Shaw Pitches PM on CRTC

[cablewithaview]

Shaw Communications Inc. has sent a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, asking him to bring a "misguided" Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission to heel.

In an extraordinary move, Shaw suggests that Harpur and Industry Minister Jim Prentice directly intervene in the hearings.

Shaw chief executive Jim Shaw accused the broadcast regulator of flouting the Harper government's policies by allowing the current hearings on the future of Canadian television to be hijacked by broadcasters' demands for new fees.

It is the second time in as many weeks that Shaw has blasted the CRTC for allowing discussion on what is called fee-for-carriage, a request by conventional networks like CTV and Global to charge cable operators 50 cents a month per customer for each channel carried.

Shaw is still scheduled to appear before the Commission, but he said he could not wait.

"In short Prime Minister, your policies are being derailed," Shaw wrote. "We hope that your government will restore your policy direction, refocus your departments and agencies to pursue this policy and regain the confidence of the industry in the wisdom of your decisions."

Shaw says the CRTC is flouting the government's clear direction against more regulation, and toward "greater choice and to efficient markets."

In earlier testimony before the commission, CTV and CanWest Global chief executives Ivan Fecan and Leonard Asper argued that charging fee for carriage rights would reverse a 37-year "wrong" that they said unfairly advantages the cable and satellite industry.

Shaw noted the regulator had decided the matter last year and should not have re-opened the issue in the current review of broadcasting policy that was designed to open the system to market forces.

"It is not the job of the CRTC to guarantee profitability for the broadcast industry or develop taxes and subsidies that determine winners and losers in the marketplace," the letter states.


mediacastermagazine.com - Mediacaster - 4/21/2008