Harper legacy spells trouble for Canadian TV

From a media release:

A first-of-its-kind independent economic forecast shows regulatory changes espoused by the Harper government and adopted in last year’s CRTC Let’s Talk TV announcements will likely lead to the loss of more than 15,000 Canadian jobs and take $1.4 billion from the Canadian economy annually by 2020.

Co-authored by the economic and media consulting firm Nordicity and Peter H. Miller, the 100-page study – Canadian Television 2020: Technological and Regulatory Impacts – also forecasts the CRTC decisions will likely result in a $400 million annual drop in spending on Canadian programs by 2020 and accelerate the impact of technological change while weakening Canadian broadcasters.

The study’s authors have advanced proposals to reduce the negative economic impact of the CRTC’s decisions by as much as 75%: “This would not, in our view, require ‘turning back the clock’ on all the Let’s Talk TV decisions. It would merely require relatively minor ‘tweaking’ that recognizes Canadians as broadcasting policy has always recognized them – not merely as consumers, but as creators and citizens too.”

The study found the CRTC’s decisions regarding unbundling, over-the-top (OTT) TV and the predominance of Canadian programs are the primary drivers of this erosion.  Not yet implemented, these changes are scheduled to take effect starting in March.

Canadian Television 2020: Technological and Regulatory Impacts was commissioned by ACTRA, the Canadian Media Guild, Directors Guild of Canada, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting and Unifor.

The full report can be read here.

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