When Jim Shaw and the other cable barons began announcing they would no longer make their mandatory contributions to the Canadian Television Fund, I thought, no problem. If they don’ t want the aggravation, they can hand in their cable licenses. Surely someone else could be found to take up the burden.
So it was satisfying to see Konrad von Finkelstein, new head of the CRTC, say pretty much that: there are conditions, they are mandatory, and they must be met.
But in the Globe & Mail yesterday, business reporter Konrad Yakabuski suggests the fix is in and the Television Fund is out. He points out that when Heritage Minister Bev Oda was a CRTC governor, she was against the Fund. He suspects with a bit of fiddling, the cable barons will be able to spend the money on themselves.
We have cultural expression in this country because we take care of it. We have Canadian music, Canadian writing, a Canadian academic tradition, Canadian museums, because we lay the groundwork for them. If we don't have much of a Canadian film tradition, it's because we have not done that work. It's the same in television. We give these monopolists these incredibly valuable money-printing machines called cable licenses; we're entitled to ensure the community gets some good back from their callous management and exorbitant fees.
(Crossposted from the Creators Copyright Coalition website
