Our message today is direct. Increased ownership concentration and cross-ownership between programming services and cable, satellite, and telephone companies will do great harm to independent broadcasters. Swift and proactive regulatory action is needed to mitigate this harm.
Canada is reaching a level of ownership concentration that has not been seen before. If BCE's acquisition of CTV is completed, then the owners of Canada's four largest cable companies and two largest telecom companies, Bell and Telus, will control the following: at least 90% of all Canadian cable and satellite subscribers; 97% of mobile phone customers; all four national conventional television networks, including TVA, distributed nationally under a CRTC requirement; 66% of Canada's analog and category 1 specialty channels, the channels that have benefited most from direct CRTC support and regulation; 83% of the total revenue generated by TV in Canada, including both distribution and broadcasting activities; and in excess of 90% of all residential Internet customers in their markets.
We know this committee is examining the move toward new viewing platforms together with changes in ownership in the TV industry. It is fair to say that probably all independent broadcasters are looking at viewing platforms to grow their businesses and to reach Canadians in all technologies, but television broadcasting remains by far the most important viewing platform, and it is also the generator of the same content that Canadians want to watch online.
Also, as you can see from the overlapping ownership of broadcasting networks, in emerging viewing platforms like mobile and the Internet, concentration of ownership is just as significant an issue for accessing the new networks as it is for accessing broadcast distribution. This concentration of ownership represents an enormous challenge to independent broadcasters, both for broadcasting and for new modes of distribution.
This is why adequate regulatory checks and balances need to be built into the system. But the CRTC has moved in the other direction. The commission has removed a number of important roles that were specifically intended to ensure that Canadians' specialty and pay television services get fair access to distribution networks.
The result of this deregulation is that BDUs will have the ability and every incentive to give pride of place to their own broadcasting services and to non-Canadian services. Independent broadcasters look at these coming challenges and are concerned about their ability to maintain a meaningful presence, or even to survive, within the system.
One way to ensure that Canadians continue to have access to important and diverse Canadian TV services is for the CRTC to use paragraph 9(1)(h) of the Broadcasting Act. Paragraph 9(1)(h) permits the CRTC to require cable and satellite BDUs to distribute certain services on basic or other terms and conditions. Some independent broadcasters have applied to the CRTC to become paragraph 9(1)(h) services as a response to concentration of ownership and deregulation. Paragraph 9(1)(h) services reach a large number of Canadian homes through Canada's largest BDUs. Consequently, they have to meet high Canadian content and other stringent obligations.
Regrettably, the CRTC announced at the end of this past summer that it was going to impose a moratorium on paragraph 9(1)(h) applications until after June 2012 at the earliest. It is important for the committee to appreciate that some paragraph 9(1)(h) applications were filed two and a half years ago, including those of the broadcasters on this panel. This means that it will be four and a half years from filing when they are finally heard by the CRTC.