Canadian Commercial Rivals Align for CRTC Presentation

OTTAWA, April 17: The
heads of CTVglobemedia and Canwest Global Communications made a joint
appearance in front of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications
Commission (CRTC) to lobby for continued support and protection of the market’s
broadcast TV landscape.

Ivan Fecan, the president
and CEO of CTVglobemedia and CEO of CTV Inc., stated: "We have come
together with solutions. We look forward to working cooperatively with the CRTC
to rebalance our regulatory framework to preserve real choice for Canadian
consumers."

Leonard Asper, the president and CEO of Canwest Global Communications, added:
“Canadians are offered unparalleled choice and diversity. We are determined to
keep this diversity and choice a reality for Canadian consumers.”

The executives stressed
the importance of affordable TV for Canadian consumers, with Asper encouraging
the rollout of a small, basic service that would include all local and regional
channels, educational services and those other channels currently deemed
mandatory.

Fecan added: "All
Canadians should be guaranteed access to an affordable package of core Canadian
TV channels. This is a positive step for Canadian consumers."

Asper and Fecan also
discussed the need for a regulatory framework that encourages diversity and
choice. "Our system needs to protect against enshrining the dominance and
unfair advantage for Canada's cable and satellite distributors in
regulation," said Fecan. "We cannot let TV distributors consolidate
their power to decide what channels get carried and what they get paid."

Highlighting the capacity
of Canada's broadcast distribution industry, Asper believes there is no
supporting rationale to modify current access rules. "Maintaining the
access requirements just means that Canadians will have more TV choices and the
power to decide for themselves," he said.

Fecan noted that a fair
system includes “paying our local stations for their signals. In terms of
distant signals, our consent must be obtained and carriage subject to direct
negotiations."

"The free ride has to
end for Canada's TV distributors," concluded Asper. "It is only
right; it is our product and we should be paid for it."

—By Mansha Daswani