Thank you.
Madam Chair and members of the committee, thank you for inviting us here today to discuss the impact that Rogers Communications' acquisition of Shaw Communications will have on local news.
My name is Colette Watson, and I am the president of Rogers Sports and Media. With me is Pam Dinsmore, vice-president, regulatory, Rogers Communications.
Rogers is one of Canada’s leading and most respected sources of local news. Through our 54 radio stations, seven Citytv stations, five Omni Television services and 30 community TV channels, we offer Canadians from coast to coast news and information programming that includes coverage of local events, sports and other issues. We are deeply committed to ensuring that Canadians can continue to access significant amounts of professionally produced local news that meets high journalistic standards.
Our acquisition of Shaw will not change that commitment. Nor will it have a material impact on the quantity or quality of local news that is being made available to Canadians today. Shaw does not own any local television or radio stations, which means the transaction will neither result in any further consolidation within Canada’s television and radio industries, nor reduce competition. The only thing that will change as a result of the transaction is that Corus’s Global TV stations will no longer be vertically integrated with Shaw. As a result of that change in status, Global will become independent and will no longer be able to access local expression funds from its affiliated cable business.
We have listened to the committee’s earlier discussions and share its concern regarding the health of local news. The long-term viability of local news is indeed in question, but this transaction is not responsible for that reality. In fact, the health of local news would likely be much worse without vertical integration.
Contrary to what you have heard from previous witnesses, community‑owned television outlets are not producing local news that meets high journalistic standards. The need for Canada to have professional sources of news produced to these standards becomes more apparent every day. In fact, false and inaccurate reporting is becoming more pervasive in our media.
What this transaction will do is ensure that the funding Shaw directed to local stations will stay in the system and continue to be used to support the production of local news. Global is a top station group in western Canada, and its news budget currently exceeds Citytv's news budget by close to $100 million a year. In addition, it is required by condition of its broadcast licence to provide locally relevant and reflective news programming in all the markets it serves. Redirecting the funding it receives from Shaw will not have a material impact on Global's news operations and should not impact current levels of service.
In contrast, this funding will have a material impact on Rogers' CityNews operations, which will help strengthen our news presence in markets outside of Toronto and offer western Canadians a strong editorial alternative to Global, CTV and CBC.
As part of our CRTC application, Rogers made several commitments to news that would be incremental to our existing investments. We've provided a list of those commitments to the clerk in both official languages to share with you.
All of the commitments we made are significant and incremental, and they would not be implemented absent the Shaw transaction. These commitments will result in a significant number of new programming hours and new journalism jobs in the television industry, most of which will be based in western Canada. None of these commitments will matter, however, if local news is allowed to disappear.
Canada's news industry remains in crisis. Amending the Broadcasting Act and expanding the existing journalism tax credit regime to broadcasters are two measures that are urgently needed to stop its continued decline.
With respect to the Broadcasting Act, we strongly encourage the committee to amend Bill C-11 to ensure a sustainable model for local news can be adopted by the CRTC. The current regulatory framework does not ensure that local news is sufficiently funded. Unfortunately, the CRTC cannot begin to address this systemic issue until new legislation is in place.
A more short-term measure to support local news would be to expand the labour tax credit system that is currently in place for print news to include local television news. The Minister of Heritage said last week that “news is news”, and we couldn't agree more. We believe that addressing this inequity would have an immediate and measurable impact on broadcasters' ability to produce local news that meets the highest journalistic standards.
Thank you for your time. We look forward to your questions.