The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) and 25 of its radio members – including Rogers Sports & Media, Bell Media, Cogeco, Stingray, Pattison Media and Corus Entertainment – have written to the CRTC asking the commission to tear up its recent notice of consultation on updated rules for the radio and audio sector and start over.
Released on Feb. 20, the consultation will inform work to update the definition of what constitutes Canadian content on radio and audio streaming services. It also outlines a financial contribution framework for broadcasters that the CAB says suggests that the vast majority of the commission’s policy objectives will still have to be shouldered by commercial radio broadcasters, using tools developed decades ago.
CAB says members are concerned that the commission’s preliminary views “effectively affirm a regulatory status quo, proposing to maintain – and even increase – competitively disadvantageous obligations for Canadian commercial radio operators.”
“The radio members of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters are profoundly concerned that the Commission is failing to appreciate and address the existential and worsening challenges that Canadian commercial radio broadcasters are facing, despite ongoing and prolonged evidence of significant structural declines in the sector,” the CAB said in a release.
The CAB’s letter takes issue with what it interprets as the CRTC’s intention to maintain existing music quotas on commercial radio stations while proposing additional obligations with respect to emerging and Indigenous artists, and potentially news. At the same time, the CAB says the notice suggests that online undertakings will not be subject to similar content quotas, deepening a “competitive imbalance between traditional and digital platforms.”
Touting commission data, CAB says revenues for the sector fell 24% between 2019 and 2023, with profits falling 73% over the same period. CAB says the CRTC is raising the prospect of reduced financial burdens for commercial radio stations without proposing any specific measures to make that happen.
“This is an exceptional request for the broadcasting industry to make of its regulator, but the response from our radio members was overwhelming and unified,” said CAB President Kevin Desjardins. “Rather than bold proposals to address the fundamental shifts in consumer and advertising behaviour fostered by online streaming services, the Commission’s preliminary views effectively affirm a regulatory status quo, proposing to maintain – and even increase – competitively disadvantageous obligations for Canadian commercial radio operators.”
“The Commission’s initial views outline an approach that hasn’t changed since 2006 – before the rise of iPhones, Apple Music, and Spotify – and that would be disastrous for commercial radio in hundreds of communities across Canada, at a time when local news and programming are increasingly at risk,” Desjardins added.
In addition to the aforementioned members, other radio groups signing the letter include Durham Radio, Whiteoaks Communications Group, Byrnes Communications, Evanov Communications, Central Ontario Broadcasting, Golden West Broadcasting, Novacast Media, Harvard Media, Blackburn Media, Acadia Broadcasting, Rawlco Radio, RED FM, Leclerc Communication, Bayshore Broadcasting, Quinte Broadcasting, Torres Media, RNC Media, and Arctic Radio.
