Source: CBC News

The chairman of the CRTC says he simply misspoke when he provided inaccurate testimony to the House of Commons heritage committee during its hearings on the state of broadcasting two months ago.

On March 25, chairman Konrad von Finckenstein suggested to committee members that the CRTC wasn't allowing broadcasters to charge cable companies a fee for carrying their signals because the broadcasters weren't going to direct the money they received to local programming.

The suggestion is incorrect, broadcasters say. In 2006, they told CRTC hearings that they were, in fact, fully committed to directing the money into local programming. CTVglobemedia chief executive Ivan Fecan repeated that commitment to the heritage committee in April.

When the heritage committee learned of the inconsistency, it summoned von Finckenstein back to Parliament to explain himself.

On Monday, he told the committee members that he chose the wrong words in his March testimony. When he told committee members he got "resounding silence" from broadcasters on their commitment, he meant to say they were vague about their plans to direct the money, known as fees for carriage, to local programming.

"I used a figure of speech I now regret," von Finckenstein told committee members Monday. "I think the best thing is to forget about it.… I have learned not to use such figures of speech" before Parliament.

Broadcasters have been pushing for the right to charge fees for carriage because it would give them some relief from the financial pressures they face.

© CBC