CRTC grants Rogers’ OMNI request
TELECOM
Canada’s broadcast regulator has determined that all basic TV packages must include national, multilingual OMNI newscasts for the next three years, a decision that will bring millions to Rogers Communications Inc. to revive — at least temporarily — the multicultural service it axed two years ago.
The Canadian Radio- t elevision and Telecommunications Commission on Monday granted Rogers Media Inc.’s request for mandatory distribution for OMNI Regional, which will produce four daily, national, 30-minute newscasts in Italian, Mandarin, Cantonese and Punjabi. OMNI’s multilingual newscasts stopped original reporting in May 2015 to cut costs.
Rogers will get 12 cents per subscriber per month – about $ 15 million given the approximately 11 million TV subscribers in Canada – to produce the programs that were canned due to financial struggles, much to the dismay of multiple communities. The special status indicates there’s an “extraordinary need” for the service, which enables people to access news and information in their languages, according to the CRTC.
But the CRTC granted Rogers the licence for only three years instead of the typical five due to deficiencies in Rogers’ application, including that the service isn’t a sufficient reflection of Canada’s third-language communities and that its finances don’t seem sustainable even with mandatory distribution. Both ethnic and English broadcasters took issue with Rogers’ application, arguing it didn’t meet the definition of mandatory distribution.
Yet the CRTC determined there is an immediate need for Canada’s ethnically diverse communities to have access to made- in- Canada multilingual programming without having to pay for additional packages. It’s just not sold on Rogers as the best broadcaster for the job.
If Rogers wants to keep the mandatory carriage, it will have to compete for it. The CRTC issued an open call for applications from any party that wishes to operate a national, multiethnic television service. It expects Rogers will apply by the August deadline.
“Canada’s ethnic and third-language communities do not have access to enough news and information programming in multiple languages from a Canadian perspective. By approving the licensing and mandatory distribution of OMNI Regional, we are addressing a pressing need,” CRTC Chairman JeanPierre Blais said in a statement after markets closed.
“However, our standards for nationwide mandatory distribution are high. Rogers will have to remedy the shortcomings of their OMNI service and compete with other applicants to have the privilege of reaching Canadians across the country.”
The C RTC also announced that it renewed the licences for the large French- and English- language television groups Rogers, Bell, Corus, Group TVA and Groupe V for five- years effective September.
As a condition of the licences, they must implement a new local TV framework that will see them spend more on local news.
The conditions are largely the same as the last round of licence renewals, although the CRTC introduced credits as incentives for indigenous producers and other underrepresented groups to create programming. The CRTC will also require local TV stations to give the CRTC 120 days notice of an impending closure to allow public input.
“The measures we are taking as part of these licence renewals also promote the creation of programming that reflects the linguistic duality and diversity of Canadian society, including the special place of Indigenous peoples in our society,” CRTC Chairman Blais said.