Canadian Heritage committee  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 sig

Canadian Heritage committee  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

Canadian Heritage committee  I think that's a good question. I think it could have been prevented, but no amount of crisis can be thwarted or prevented without some pain. The pain may be for the local stations that lose some local service, the cable companies that have to pay a portion for fee-for-carriage,

Canadian Heritage committee  If I understand your question, it's can Canwest survive under--

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, absolutely it can. We have very strong, profitable companies. We just have simply too much debt. We need to recapitalize the company. We need new equity. We'll survive. Every one of our businesses, with one or two exceptions, makes a decent return. We just simply have too mu

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm sorry.

Canadian Heritage committee  The problem for conventional television is shared, as you've heard by others, with others. The sector has been in decline for some time. There are too many licences chasing too few ad dollars. It's the migration of viewers to specialty channels and to the Internet. This has nothi

Canadian Heritage committee  First of all, we were asked the question: what would prevent us from reducing service in local markets? We said there were a number of things. A fee for carriage is one of them. We think part II fees, which I believe the chairman of the CRTC addressed.... We think a better, faire

Canadian Heritage committee  I grew up watching CHCH. I'm so old I remember Tiny Talent Time, a little amateur show they had. I'm afraid CHCH, in our view, is symptomatic of the difficulties of the broadcast system in its current state. Commitment and a radical program format--this is all laudable. The reali

Canadian Heritage committee  I don't want to get into a debate on this. Actually, the cost of foreign programming has gone down. The reality is we should have sold this station a long time ago, but like all optimists we kept thinking it was going to turn the corner. We're happy to let it go in a new directio

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes. I'll take a stab at that. Last year, we spent a little less than 2%, incrementally, on foreign programming, which I think is where part of that myth comes from. The broadcasters who are under some pressure here include the BBC, ITC, CBS, NBC, Rogers, CBC, CTV, and us. I don

Canadian Heritage committee  No, they didn't force us to buy it, but our business strategy depended on us having a complete network, and that was what we did to fill it in.

Canadian Heritage committee  Charlotte, please go ahead.

Canadian Heritage committee  Mr. Chairman, local television remains a vital part of the Canadian broadcasting system. Over the past 10 years, Canwest local stations have spent in excess of $1.6 billion on Canadian content, including news, benefit taxes related to various transactions, and part II fee levies

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you very much. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and committee members. Thank you for inviting us to provide our input into your study on the state of local television in Canada. My name is Peter Viner, and I'm president and CEO of Canwest Television. Joining me today is Char