Like Pierre Karl Péladeau the day before, the leaders of Bell Media sounded the alarm on Tuesday before the Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) about the future of traditional media. The company, which estimates having lost $80 million in its information sector last year, is calling for the creation of an aid fund, which would be financed by the major digital platforms, and which would support the news production by private broadcasters.
“We have reached a point where the situation is unsustainable. Information is facing a crisis. Today, more than ever, information operations, whether local or national, are very expensive,” summarized Suzane Landry, vice-president of content development and French-language programming at Bell Media.
Mme Landry was invited to testify before the CRTC as part of hearings which will take place over the next three weeks, and which will determine a new regulatory framework for the industry which will include the major platforms Disney + and Netflix.
Before the CRTC, Bell Media executives reported that their company lost $80 million in 2022 alone in its information services CTV News and Noovo Info, which was launched less than three years ago to cover the Quebec.
“It has always been difficult to monetize news audiences,” admitted Suzane Landry. “But before, we could finance the news with revenues that came from different broadcasts, American broadcasts [entre autres]. »
Loss of income
However, advertising revenues have been in sharp decline for several years, for Bell, as for all broadcasters, while part of their audience has migrated to online broadcasting platforms. What’s more, it is increasingly difficult to acquire American programs likely to generate attractive ratings. The major Hollywood studios prefer to broadcast their shows first on their respective platforms rather than selling them to Canadian broadcasters.
“We don’t want to cut off the news. We do not want to close offices abroad. But we have no choice,” said Jonathan Daniels, vice-president of regulatory law at Bell, in reference to recent cutbacks within the company.
In June, Bell Media announced the elimination of 1,300 positions, mainly in English Canada, which included the closure of radio stations and CTV News offices abroad.
In this difficult context, the telecommunications and media giant is proposing to create a fund to support news production. This would draw its financing in part from the income of the digital giants in the country. Private radio and TV stations would have access to it to produce information.
Call for deregulation
In an interview with ICI Première on Tuesday morning, the president and CEO of Quebecor was more than doubtful about the solution proposed by Bell to better finance information. “We’ll see what happens. But with the way [les Meta et Google de ce monde] position themselves, it would surprise me a lot if they wanted to be taxed,” he said, referring to the Online News Act (former Bill C-18).
Adopted in June by the Trudeau government, this law forces digital giants to negotiate with the media for the sharing of revenues from the content they produce. However, the law does not achieve the hoped-for objectives for the time being. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is blocking news sharing in the country in protest. Google is threatening to do the same.
Before the CRTC on Monday, Pierre Karl Péladeau seemed to have lost hope that the digital giants could one day comply with national regulations. The businessman instead called on the CRTC to deregulate traditional broadcasters to allow them to face foreign competition.
Faced with a drastic drop in advertising revenue, Pierre Karl Péladeau announced at the beginning of the month the elimination of 547 positions within the TVA Group, or nearly a third of the workforce.