Some days, fairness is the weakest link.

You’d think that in a democratic, consumer-driven society, one whose media message is all about truth, justice and the Canadian way, fairness would be a candidate for a permanent pedestal. And so it should be, most of the time.

But not today.

Consider the recent CRTC decision to allow cablecasters to buy majority interests in analog specialty channels. The lobby favoring that decision has been swinging the fairness mantle round and round, like a beacon to lead us safely through the perfect Atlantic storm. Advocates say it was only fair, a done deal the minute the CRTC said ‘OK’ to BCE buying CTV.

But the federal regulator should have held fast to its established tradition of standing strong in the face of advocacy, of reverting to first principles in a storm, any storm, of controversy and hype. Certainly, it’s worth considering the argument that BCE shouldn’t be allowed to be more vertically integrated than its cable rivals. But the question is, would that form of vertical integration do as much harm to the industry in the years to come as vertical integration via the cable industry might do?

Cable association president Janet Yale says the fact that cable companies can invest more heavily in analog specialties provides specialtycasters with more access to capital. With all the CRTC ‘equitable treatment’ safeguards in place, Yale says, programming services and consumers can be assured that all channels will receive equal treatment on issues of carriage, packaging, promotion and so on. She says these analog channels are already safely licensed and packaged, and have channel placement.

But cable mating with specialties might prove more harmful than BCE’s moves, in the space odyssey beyond 2001 because the cable industry will always have on the back of its agenda that the 5:1 rule is up for review. That is, the rule that says cablers have to carry five unaffiliated services (not majority owned by them) for each affiliated service carried. If they get to the point where they own so many services they can’t match five unaffiliated ones any more, they will want 5:1 revisited and who will stand up then to make the case for fairness?

At a time when the upfront TV market in New York – where media buyers buy air time on networks’ fall skeds – has proven slow, when senior European delegates to the Banff TV Festival are noting the decline in network ad sales – this is no time to let cablecos offer their considerable financial resources to specialties. As fragmentation and a ‘contracted’ marketplace put pressure on airtime ad sales, as specialtycasters launch more channels and cash flows out faster than in, increased cableco buying power will put the independent program suppliers like Astral, AAC and Chum in play. Big time.

Which may mean further contraction in the market and…

If we don’t protect the market now, those cries will fall into a scenario like that in the Edvard Munch painting The Scream: everyone can see he’s screaming, but no one will hear.