It seems that cable companies don't pay for signals that are broadcast. But charge their customers for them. And they have the gall to call FTA'ers pirates! Go figure.

(The Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission is continuing its hearings on whether cable companies should be required to pay Canadian TV broadcasters for the right to carry their signals.

Canadian cable and satellite companies have launched a misinformation campaign in a desperate attempt to continue profiting from something they get for free.

Here are the facts:

Cable and satellite charge customers for local television through your basic cable rates. They also charge customers for their specialty channels like CNN and the Food Network.

The difference? They pay the specialty channels for the privilege of selling their product, just like any business should. In fact, they send $300 million of their customers' money down to the U.S. specialty channels despite the fact that these channels produce no Canadian content and create no Canadian jobs.

However, they keep the entire amount they charge for local television.

We think that is unfair. It is particularly unfair when you consider the dire state of local television in comparison with cable's profits as the amount they charge customers for basic cable has risen by four times the rate of inflation over the past five years.

How did we get here? In the 1970s, the regulators agreed we should be paid for our product. But at the time, the fledgling cable companies needed help to build their systems and were allowed to keep what they collected for basic cable - which included local TV channels. Cable and satellite systems are now built and I don't know anyone who would say that cable is fledgling. Last year, the cable and satellite companies earned more than $2 billion in profits. Times have obviously changed and so should the rules.

The principal reason that local television is struggling in Canada is that it competes on an increasingly unlevel playing field. More and more channels are coming on, all of which are paid by cable to carry them and can sell advertising. Advertising remains our only source of revenue. Now choice is great, but so is fair competition.

Cable and satellite have resorted to saying almost anything to protect their subsidies and not pay for the local channels they carry. Here are some of the most popular claims.

Cable likes to say that they have given local broadcasters "billions" in the past 10 years. What they are talking about is the Canadian Media Fund. This is a requirement of the Canadian broadcasting regulations and the funds go to independent producers, not local broadcasters. Yes, we buy the great Canadian shows that produces. But so do specialty channels and so do the cable companies. As well, their own community channels even get a portion of this money. But make no mistake, none of that money comes to us.

And by the way, at Canwest alone, we are required to contribute $151 million of similar funding over and above what we spend to operate our stations. We all have to do our part in this regulated system.

They argue that we make money in other areas. Yes, we do. But the fact of the matter is local television in Canada is losing money. And no business should be forced to lose money in one area simply because it makes money in another. We do not have to be in conventional television to make money in newspapers or specialty channels. And while we are on profits, why should the extremely profitable cable companies be allowed to continue to profit off something they get for free and that is suffering?

They also like to cite the local programming improvement fund, or LPIF. This was set up just this year in recognition of the fact that local television is suffering. But this particular fund is a temporary measure and will be revisited next year. It is welcome, but it will not fix the very real problems we are facing and it is not a fair market value for our product.

Another favourite of theirs is that people could get our signal free over the air. Then why, I ask, are they charging their customers for it? A very small percentage of people still get their signals over the air. Really, the only people getting anything free here are the cable companies.

They say they distribute our product to their customers and so that should be enough. Yet, they do the same for all other channels and they pay them. They are distributors - carrying TV signals is their only job.

And last, but most certainly not least, they resort to threatening their customers. They threaten them with a "TV tax" of "$10 per month." If anything, this would be a "cable tax." They are taking a product they get for free, charging customers for it at ever-increasing rates, and making a substantial profit. And when we ask them to negotiate a fair market value for this profitable product, they want to charge their customers again and again. No, customers should not pay any more.

We need to find a way to ensure that local TV survives into the future and continues to provide Canadians with the local service and local news they want and deserve.

They say we are asking for a subsidy. Asking to be paid for your product is not a subsidy. No, the only ones getting a subsidy are cable companies. It is time to end cable's subsidy. It is time for them to pay their fair share for local television. And it is time they stopped threatening their customers.

MIke Woollatt is vice-president, government relations, for Canwest Broadcasting.

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Please don't PM me with fta related questions, they will no longer be answered.

sorta like my phone.I HAD ordered regular phone service extened area cost extra to get a town of much greater size it was voted manditory. so all distance unlimited came about which i ordered and still have to pay for extened area fees. I complained and nothing. crap is what it is! :mad:

THis is the kind of thing that ALL consumers should be armed with. THIS KNOWLEDGE is important. Because we should demand, as consumers, we stop subsidizing this illegal monopoly/duopoly (Cable and Sat)

Free broadcast channels that are available, should be free to local viewers without encryption as a public service, we paid to have these free channels for way too long. I can't get my local NBC station over the air because we're too far out of town. That I know it's being carried over cable and Sat yet it's encrypted -makes no sense-. Since the government allowed this monopoly to thrive at our expense we should now demand that it serve a partial public service role, for free channels to them -in thanks to the billions we have paid...

If Cable and Sat don't adapt and release the monopoly like behavior... more and more people (Like us) will not subscribe to either, and eventually get everything over the net for "free" (less ISP charges -thank you cable broadband at $60/mo.... or someday again free from the sky...

Interesting points of view for the cable / Sat companys.
Good find FTA PRO...

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Testing...... Testing...... Testing the signals.....

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