Source : Ottawa Citizen

Commercials would earn $240M a year, panel told

by Chris Cobb

Canada's private broadcasters want a change in federal law that would allow them to show lucrative prescription drug commercials similar to those now seen on U.S. networks.

The drug commercials, one of the few sources of advertising revenue still off limits in Canada, could net broadcasters $240 million annually, Canadian Association of Broadcasters president Glenn O'Farrell told members of the Commons heritage committee yesterday.

Mr. O'Farrell also urged the committee, which is examining changes to the broadcasting system, to push for a reduction in licence fees paid to the national broadcast regulator, which, he said, would free up another $90 million for programming.

The broadcasters, whose submissions have focused on maintaining profitability and remaining competitive with U.S. programming, clashed with MPs over the amount of Canadian TV programming, and the lack of community involvement of some radio stations once owned locally, but now part of corporate chains.

Mr. O'Farrell rejected comments from some MPs on the committee that private broadcasters are weighting their weekday prime-time schedules with U.S. programs and said broadcasters are meeting, or exceeding, all regulatory requirements.

"The CRTC's policy on television requires large broadcasters to dedicate eight hours per week of prime time to priority Canadian programming," he said. "Private broadcasters spent $1 billion on Canadian programming the last year alone."

Canadian Alliance heritage critic Jim Abbott said after the four-hour hearing that the broadcasters were "polishing the apple the best way they could" but some of their claims were "intellectually dishonest" and did not reflect reality.

But Mr. Abbott said he had some sympathy for the broadcasters and agreed that they need support to improve the quality of Canadian productions.

Tim Woods, spokesman for the lobby group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, said the private broadcasters weren't convincing.

"They are looking for an extraordinary series of handouts from government," he said, "but they are clearly going to have to do a lot more work to convince Parliament they are in such dire circumstances. These folks are already into the taxpayers for hundreds of millions of dollars."

© Ottawa Citizen