Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel has spoken out in the fight to save local television, but rather than taking sides, he's hoping something can be sorted out amongst the groups involved.
Mandel has appeared in a TV ad supporting local television, and although he said he is not siding with one particular group, he is stressing that there is a need for local news in Edmonton. He said local news is not only crucial to inform citizens about current events, but it's important to create and sustain jobs for those in the industry.
"Fix the structure of the system so we don't lose jobs in the City of Edmonton, so we have our people who are reporters, and behind the scenes people retain their jobs," he said. "It's too important to cities of Edmonton, Calgary and Toronto to all of a sudden say let's throw them to the wind."
Mandel would not comment to CTV News on the possibility of a carriage fee for cable and satellite companies.
On Saturday, about 3,000 people visited CTV Edmonton for an open house designed to showcase the station and highlight the difficulties faced by local television.
Local residents met CTV personalities, toured the studios, learned about the station's rich history, and checked out other bits of broadcasting technology.
Similar events were held Saturday at CTV and 'A' stations across Canada to outline the dilemma facing local television stations.
Canadian broadcasters are currently at odds with the CRTC over their ability to develop new revenue streams to support local programming.
CTVglobemedia and Canwest Global have said they would like to charge cable and satellite companies for carrying their channels, as is done with US and specialty channels.
However, companies like Shaw Cable aren't willing to change their policy.
"We're not going to negotiate a fee that's charged to our consumers for services that are not discretionary," said Ken Stein, the communications Senior Vice President of Shaw Cable.
To protect consumers, CTV is calling for a review of how cable and satellite companies bundle and bill consumers for the TV channels they choose.
CTV is asking the CRTC to allow the company to collect 50 cents a subscriber from cable and satellite providers. It is estimated that the so called 'fee for carriage' would boost broadcasters' revenues by about $300 million.
However, Canada's largest cable and satellite companies have filed a formal complaint to the CRTC over CTV's "Save Local TV" campaign.
Phil Lind, vice chairman of Rogers Communications Inc., said the campaign violates the Broadcasting Act because it's "unbalanced" and violates respected journalistic principles.
