Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
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Image:CRTC.jpgThe Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC, in French Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes) was established in 1968 by the Canadian Parliament to replace the Board of Broadcast Governors.
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What the CRTC regulates
It regulates all Canadian broadcasting and telecommunications activities and enforces rules it creates to carry out the policies assigned to it; the best-known of these is probably the Canadian content rules. The CRTC reports to the Parliament of Canada through the Minister of Canadian Heritage, which is responsible for the Broadcasting Act, and has an informal relationship with Industry Canada, which is responsible for the Telecommunications Act. Provisions in these two acts, along with less-formal instructions to the CRTC known as orders-in-council, represent the bulk of the CRTC's jurisdiction, sometimes leaving the CRTC less room to manoeuvre than some critics appear to allow, and the result is that the CRTC is often the lightning rod for policy criticism that could arguably be better directed at the government itself.
The CRTC was originally known as the Canadian Radio-Television Commission. In 1976, jurisdiction over telecommunications services, most of which were then delivered by monopoly common carriers (e.g. telephone companies), was transferred to it from the Canadian Transport Commission, and although the abbreviation CRTC remained the same, the "T" now refers to Telecommunications. On the telecom side, the CRTC originally regulated only privately-held common carriers, such as B.C. Tel (now part of Telus), in which a U.S. company had a substantial stake; Bell Canada, which served Ontario, most of Quebec, and part of the Northwest Territories; and operations in Newfoundland, the Northwest Territories, Yukon and northern B.C. Other telephone companies, many of which were publicly-owned, were regulated by provincial authorities until court rulings during the 1990s affirmed federal jurisdiction over the sector, which also included some fifty small independent incumbents, most of them in Ontario and Quebec.
Regulation of broadcast distributors
The CRTC has in the past regulated the prices cable television broadcast distributors are allowed to charge. In most major markets, however, prices are no longer regulated due to increased competition for broadcast distribution from satellite television.
The CRTC also regulates which channels broadcast distributors must or may offer. Per the Broadcasting Act (at 3.(1)(t)(i)) the commission also gives priority to Canadian signals—many non-Canadian channels which compete with Canadian channels are thus not approved for distribution in Canada. The CRTC argues that allowing free trade in television stations would overwhelm the smaller Canadian market, preventing it from upholding its responsibility to foster a national conversation. Some people, however, consider this tantamount to censorship.
The CRTC's simultaneous substitution rules require that when a Canadian network licenses a television show from a US network and shows it in the same time slot, upon request by the Canadian broadcaster, broadcast distributors must replace the show on the US channel with the broadcast of the Canadian channel, along with any overlays and commercials. If Seinfeld is on Citytv and on NBC, for instance, the cable, satellite, or other broadcast distributor must send the Citytv feed on NBC's channel, even where the NBC version is somehow different, particularly commercials. (These rules are not intended to apply in case of differing episodes of the same series; this difference may not always be communicated to distributors, although this is rather rare.)
The goal of this policy is to create a market in which Canadian networks can realize revenue through advertising sales in spite of their inability to match the rates that the much larger American networks can afford to pay for syndicated programming. This policy is also why Canadian viewers do not see American advertisements during the Super Bowl, even when tuning into one of the many American networks carried on Canadian televisions.
Controversial decisions
Since 2004, the CRTC has been involved in several controversial decisions:
- CHOI: The CRTC announced it would not renew the licence of the popular CHOI radio station in Quebec, after having previously sanctioned the station for failing to uphold its promise of performance and then, during the years following, receiving about 50 complaints about offensive behaviour by radio jockeys which similarly contravened CRTC rules on broadcast hate speech. Many thousands of the station's fans marched in the streets and on Parliament Hill against the decision, and the parent company of CHOI, Genex Corp., appeled the CRTC decision unsuccessfully to the Federal Court of Canada.
- RAI: This Italian station was denied a broadcast license on the grounds that it would compete with Telelatino, a Canadian-run station which already produces shows in Italian. Many Italian-Canadians who either preferred RAI or could not receive Telelatino were, however, using satellite viewing cards obtained via the US in order to watch RAI, even though these cards were either grey market or black market, according to different analyses (see below). Following a subsequent review of the CRTC's policy on third-language foreign service, the service was approved in early 2005, but other foreign channels - for instance, those broadcasting in Spanish and therefore also competing with Telelatino's Spanish-/Italian-language broadcasts - remain affected by the policy, which seeks to promote the Canadian production of content.
