CRTC plans new fall hearing into fee-for-carriage

The federal broadcast regulator has rearranged its fall schedule so it can have a hearing into the issues surrounding fee-for-carriage.

Satellite carrier Bell Canada launched legal action last week into a plan by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to impose a fee, to be paid by cable and satellite firms, for signals from conventional over-the-air broadcasters.

The cable and satellite firms do not currently pay any fees for signals from over-the-airnetworks such as CTV, CBC and Global.

Bell's application with the Federal Court of Appeal claimed that the CRTC had deniedit an opportunity to comment.

On Wednesday, the CRTC postponed a public hearing into group-based licensing until Nov. 16 and said it would add the issue of fee-for-carriage to the hearing agenda.

The regulator said it wants to give all parties time to comment on how to negotiate a fair market value for local conventional signals. It has pushed back the date for submissions, as well as the hearing date.

The CRTC said it would examine again "whether or not the commission should put in place a regime for the establishment of fair value for local conventional television signals."

The framing of the question appears to be open-ended, although the CRTC said on July 6 that it "is now of the view that a negotiated solution for compensation for the free market value of local conventional television signals is also appropriate."

The CRTC also wants to discuss how to negotiate a fee-for-carriage, if one is to be imposed.

The cable and satellite companies have publicly opposed such a fee, saying it would increase costs for consumers.

Rogers is doing its utmost to get consumers to enter the debate on the side of the cable giants.

It sent a notice to consumers last week saying a new local programming fee would be added to their bill in the fall, under the heading "CRTC LPIF," for Local Programming Improvement Fund.

Rogers said Toronto consumers could pay up to $6.50 a month more to cover the cost of the new fund.

The CRTC announced in June it would attempt to encourage more local programming with a $100 million fund, up from $68 million.

The November hearing will also look into group-based licensing, under which major players in the broadcast industry would licence all their stations, both conventional and specialty channels, in one go.

If approved, that would not take effect until 2010.