Tag Archives: TalkTV

Talk TV – Building and Repairing Bridges

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There were three Talk TV decisions released today on OTA television, simsub and mobile broadcasting.  I blogged about it for TV, Eh? over here.  They are mostly consumer-facing decisions but I am a little concerned about the impact that the no simsub for the Superbowl decision will have on future Bell Media revenues, and therefore its expenditures on Canadian programming.  However, as the infographic shows, we have a lot more decisions to come so it’s hard to say what the impact will really be till we’ve seen them all.

Update:  For a very thorough review of the issues and potential negative impact of the Superbowl Simsub decision, please read Michael Hennessy here.

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DHX Approved for Family Channel Purchase

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This one is no surprise.  The kids industry was very positive about DHX buying the Family Channel services and becoming an independent (i.e. non-vertically integrated) broadcaster.  DHX clearly knows the kids market.  So this is just a quick blog post about the highlights of the decision.

As usual, there was a slight increase in the purchase price from $170 million to $173.1 million to cover the value of assumed leases.  That will increase the benefits package from $17 million to $17.3 million.  The package was allocated 85% on screen and 15% social benefits as is now expected.  Specifically it goes to:

$8 million for drama and comedy production

up to $5 million for partnerships with public broadcasters and APTN for co-licensing

$1 million for associated digital media

$1.5 million for a Children’s and Family Development Fund for new entrants to the kids sector, regional producers, OLMC’s and French language producers.

$1.6 million to regional opportunities and training in children’s script writing (social benefits)

The package hit all the right notes and was approved.

There were a couple of other issues in the decision that are relevant.  By pulling the Family Channel services out of the Astral group, the group CPE had to be recalculated.  DHX proposed 21% based on the average spend in 2010, 2011 and 2012.  This was not consistent with the formula used for all of the other groups and the CRTC adjusted it to 22% based on 2009, 2010 and 2011.  DHX’s proposal also included 2012, the year that Astral stopped spending money because they were in the process of being bought, which is why the CRTC’s CPE went up even though it includes the 2009 recession.

DHX asked that the requirement to spend 75% of PNI CPE on independent production be reduced to 60% with the ability to fill up to 40% of the program schedule on their own production.  DHX has a substantial catalogue of Canadian children’s programming and that side of the business will continue.  The CMPA was ok with the proposal as long as CPE spent on independent production is to be spent on original independent production and not repeats.  The CRTC agreed.  This is interesting because it is the first time that the CRTC has specified that CPE needs to be spent on original programming.  The Group Licence Policy was supposed to prevent a reliance on repeats because of the sheer volume of spending required.  The independent production community all along thought that the levels for PNI were set too low and now reporting, to the extent that it is usable, suggests that broadcasters are in fact relying on repeats for their PNI CPE and spending their original dollars on incremental benefits spending.  As a result, CMPA is proposing in their Talk TV submission that PNI CPE should be spent on original programming.   The CRTC may be open to this.

The CRTC Wants You To Talk About TV

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Today the CRTC released its public consultation on the state of the Canadian broadcasting system.  I assume that most of my readers are involved in the Canadian broadcasting industry and are not members of the general public (I’m not sure about you readers from Russia or the former SSR of Georgia).  So you may be asking yourself “should I get involved in this stage or wait for the industry consultation next spring?”*  You might want to get involved now.  If you are part of a member-based organization then I definitely think that you should get your members involved now.  We’re all part of the public, right?

The CRTC has set up a lot of different ways to get involved.  Find the official invitation here.  You can call, email or fax your thoughts.  There is a discussion forum, similar to past public consultations such as the ones on the wireless code or the CBC.  And new for CRTC public consultations is the encouragement to hold “Flash!” Conferences.  I don’t know the logic behind “Flash!” – flash mob?  It has nothing to do with the software.  The CRTC wants Canadians to gather, talk about the issues, and send the CRTC a report.  Interesting.  There’s a toolkit to facilitate the “Flash!” Conferences and the CRTC has limited funds to subsidize the cost of running them for smaller organizations (apply by November 13, 2014).  There doesn’t seem to be a push to get Canadians to use social media other than the request to use the hashtag #TalkTV (Note:  I may cave but at the moment I’m not using #TalkTV because it is already an active hashtag for people to talk about Canadian and US talk shows.  I’ll stick to #CRTC and #CdnTV for now.)  Update:  The FAQ suggests that there will be Twitter chats and a Reddit AMA.  Should be interesting.

