The CRTC’s Performance, 1969-2025 looked at the commission’s role and performance based on three strategic objectives established by the Treasury Board in 2024 – transparency, accountability, and participation by the public in government decision-making.

Breaking down the CRTC’s own numbers, the FRPC report takes aim at the gradual reduction in hearings the public can actually attend – from dozens in the 1980s to a handful in the last decade, supplemented by private meetings with lobbyists (an average of 44 per year in the same period), which it says raises concerns about whose interests are being heard.

FRPC also reviewed CRTC resources, finding that from 1969-88, it issued nearly 31,000 decisions with an average staff of 380 people (some 80 decisions per staff person). From 2005-24, the commission issued just over 12,000 decisions, with an average staff of 460 full-time or equivalent persons, or roughly 27 decisions per staff person. Its 2025-26 Departmental Plan indicates a contingent of 717 full-time or equivalent staff, a 56% increase over the 2005-24 average.

“FRPC believes there are evidence-based grounds for serious concerns about the degree to which the CRTC is meeting TBS’ [Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat] 2024 principles of Transparency, Accountability and public Participation. The concerns centre around the fact that, in 2025, the CRTC is effectively unaccountable to Parliament and to Canadians due to: the non-transparency of the CRTC’s decision-making processes, the lack of any published objective evidence from the CRTC describing how it has implemented and is implementing Parliament’s broadcasting and telecommunications policies, its noncompliance with reporting requirements regarding CBC non-compliance which the Broadcasting Act mandates, its evasion of requirements for public hearings by redefining the term to mean both ‘appearing’ (public) and ‘non-appearing’ (non-public) processes, and its general lack of timeliness in its licensing, policy-making and alternative-dispute resolution processes,” the report states.

FRPC believes it’s time to undertake a review of the CRTC to determine “whether and how it has been and is implementing Parliament’s broadcasting and telecommunications policies, and whether it is meeting this responsibility in an efficient, effective and timely manner,” however the organization is emphatic that it is not suggesting the commission be replaced or dismantled.

“To the contrary, as the CRTC is empowered to change its own by-laws and its procedural rules, the CRTC can readily amend its processes to make them transparent and to facilitate its accountability – and can do so on its own motion and quickly,” it stated.

Recommendations

Among its recommendations, the Forum is suggesting the CRTC publish minutes of the meetings of the commission and its committees, including copies of any presentations made at meetings within one week; ensure that all of its decisions are signed by the commissioners who made the decisions (including those who dissented), and published, if necessary, by providing abbreviated summaries of the facts and outcomes; ensure decisions are published on matters resulting “in now-secret Letter Decisions”; and improve the timeliness of its decision-making by publishing decisions concerning broadcasting, telecom and online news applications within four months of receiving the applications, and policies within six months of initiating proceedings.

It is also asking the CRTC to publish annual – or more frequent – statistical updates on its implementation of Parliament’s broadcasting and telecom policies, convene an annual meeting of interested parties to respond to questions about data published by the CRTC, and invite comments every two years on the measures it uses to evaluate its performance.

Read an OP-ED from FRPC Executive Director Monica Auer on CARTT.ca, our sister web publication, here.

The post CRTC performance termed ‘secretive and slow’ in FRPC report appeared first on Broadcast Dialogue.

Bell is specifically seeking a reduction in Canadian programming expenditures (CPE) from 30% to 20%; a reduction in minimum PNI (Programs of National Interest) expenditures from 7.5% to 5%; and an expansion of the current PNI categories to include analysis and interpretation, music and dance, variety, game shows, general entertainment, human interest, and reality television. In return, it’s proposing to increase its independent production acquisitions from 75% to 100% of PNI expenditures. Bell has also asked the commission to drop current requirements to broadcast specified levels of local news.

ACTRA (Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists), representing over 28,000 performers working in English-language recorded media, reiterated its position on similar applications filed by Corus Entertainment and Rogers Sports & Media.

The union’s submission maintains that Bell’s proposal expands the definition of PNI so broadly as to undermine its fundamental purpose. It’s proposing a new approach in which the broadcaster would be compelled to spend $200 million a year for the next five years on Canadian fiction, drama and scripted comedy programs, saying public policies “have underpinned a corporate behemoth with total gross revenues of $24.2 billion in 2022, up 3.1% from the previous year, and net earnings of $2.9 billion.”

“Bell Media concludes from their analysis of the current state of its services and the industry, that Bell Media needs to reduce expenditures of CanCon and PNI because they can’t make a sufficient profit from it. ACTRA’s conclusion from understanding the current state of the industry is that Bell Media and others should be required to invest substantially more on drama and scripted comedy programs, so that Canadians can chose to watch a high-quality Canadian fiction program whenever and however they consume audiovisual content,” the submission states.

ACTRA points out that Bell Media’s segment revenues alone in 2022 amounted to $3.3 billion, a 7.2% increase from the previous year, with adjusted EBITDA of $745 million. It maintains that for “less than the budgets of two average Hollywood movies,” the broadcaster could make a “lucrative investment that will be positive for the corporate bottom line and shareholders.”

The Forum for Research and Policy in Communications (FRPC) is also in opposition, saying that due to the company’s size, any decisions the CRTC makes about Bell’s applications will have consequences for Canada’s broadcasting system. According to CRTC data cited by FRPC, Bell’s 35 local TV stations took in 40% of the revenues of Canada’s 92 local TV stations in 2021/22, while its 32 discretionary TV services took in 38% of revenues reported by the 174 discretionary TV services licensed to operate in Canada. Bell Media’s programming services accounted for 38% of Canadian programming expenditures reported by all private TV stations, and 48% of the CPE reported by discretionary TV services.

The Forum’s submission says even with these requirements, Bell’s television stations reduced their expenditures on local TV from 2017-22 by 15.5%, with station staffing levels decreasing by 16%.

“Had the CRTC granted Bell approval of these applications in 2020/21, FRPC estimates that the company would have saved $257 million in reduced expenditures on CPE, and that independent producers would have seen their income decrease by 12% (or $11.7 million),” states their submission. “FRPC opposes approval of Bell’s applications because the applications offer no evidence showing how approval will implement Parliament’s broadcasting policy for Canada, and because data from the CRTC and Bell indicate that the effect of granting the applications would be a net loss to the broadcasting system and independent producers.”

Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB), meanwhile, is urging the commission “to give serious consideration to all such applications, as private Canadian television and radio broadcasters grapple with unprecedented, even existential, disruption in the Canadian broadcasting system.”

“Ultimately, what these applications demonstrate is that in the face of unprecedented competition for content, audiences, and advertising dollars from unregulated online providers, Canadian broadcasters need operational and regulatory flexibility now. Canadian broadcasters cannot continue to operate under rules established in a very different business context,” wrote CAB President Kevin Desjardins.

Among the major broadcasters, Rogers and Corus both support Bell’s request to drop local news quotas at CTV, CTV2, and French-language news network Noovo.

“We recognize the crucial importance of local news and information programming, and we want to continue delivering it for many years to come. However, Corus and other private Canadian broadcasters will not be able to sustain generally unprofitable news operations at current levels absent a change in regulatory approach that yields meaningful new financial and operational flexibility,” reads the Corus submission. “This includes lower topline spending obligations; greater discretion to develop and deliver Canadian programming that is tailored to our audiences; and more opportunities to select (rather than be dictated to) how best contribute to the policy objectives of the Broadcasting Act. In short, we can no longer work within the prescriptive requirements of the past.”

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The post Majority of interventions oppose Bell Media proposal for CanCon programming relief appeared first on Broadcast Dialogue.