford to use them. BDUs are unfortunately keen to profit by selling these avails rather than promoting Canadian programming and advising Canadian consumers of available Canadian content.
We recommend that broadcasters support unaffiliated independent producers and contribute to the production of drama, children's programming, documentaries, arts, and variety.
Mr. Chair, members of Parliament, and ladies and gentlemen, we believe these five recommendations would help ensure that my company has a reasonable opportunity to survive and grow. They would provide a similar opportunity to other independent broadcasters, send a signal to potential new entrants that they can participate in our broadcasting system, preserve our unique contribution to Canadian content, and support diversity while making independent services accessible to all Canadians.
These are five recommendations that put Canada first, recommendations that are consistent with the Broadcasting Act and that support all sectors, not just one, while allowing BDUs the flexibility to seek beyond the Canadian first basic package.
Thank you very much for your attention and the opportunity to participate in this proceeding. I'm truly grateful.
I'm delighted to be sitting here with ACTRA and the folks from the community channel. I have an enormous regard for both of these groups.