What are the topics?  In most of the material there are only three general topics mentioned.

Programming:  What do you think about what’s on television?

Technology:  What do you think about how you receive television programming?

Viewer toolkit:  Do you have enough information to make informed choices and seek solutions if you’re not satisfied?

Those are pretty vague and general topics but if you dig into the Notice of Invitation you’ll find more detail on the questions and context for them.  I’ve put them all together in one place for ease of use (for you and for me).

Programming

1. What television programs are most important to you (children’s programming, comedy, documentaries, drama, feature films, news, sports, reality TV, variety, other)? Why?

2. Do you know which of the television programs you watch are Canadian? If so, how do you know which programs are Canadian? Would it be important for you to know which programs are Canadian? Why?

3. What programs do you consider to be local television programming—programs about your city, your province, other? How important is local news to you? Why? How important is community access programming and “community TV” to you? Why?

4. Do you think the programming on television is fully reflective of Canada’s cultural, ethnic, linguistic, geographic and demographic diversity? If not, what’s missing? How important is reflection to you? Why?

5. What do you think programming will look like in the next 5 to 10 years? Why? Would you be satisfied with that situation? Why?

Technology

1. How do you prefer to watch television—on a traditional television set, online, on a smart phone, etc.? Why? How do you usually watch television programs—live, on-demand, recorded on a PVR, other? Why?

2. If you subscribe to cable TV or satellite TV, how satisfied are you with the way your channels are packaged?

3. What type of television service do you subscribe to—cable TV, satellite TV, Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) or other?  Do you intend to stay with your type of television subscription in the next few years or switch to something else? What would make you stay? What would make you switch?

4. How do you think we will receive and watch television in Canada in the next 5 to 10 years? Why? Would you be satisfied with that situation? Why?

Viewer Toolkit

1. How satisfied are you that your television service provider supplies the information you need to understand your service options, including packaging and pricing?

2. Are you experiencing barriers that prevent you from changing your television packages or switching to another television distributor? If so, what are those barriers?

3. How satisfied are you that your television service provider supplies the information you need to make informed choices about programming that you may consider inappropriate for you or your family?

4. Do you have a visual or hearing impairment? If so, how satisfied are you with the tools available to enable you to share in our television culture?

5. Do you know where you can voice your concerns over television content, your television services and bills?

6. How do you think we will make informed content choices as program viewers and consumers in Canada in the next 5 to 10 years? Why? Would you be satisfied with that situation? Why?

I think these are really great questions.  All of us would like to know what the general public thinks of these questions.  For too long at public hearings all sides of the industry have tried to speak for the general public and what they want from our broadcasting system.  I just wonder how the CRTC is going to get people motivated to get involved.  There isn’t any hot button issue like there is whenever you deal with the CBC or want Canadians to talk about their cell phone bills.  This is big picture thinking that most Canadians, I think, would rather someone else do for them.  I suspect that organizations with agendas will be the easiest to motivate.  We know how important this is so perhaps we should start with our own people.  Gather and have a “Flash!” Conference in the next two months so that a report on the conference can be filed by January 10, 2014.  [Shameless Self-promotion – you can hire me to help you do that.]  I assume that anything gathered will be useful as well in the industry consultation.   Spread the word about the consultation.  The more ‘general public’ who hear about this and get involved the better for the industry.

*As part of this invitation to the public, the CRTC released its updated schedule on the industry consultation on the state of the Canadian broadcasting system.  There will be a call for submissions Spring 2014 and a public hearing September 2014.  Expect that one to be a doozy!