Media Advisory: Cable companies mismanage millions in public funds

CACTUS report shows cable companies are misusing independent media fund

WHAT:

After reviewing the Big 4 Cable Companies’ management of local media, CACTUS (the Canadian Association of Campus and Community Television User Groups and Stations) has found that they failed to meet minimum standards for community programming, instead using public money to fund their own programming.

The Big Cable companies—Cogeco, Rogers, Shaw and Vidéotron— have used their control over this levy to break the rules regarding media diversity in Canada. Two percent of the money Canadians pay for cable (nearly $1 billion to date) is meant to support local, independent media. The CACTUS report shows that Canadians are going without the diverse media sources we pay for because Big Cable funnels this public money back into their own stations.

Find the report here: http://openmedia.ca/cactus-comments-2011-community-tv-audit

WHO:

Steve Anderson, Executive Director, OpenMedia.ca
Cathy Edwards, Spokesperson for CACTUS

WHEN:
We are able to comment at any time.

BACKGROUND:

The Community Media Fund: In April 2010, the CRTC conducted a hearing to review a 2% community broadcast levy (bringing in roughly $120 million per year) that the "Big 4" cable companies—Cogeco, Rogers, Shaw and Vidéotron—have been mismanaging. The public trust is meant to be used to fund independent citizen media, but instead has been fed back into stations controlled by the Big 4.

These cable companies are mandated to offer 60% local programming with 30% community production. Nearly all of them fail to meet these minimum standards.

OpenMedia.ca is a non-profit organization that safeguards the possibilities of the Internet. The group works towards informed & participatory digital policy.

OpenMedia.ca has fought to liberate the community media fund from big cable companies through policy interventions and through a citizen engagement initiative that helped deliver nearly 3,000 submissions to the CRTC.

CACTUS (the Canadian Association of Campus and Community Television User Groups and Stations) is an online resource and meeting place for campus and community television volunteers, producers, station managers, advocates and activists.

CACTUS is a part of the OpenMedia.ca Network.

CONTACT
Lindsey Pinto – 778.238.7710 – lindsey@openmedia.ca
Cathy Edwards – 819.772.2862 – cathyedwards@sympatico.ca