CHPC Committee Report

Multi-platform Rights

Programming rights are the subject of a commercial agreement between the producer (or distributor) and the programming enterprises wishing to acquire the broadcast rights to a programme. At one time, CBC/Radio-Canada produced the majority of its content in-house, which meant that it had ownership of the rights to that programming. Today, approximately 90% of its programming is created through independent production, meaning that it must negotiate and pay for distribution rights for the vast majority of its content. Historically, this typically meant television or radio broadcast rights only, but the multi-platform digital broadcasting environment has changed the process considerably.

It is worth noting that a number of witnesses raised concerns about the impact of the near-total outsourcing of CBC/Radio-Canada production.  The Canadian Media Guild, for example, noted that support for independent production should not interfere with creation of the types of original public broadcasting content that only gets made in-house.

The preservation of our audiovisual heritage was also raised in this context by the Fédération nationale des communications, which argued that putting the production and ownership of television programmes in the hands of independent private interests deprives Canadians of the ownership of publicly-funded audiovisual archives.[311]

The question of rights holders, and the negotiation of multi-platform rights, is complicated by a lack of adequate policy instruments and business models for dealing with the emergence of new technologies. For example, existing copyright legislation does not provide for many scenarios pertaining to rights negotiations that derive from changes to the digital media environment.

The Committee heard from a number of associations representing artists and independent producers that see the management of rights for new broadcasting platforms as a key issue. They want their share of the revenues generated by innovations such as DVDs, the export of productions, merchandise, cell phones, the Internet and podcasting.

The Writers Guild of Canada maintained that the CBC/Radio-Canada rarely pays for additional digital content by paying higher license fees to producers who commission works from screenwriters.[312]

The CFTPA and the Manitoba Motion Picture Industry Association called for the negotiation of a commercial agreement between independent producers in Canada and CBC/Radio-Canada. In April, the CFTPA did in fact negotiate such a commercial agreement with CTV.[313] The two associations called upon CBC/Radio-Canada to adopt fair commercial practices, which means appropriate royalties and licence contracts of a limited duration.

The Committee is of the view that these are business relationships between the parties concerned, and disputes should be resolved through negotiation. It would be inappropriate for Parliament to intervene in a dispute that is primarily commercial in nature. It is up to broadcasters, producers and copyright holders to agree on an equitable distribution of royalties. We work from the assumption that the parties will be reasonable and will negotiate in good faith.  It is, however, the opinion of this Committee that CBC/Radio-Canada should show leadership on this issue and set the standard for all Canadian broadcasters as regards commercial dealings with independent producers.

RECOMMENDATION 7.1

In the interest of greater distribution and availability of Canadian content, the Committee recommends that CBC/Radio-Canada give greater priority to negotiating with artists and producers a fair and equitable sale and broadcast rights agreement over new and emerging platforms.

Closed Captioning for the Hearing-impaired

In 2000, the CRTC renewed seven-year licences for CBC/Radio-Canada’s English and French radio and television networks, for most of the television stations it operates on its own and for Newsworld and the Réseau de l’information (RDI).

In this review, the CRTC expected the CBC’s English television to provide captioning for all local and regional news programmes, including live segments, by using real-time captioning or any other captioning method for live programming.

The CRTC required the Corporation’s French television to provide captioning for all live and recorded news and public affairs programming, for the duration of the licence. The CRTC also imposed a licence condition requiring captioning for all regional news programming, including live segments. The CRTC expected the Corporation to exceed the minimum captioning requirements, in order to reach 90% of programming on each French-language station. The CRTC did however recognise the challenges that French-language broadcasters face in captioning television programmes, including a shortage of human resources.

Unfortunately, broadcasters have not always lived up to their captioning requirements, including CBC/Radio-Canada. In 2000, Henry Vlug filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, alleging that CBC English television discriminated against him and other deaf persons by failing to provide captioning for its television programmes. In 2004, Senator Jean-Robert Gauthier lodged a similar complaint, claiming that the Corporation did not make all its programming accessible to the hearing-impaired on either its conventional service or the specialty channel RDI.

