“Our democracy is at stake”

Pierre Karl Péladeau testified Monday at the CRTC public hearings on online streaming services

Quebecor and Bell are urging the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to ease the obligations of traditional broadcasters as quickly as possible. The two competitors speak of an “urgency to act”.

“Our democracy is at stake,” said Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau on Monday during testimony given at the start of the hearings being held every day in Gatineau for the next three weeks on of Bill C-11 on online streaming.

“Canadian businesses can no longer wait for the end of the long process of implementing the new Broadcasting Act », Supports the big boss of Quebecor.

He emphasizes that private programming companies are suffering “more than ever” from the decline of their audiences and their advertising and subscription revenues, as well as the increase in broadcasting rights.

“The situation is unsustainable,” said Suzane Landry, vice-president of content development, programming and information at Bell Media, in an interview.

Bell must in turn appear this Tuesday morning to present his recommendations to the CRTC.

Noting in passing that Bell’s news services (CTV News and Noovo Info) lost 40 million in 2022, Suzane Landry said she would like an acceleration of the ongoing reform process and an acceleration of decision-making at the CRTC.

Bell hopes in particular to quickly obtain more flexibility in its regional information obligations. The company says it wants to cover local news based on the current news of the day and be able to use its resources accordingly instead of having to produce content by region in an equivalent manner.

The creation of a fund to support information is requested by Bell.

Bell also wants the establishment of rules for contributions to a common fund for Canadian content and proposes that they amount to 20% of the revenues generated by all platforms.

“Since the government and the CRTC have chosen to regulate the irregulable – and we have recently seen this with Meta which has simply blocked news sites in Canada and with Google which threatens to follow the parade – we are firmly convinced that, unfortunately, foreign online companies will not comply with any mandatory contribution,” said Pierre Karl Péladeau on Monday.

“Foreign platforms continue to propose to the CRTC spending obligations on Canadian programs while wanting to modify the definition, thus having the sole objective of serving their own interests to the detriment of a real contribution to the entire Canadian broadcasting system . Should we recall the fiasco of the 500 million agreement concluded between Netflix and Canadian Heritage which was only window dressing without any accountability? Let us be careful not to fall into the same trap twice,” he added.

VAT up against the wall

“Without an in-depth review and significant streamlining of the regulatory framework, the battle we are waging against foreign online services will get the better of Canadian broadcasting companies, to the complete detriment of the public interest. »

At the beginning of the month, TVA Group announced a reorganization resulting in the elimination of 547 positions, or 31% of its workforce.

Mr. Péladeau affirms that the situation is just as worrying for Canadian cable distributors who, year after year, he says, experience a drop in their subscriptions in favor of foreign online services.

“The strong trend towards disconnection, reduction of services or no subscription at all is intensifying, as demonstrated by a recent study indicating that 24% of Canadians viewing content online intend to cancel or reduce their cable subscription in the next 12 months, a catastrophic loss of more than 2.3 million subscribers. The significant decline in cable distributors’ revenues will only become more pronounced, further impacting their ability to contribute to Canadian content. »

The one and only solution over which the CRTC can exercise “real” control in order to ensure the sustainability of traditional Canadian businesses, he adds, is a “significant and immediate” reduction in their regulatory and financial burden.

“Without a regulatory straitjacket that requires us to have a mandatory basic service with mandatory distribution channels, broadcast and programming quotas, reports on reports, and the list goes on, our companies might have had better chances to innovate and reinvent ourselves,” says Pierre Karl Péladeau.

Appearances are scheduled every day until the hearings end on December 8. In addition to Quebecor and Bell, there will be those of Google, Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Rogers, Cogeco, Telus, Radio-Canada, ADISQ and others.