The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
has published a new policy designed to ease the
economic pressure squeezing local television newscasts in the same
week in which a report was published clarifying how quickly young
Canadians are pivoting to digital news platforms.
Under ss. 34 and 52(1) of the Broadcasting Distribution
Regulations, broadcast distribution undertakings
(BDUs) – think Rogers, BCE, Videotron, Telus
and Shaw – must contribute 5% of annual gross revenue from
broadcasting activities to a handful of funds that support Canadian
programming. The CRTC's new policy framework for local and
community television (Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2016-224)
allows BDUs to devote part of this contribution to the production
of local news on local television stations by providing them with
the flexibility to transfer contributions from one community
channel to another and to dedicate all or part of their local
expression contribution to
