The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) says the CRTC has chosen to “preserve the status quo” despite the policy failure of a move to allow broadcasters to introduce spoken word programming on the FM dial for a one-year trial period.
The commission notified the CAB via a letter last week that it will not consider its request to eliminate the one-year trial period for spoken word programming on FM and for AM-to-FM simulcasting.
First proposed last fall and approved in January, the CAB argued that the CRTC’s trial limit was too restrictive and could discourage radio stations from experimenting with the policy change.
In its response, the CRTC wrote that “removing all restrictions on simulcasting would go against encouraging a diversity of programming in a market and would not be the best use of frequencies.”
“These new flexibilities, which have only recently been granted by the Commission, have yet to be tested in practice, and the Commission is not aware of any licensees having yet taken advantage of either the spoken word or simulcast trial periods,” the letter stated. “Given the recency of these new flexibilities, the application will not be considered by the Commission. However, the Commission will monitor the uptake and use of these new flexibilities as they develop.”
CAB President Kevin Desjardins says the CRTC’s response “failed to meaningfully engage with the substance of the CAB’s Part I application,” which proposed modest adjustments to the modernization policy to increase the likelihood that commercial broadcasters would make use of “the purported regulatory flexibility.”
“The CAB had outlined in our application that our members were unlikely to undertake the effort and investment to move talk and spoken word content from AM to FM if they were constrained by a one-year trial period,” he continued. “This was based on our discussions with our members following the release of the modernization policy, and we believed it was constructive to share this with the Commission given that this had not been a meaningful part of the consultation process.”
“The rationale for the one-year limitation was never a part of the public record, otherwise the CAB would have commented on it at that time. By the CRTC’s own admission, no broadcaster has taken advantage of these flexibilities, validating the concerns raised in the CAB’s Part I application and echoed by our members.”
“The failure of the policy to achieve its stated objective should have prompted the Commission to reconsider its approach,” concluded Desjardins. “Instead, it has chosen to effectively preserve the status quo at a time when Canada’s broadcasting system requires timely and meaningful regulatory reform.”