- Al Jazeera: Despite concerns over possible anti-Semitic incitement on this station, it was approved by the CRTC as an optional cable and satellite offering, but on the condition that any carrier distributing it must edit out any instances of illegal hate speech. Cable companies declared that these restrictions would make it too expensive to carry Al Jazeera. Although no cable company released data as to what such a monitoring service would cost, the end-result was that no cable company elected to carry the station, either, leaving many Arabic-speaking Canadians subscribed to grey-/black-market dishes. The Canadian Jewish Congress has expressed its opinion that the restrictions on Al Jazeera are appropriate, while the Canadian B'nai Brith is opposed to any approval of Al Jazeera in Canada.
- Fox News: Until 2004, the CRTC's apparent reluctance to grant a digital licence to Fox News under the same policy which made it difficult for RAI to enter the country - same-genre competition from foreign services - had angered many conservative Canadians, who believed the network was deliberately being kept out due to its perceived conservative bias, particularly given the long-standing availability of services such as CNN and BBC World in Canada. On November 18, 2004, however, the CRTC approved an application by Fox News to offer its services to Canadians. Fox commenced broadcasting in Canada shortly thereafter.
- Satellite radio: In June 2005, the CRTC outraged some Canadian cultural nationalists (such as the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting) and labour unions by licencing two companies, Canadian Satellite Radio and Sirius Canada to offer satellite radio services in Canada. The two companies are in partnership with American firms XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio respectively, and in accordance with the CRTC decision will only need to offer ten percent Canadian content. The CRTC contends that this low level of Canadian content, particularly when compared to the 35 percent rule on local radio stations, was necessary because unlicenced U.S. receivers were already flooding into the country, so that enforcing a ban on these receivers would be nearly impossible (see below). This explanation did not satisfy cultural nationalists, who demanded that the federal cabinet overturn the decision and mandate a minimum of 35 percent Canadian content. Supporters of the decision argue that satellite radio can only be feasibly set up as a continental system, and trying to impose 35 percent Canadian content across North America is quite unrealistic. They also argue that satellite radio will boost Canadian culture by giving vital exposure to independent artists, instead of just concentrating on the country's stars, and point to the CRTC's successful extraction of promises to program 10 percent Canadian content on satellite services already operational in the United States as important concessions. [1] On the other hand some consumers and financial analysts believe that any Canadian content conditions are unnecessarily strict and might hamper the ability of Canadians to legally listen to many of the services currently provided by both providers.
Despite popular perception that the CRTC banned Sirius Canada from broadcasting Howard Stern's program, this is not the case. Sirius Canada in fact initially chose not to air Stern based on the possibility of a future issue with the CRTC, although this decision was reversed in February 2006.
Reception of non-Canadian services
While an exact number has not been determined, thousands of Canadians have purchased and used what they contend to be grey market radio and television services, licenced in the United States but not in Canada. Users of these unlicenced services contend that they are not directly breaking any laws by simply using the equipment. The equipment is usually purchased from an American supplier (although some merchants have attempted to set up shop in Canada) and the services are billed to an American postal address. The advent of online billing and the easy availability of credit card services has made it relatively easy for almost anyone to maintain an account in good standing, regardless of where they actually live.
Under the Radiocommunication Act s. 4(1), radio or television equipment or service not specifically authorized for use in Canada falls into a black market category, contravening Canadian law. Until 2004, some debate ensued as to whether the purchase and tuning of equipment to receive unscrambled or lawfully paid-for programming not licensed by the CRTC in fact constituted black-market activity which was certainly illegal or merely grey-market which was possibly illegal; amendments to the Radiocommunication Act in 2004 resolved this debate. The implication of this illegality is that law enforcement agencies tasked with upholding the Radiocommunication Act, such as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, have the right not only to act against merchants vending unauthorized services within Canada, but also to identify, seize, and prosecute the use of illegal equipment itself. To date, however, no cable or satellite provider or any other party with standing to do so has pressed charges against individual users, only against retailers selling access to unlicensed services commercially. Canadian credit card companies have also reportedly come under pressure to refuse to process payments to American satellite providers made by Canadians claiming American residency for subscription purposes.
Satellite radio poses a more complicated problem for the CRTC. While an unlicenced satellite dish can often be identified easily, satellite radio receivers are much more compact and can rarely be easily identified, at least not without flagrantly violating provisions against unreasonable search and seizure in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Some observers argued that this influenced the CRTC's June 2005 decision to ease Canadian content restrictions on satellite radio (see above).
Structure
The CRTC is run by up to 13 full-time (including the chairperson, the vice-chairperson of broadcasting, and the vice-chairperson of telecommunications) and 6 part-time commissioners appointed by the Cabinet for renewable terms of up to 5 years. Only full-time commissioners can participate in the decision-making process for telecommunications and all commissioners are involved in broadcasting decisions. The current chairman is Charles Dalfen.