Canadian Heritage committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee and committee staff. My name is Ivan Fecan. I'm president and chief executive officer of CTVglobemedia and the CEO of CTV. Thank you for the invitation to discuss a matter that is vital to the social fabric of Canada: th

Canadian Heritage committee  We did know about this a long time ago and we've been raising it fairly consistently to the regulator over the last three or four years. We think the solution is more than one revenue stream. Our revenue stream in conventional is just advertising, and in specialty there are two r

Canadian Heritage committee  If that was the cause of the problem, I would agree with you. But as I tried to explain in our presentation, those investments have been our salvation, not our problem. I'm not here to be critical of anyone, not of the satellite or cable people. I'm just saying that we have a pro

Canadian Heritage committee  I don't think so. I have to be precise here. The fund you refer to was designed to enable incremental local programming. The problem we have right now is that we can't pay for the programming we're doing. There are discussions going on to try to change the focus of this fund, but

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, I think the money should be used to support local programming. That's what the fee-for-carriage should be doing, because that's what we're trying to protect and save and build here. Second, the opting out thing is a very interesting idea. If somebody decided he didn't want t

Canadian Heritage committee  Over the air through American cable. If somebody doesn't want our programs, and doesn't want to pay for our programs, and we have paid for exclusive rights, then he should not be able to get those programs for free from somebody else.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you for your question. We look at the Internet as being as much an opportunity as it is a problem, but we started with the problem, so let me deal with that first. Obviously, there are only 24 hours in a day, and we all have only so much time. Time that might have been sp

Canadian Heritage committee  We try to use it as a complementary tool. Obviously, we're not involved with Facebook or YouTube or other kinds of social networking sites. There are basically three types of Internet use: there are the social networks; there are functional sites, such as Google, where you go i

Canadian Heritage committee  Ms. Lavallée, there is one thing we have to be very clear about. When we talk about television or the Internet that way, we talk about dissemination and distribution. What we also need to focus on is how the content is created. The Internet, even Google, doesn't report news; it s

Canadian Heritage committee  No, I think that's fair. If cannibalization is going on, of course we have to be part of it. However, the businesses have to stand on their own. I think as Mr. Péladeau said in front of this committee a few days ago, if you have five newspapers and three make money and two don'

Canadian Heritage committee  I would very much like Don and Peggy to speak about that, because they--

Canadian Heritage committee  The plan was to buy the specialty channels and radio. That was 98% of the value of the deal.

Canadian Heritage committee  The CRTC asked us to please try to make a go of the A-Channels as well. We wanted to keep City, and of course Rogers paid a lot of money for the City channels. I think you really need to hear from Don and Peggy. The fact is that these stations have been financially challenged f

Canadian Heritage committee  The CRTC asked us to try to help out with them. And you know, we've tried. We don't see a future for them unless there is some sort of structural fix.

Canadian Heritage committee  I think the CRTC, which is your instrument, has those figures. Let me think about the answer to that question, but as your instrument, they already have those figures and can make that determination.