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The community media fund that never was

Last April, the CRTC conducted a hearing to review a 2 per cent cable levy (bringing in roughly $120 million a year) that four family-controlled cable monopolies, Cogeco, Rogers, Shaw and Vidéotron, have been mostly using as their own media slush fund. These corporations already earn a 25 per cent profit margin amounting to almost $2 billion each year, and both Rogers and Shaw have raised cable rates by more than 68 per cent in recent years. If you haven't heard about this large community media fund, it's because it appears to have been mismanaged and put towards what many consider to be commercial television endeavours.

Redeye

A new vision for community TV

May 16, 2010
| Catherine Edwards thinks it's time for cable companies to open up their airways to communities to create programming. Edwards is with CACTUS, an advocacy group for public access broadcasting.

14:16 minutes (13.07 MB)
Redeye

Activists petition CRTC for more meaningful public access to community TV

February 22, 2010
| The Canadian Broadcasting Act requires TV and cable companies to support public access and gives them $100 million to do so. Critics say the money is tightly controlled by the companies.

14:52 minutes (13.62 MB)
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