Joe Clark from Media Access testified that CBC English television is still having problems captioning dialogue and important sound effects for the hearing-impaired.

Just recently, in May 2007, the CRTC announced that all English and French broadcasters are now required to caption 100% of programming in the broadcast day, excluding advertising,[314] since the technology is now available in English and French.

The Committee welcomes this decision by the CRTC. Providing captioning of television programmes helps to include the hearing-impaired in the wider community.

We hope that Canada’s national public broadcaster will now be a leader in this field. It must acquire effective technology in order to provide captioning of 100% of its programming.

RECOMMENDATION 7.2

The Committee recommends that CBC/Radio-Canada move rapidly to acquire effective and operational captioning technology in order to offer captioning for 100% of its programming in real time.

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Audiovisual Heritage

Over the years, the CBC/Radio-Canada has accumulated significant audiovisual archives: thousands of hours of programming; photographs; interviews; and artefacts like costumes, sets and props used in various programming sectors. This represents an important part of Canadian history over the last century. This heritage is spread out in the Corporation’s various production centres across Canada.

The Canadian Broadcast Museum Foundation (CBMF) appeared before the Committee to stress the importance of preserving this audiovisual heritage.[315] It said it is satisfied with the measures that CBC/Radio-Canada has taken to protect this heritage since 2000. CBC/Radio-Canada has undertaken a major archiving project and restored and catalogued thousands of hours of programming.

In the summer of 2001, the Department of Canadian Heritage approved a joint proposal from CBC and Radio-Canada for funding of an online digital archive to highlight sections of its radio and television archives.  This has enabled them to build their Web sites and convert historical clips to digital format, making them accessible to all Canadians. Funding and copyright issues, however, continue to present hurdles for the digital archiving project.

The CBMF estimates that the restoration and conversion from analogue to digital takes an average of 11 hours of work per hour of programming. Given the Corporation’s current inventory of programming, it would take 30 years for one technician to complete just one aspect of this task.[316]

The Foundation therefore recommended to the Committee that the preservation of the Corporation’s audiovisual heritage should be an integral part of its mandate and that additional funding should be allocated specifically for the preservation of this national treasure that is in the Corporation’s hands.

RECOMMENDATION 7.3

The Committee recommends that CBC/Radio-Canada build on its efforts to preserve the thousands of hours of radio and television programming broadcast by its national, regional and local services, so that Canadians have access to this audiovisual heritage.

The Corporation’s Ombudsmen

The position of ombudsman for CBC/Radio-Canada was created in 1992. There is one for the English network and one for the French network, responsible for maintaining the quality of information provided by CBC/Radio-Canada and for allowing citizens to lodge complaints with an independent body. The Ombudsmen provide an avenue of recourse if a complainant is not satisfied with the response given by the Corporation’s employees or programming management. They determine whether a journalistic practice, or the information broadcast on one of the various CBC/Radio-Canada platforms, complies with the Corporation’s journalistic standards and practices.

The Ombudsmen’s power is influential. They may recommend changing a journalistic policy if a journalistic practice or the information broadcast does not comply with the policy. Every year, the two Ombudsmen present annual reports to the Board of Directors. The President and CEO indicates to the Board how he will respond to their recommendations.

Some witnesses questioned the Ombudsmen’s effectiveness. Frank Gue appeared as an individual in Toronto, stating that the Ombudsman’s response to complaints was courteous but did not acknowledge any bias in the coverage of national and international issues. He called upon the Committee to recommend that the Ombudsmen’s powers be strengthened.[317]

Other witnesses questioned the Ombudsmen’s independence. The organisation Our Public Airwaves, for instance, stressed that the Ombudsmen should not to be current or former employees of the Corporation.[318]

The Committee agreed that the incumbents must be from outside the CBC/Radio-Canada. This would enhance the complaint management system and the Ombudsmen’s independence.

RECOMMENDATION 7.4

Given the importance of the Office of the Ombudsman and the need for fair decisions, the Committee recommends that the individual be selected from persons other than current CBC/Radio-Canada employees, or persons who have not been employed by the Corporation within the five years prior to the proposed date of employment.