By Peter Berton
VANCOUVER, BC – Canadian LGBT cable TV channel OUTtv has petitioned the Canadian Radio-Television Telecommunications Commission to reduce the government-mandated minimum percent for homegrown broadcast content.
The CRTC is the government body responsible for regulating all Canadian broadcasting and telecommunications, including content. The agency reports to Parliament through the Minister of Canadian Heritage.
Under CRTC regulations, OUTtv is obligated to ensure at least 65 percent of the material it broadcasts during daytime hours was created in Canada. The channel also must spend at least 49 percent of its revenues making or buying Canadian TV programming. The rules was designed to ensure broadcasters don’t simply air the most popular U.S. shows at the expense of homegrown talent.
OUTtv wants to lower its daytime percentage to 50 percent — the same level it must maintain during prime-time, when it airs popular foreign-produced shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race. The channel also wants its purchase-production ratio of Canadian content reduced to 35 percent, or a third less than it is spending now.
As reported by Canadian LGBT news website Xtra.ca, OUTtv Chief Operating Officer Brad Danks complained that Canada’s largest mainstream broadcasters must spend only 30 percent of their revenues on domestic programming, thanks to successful lobbying of the CRTC.
Meanwhile, “There is very little LGBT content available for acquisition in Canada,” Danks told Xtra.ca. “We are happy to produce a lot of different programs and commission those programs, but we need balance.”
According to Danks, OUTtv has a subscriber base of 1.2 million households and attracts between 25,000 and 50,000 viewers for its prime-time programming. Danks also said OUTtv is just one of many smaller Canadian cable TV channels asking for a break during economic hard times.
