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| Rogers expresses concern about significant new consumer TV taxes |
| Posted
on Monday, July 06, 2009 - 04:48 PM |
Phil Lind, Vice-Chairman of Rogers Communications Inc., reacted to today's CRTC announcement, declaring that Canadian consumers should be very worried about major new consumer TV taxes that could cost Canadians an additional $50 - $100 per year depending on your cable package.
"The Commission has announced that beginning in September it will raise the new local TV contribution (for a fund to subsidize local broadcasters insmall markets) to 1.5% of cable broadcast revenues. This will mean an increase to our customers' bills of approximately $0.90 per month." In a stunning policy reversal, the CRTC also announced that cable andsatellite companies will have to pay conventional over-the-air broadcasters a fee to carry their local signals.
These are signals that by law cable and satellite companies must carry. "In 2006 and again in 2008, after lengthy and detailed public procedures, the Commission rejected broadcaster demands for a compensation-for-carriage scheme in the form of a new consumer tax to fund conventional, over-the-air,local television stations.
Further, the Heritage Committee in its recentreport on the state of broadcasting in Canada made a number of important recommendations and in spite of repeated pleadings by the Canadian Broadcasters, did not endorse the concept of fee-for-carriage. In fact, the Government Members of the Committee specifically rejected the proposal.Today's CRTC announcement says that, not withstanding earlier rulings by the CRTC and notwithstanding the lack of support by the Canadian Heritage Committee, the CRTC is seeking to impose another new tax on consumers.
The only question outstanding is how much more consumers will have to pay to watch the same television signals they watch today." "Consumers already pay a CRTC-ordered 5% tax on cable and satellite service to fund Canadian programming," Lind noted. "In the fall, they will now be hit with another monthly CRTC-ordered contribution of 1.5% of cable broadcast revenues to subsidize local news and information broadcast programming. Today, the CRTC has announced a third tax which, if broadcasters get their way, will add another $3 to $6 a month to cable bills, depending on where people live.
We are profoundly concerned about how these new taxes will affect our customers and the Canadian broadcasting system," Lind says, "and we intend to fight them on behalf of Canadian consumers."
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