The CRTC responded today to the government’s Order-in-Council to reconsider its decisions regarding large television groups by imposing conditions of licence on them to ensure the continued support of the Canadian creative sector. The government asked the CRTC to re-examine original Canadian French-language programs, programs of national interest in the English-language market and short-form programming, including music. These changes were made to preserve the viability, stability and competitiveness of the creative sector and the Canadian television market.
For the French-language market, the CRTC now requires each group to make significant investments in the creation of French-language programs, representing 75% of its Canadian programming expenditures for original French-language programs starting in 2019-2020. The percentage in 2018-2019 will be 50%, which will enable the groups to adjust to the new requirements and ensure sufficient support for the production of original French-language content for the French-language market.
The CRTC is also increasing expenditure requirements for programs of national interest in the English-language market. The percentage will now be based on historical expenditures, to ensure sufficient investment in the production of these programs and financial contributions according to each group’s financial resources. Therefore, the requirements are increasing from 5% to 7.5% of previous years’ revenues for Bell, and from 5% to 8.5% for Corus, while requirements for Rogers remain at 5%. The CRTC believes this approach will ensure the Canadian production sector continues to play an essential role in the Canadian economy and offer high-quality content to viewers in Canada and abroad.
The CRTC determined that the groups in both language markets will be required to allocate an average of $5.5 million per year to support the production of musical programs (FACTOR and MUSICACTION). These expenditures will be imposed from 2019 to 2022, and will ensure regulatory uniformity among the groups.
