Study: Localism Drives TV Value

Study: Localism Drives TV Value

New study by Nanos Research shows that only 12% of Canadians understand that none of the proceeds of the local cable/satellite TV bill goes to local TV stations. The survey also found that 77% of those surveyed assigned a high or very high value to having access to local television news.

With big media cutting, outsourcing and overworking staff, we can assume that Canadians will continue to be undeserved by local news. To see what Canadians from across the country have to say about their media, download these excerpts from comments sent to the CRTC this past summer.

As we saw with the CTV/GlobeMedia acquisition of Chum, media concentration often results in journalist layoffs, including local news workers. One of the best ways to assure robust local news outlets is to force the few huge media conglomerates to divest some of their holdings so we have a more diverse and competitive private media sector.

The fact that none of the revenue generated by cable/satellite TV goes to local news media is most notable in this includes local community TV channels - those run by non-profit community organizations rather than the cable companies themselves. If properly funded by cable/satellite, local community TV could provide a useful source of local news that is independent of big media. With the current level of media concentration, clearly cable/satellite operator funding of local, and also, regional/national community TV channels, should be mandated by the CRTC.

These communications infrastructures are very much result of public dollars, and in some cases they continue to use public airwaves and/our other public infrastructure. Since the CRTC allows these once-public assets to be managed by oligopolistic competition, the least they can do is mandate funding for community/non-profit TV.