I heard this story on the CBC this evening, but can’t seem to find mention of it on the CBC website. The Toronto Star published a piece on it yesterday, however. It seems that Calgary-based Shaw Communications is refusing to pay its annual share into the Canadian Television Fund. What’s the Canadian Television Fund, you ask? It’s that thing that makes all those Canadian TV shows and documentaries possible. They brought you Trailer Park Boys, for goodness’ sake. According to the star yesterday:
If Shaw goes, more than 20 per cent of the CTF’s annual $250 million budget –which comes from cable and satellite subscription fees as well as tax dollars – goes with him. Fears are, other distributors will follow.
That’s a big chunk of money. And in the CBC story I heard, Shaw had been joined by Videotron (a division of Quebecor). Broadcasters are supposed to give 5% of their profits to the CTF every year.
The clincher? The Canadian Television Fund is up for renewal this coming spring - and if big business is challenging the CTF’s validity (there have been allegations of conflict of interest in doling out funding for Canadian television programs), it could be in for the big axe. And if you think less Canadian content on TV isn’t such a big deal - just remember what Trudeau said: “Living next to the United States is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.†That elephant won’t give a damn when it rolls over us.
Please do your bit to call your MP in support of the Canadian Television Fund. Better yet, if you’re a Shaw subscriber, please call them up and cancel - tell them you won’t support a company that would pull money from Canadian programming. So the CTF needs some reform. But the whole corporate media scene in this country needs it even more! Stephen Harper’s not going to care about Canadian broadcasting so we’re going to have to do it ourselves.
As a shocking aside - isn’t it INSANE that these companies are so big that one of them can threaten to kill a massive national program just by withholding a measly 5% of its profits? So dirty.
-SIO
PS - One more clincher from the same Toronto Star story:
The CRTC, which established the fund, is in no position to squawk. It is without a chairperson and has a number of commission positions up for grabs.
CBC, which schedules many of the documentaries that the CTF subsidizes, is also without a chairperson and has a lame duck president in Robert Rabinovitch.
Even Telefilm lacks a chairperson and is short of board members. The National Film Board has no commissioner.
All of these are federal appointments. But Heritage Minister Bev Oda is silent.
So yes. We should all write to Bev Oda and ask her for one of those jobs!
January 25th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
Nice post Sabina! There’s a good article about this on Radio-Canada’s website.
danielle.
January 25th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
While I fully agree with you that we don’t want to lose the CTF, there is one problem with your suggestion of protest. If I call up and cancel Shaw, that means I have no cable television as there are no other cable providers in Vancouver. I can’t do satellite tv in my building (I’ve tried) and, I’m sorry, but I’m not willing to give up television entirely. Besides - I wouldn’t be doing any favours to the CTF by doing that either.
Anyway, just thought you might want to know the position some of us are in.
Great article! I will definitely be sending a letter to Jim Shaw to try to talk some sense into him.
January 26th, 2007 at 1:11 am
Point taken. Nobody’s going to cancel their Shaw cable package. But my goodness - I can’t believe Oda is letting all those positions stand open. I found a link to a story from the CBC (well, it’s from The Canadian Press, actually).
It’s all part of an attack on public media, I believe, and I’m particularly concerned about this whole CTF issue as the CBC goes before the House of Commons Heritage Committee this coming February. But that’s a whole other post. Coming soon.
I was at a media reform conference in Memphis two weeks ago and I was speaking with Robert McChesney (of FreePress) and John Nichols (of The Nation) and they were talking about what a fine history Canada has in the realm of public broadcasting - we’ve fought long and hard for the CBC, and we’re known in the US for that emphatic support for public broadcasters. Yet another thing I didn’t learn in high school (or library school)… I’ll try to find out what’s going down with the CBC and post as soon as I know what’ s going down.
The loudest warning seems to be the media’s silence.
-SIO
January 29th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Very interesting - I look forward to reading your post on the CBC, Sabina.
Thanks for keeping current on important issues that aren’t cover in popular media - and keeping the rest of us aware!