Vancouver: A review of government fees and advertising standards will contribute to a healthier investor climate that is key to the long-term viability of the television and radio sector, says the recently appointed president and CEO of the 600-member Canadian Association of Broadcasters.

‘We have to make [the investor climate] more attractive than it currently is,’ says Glenn O’Farrell, speaking on the eve of Broadcasting 2002, the association’s 76th Annual Convention, being held this year in Vancouver Oct. 20-22. ‘The CAB will be successful if it can develop win-win proposals for government that maintain investor confidence.’

For example, the CAB wants the CRTC to do away with or divert about $80 million a year in extra fees paid by radio, television and specialty providers. The so-called Part 2 fees – considered an illegal form of taxation by the association – go to the government’s consolidated revenues and not to upkeep of the Canadian broadcasting system like Part 1 fees, says O’Farrell.

The CAB could support Part 2 fees if they went toward developing the Canadian broadcast system, he adds, and has called on government to reconsider the added burden on the broadcast sector.

The government’s stand on pharmaceutical and medical advertising also needs revisiting, says O’Farrell.

Broadcasters are losing out on a lucrative revenue stream because Canadian advertising standards prohibit campaigns that promote medical products and benefits. However, U.S. broadcast signals, foreign print media and the Internet profit from pharmaceutical advertising that reaches Canadians.

‘The advertising is already here,’ says O’Farrell, suggesting that a ‘made-in-Canada’ solution to help domestic broadcasters might include stricter standards than in the U.S., including pre-screening the ads.

DTH piracy will be another hot issue at the convention, says O’Farrell. According to the CAB, up to 800,000 of Canada’s 11.5 million households are hooked up to black- or grey-market satellite systems.

‘The consumer who chooses a black-market dish is checking out of the Canadian broadcasting system,’ he says. ‘Theft is theft and the development of technology that makes it easy doesn’t make it right.’

And the CAB will plug its successes battling Internet broadcasters in its focus on copyright. ‘Internet rebroadcasting [for television] has to be integrated in a way as to not undo the accomplishments of the past,’ says O’Farrell.

The convention’s overall theme of celebrating private broadcasters’ leadership through public service reflects O’Farrell’s beliefs, having come from the private broadcast system, most recently as senior VP of specialty services at Global Television Network.

‘Our commitment to community is the defining characteristic of private broadcasting,’ he says. ‘In a sense, it is our ‘brand.’ At this year’s convention, we intend to celebrate the tremendous contributions private broadcasters make to their communities, and our country.’

Don Tapscott, an international authority on technology and business strategy and chairman of Digital 4Sight, is the keynote speaker and will address issues such as delivering shareholder value and handling technological change.

Former prime minister John Turner and CRTC chair Charles Dalfen are also on the program that features 80 speakers and panelists. And a special panel on media and politics called ‘Are Canadians Tuning Out?’ features Preston Manning, former leader of the Canadian Alliance party; Jacques Parizeau, former premier of Quebec; and Peter Donolo, executive VP of The Strategic Counsel, debating with journalists Robert Fife of the National Post, Mike Duffy of CTV News and Chantal Hebert of the Toronto Star.

Meanwhile, Leonard Asper, president and CEO at CanWest Global; Louis Audet, president and CEO at Cogeco; Drew Craig, president and CEO at Craig Broadcasting; Elmer Hildebrand, president and CEO at Golden West Broadcasting; Ted Rogers, president and CEO at Rogers Communications; and Jim Waters, president of CHUM Radio, convene for a panel on increased shareholder expectations in an industry committed to community service.

At the event, 10 Canadians will be inducted into the Broadcast Hall of Fame including: journalist Rita Deverell, broadcaster/music executive Denise Donlon, late multicultural radio pioneer Johnny Lombardi, television executive Trina McQueen, hockey play-by-play announcer Jim Robson and television host Pamela Wallin.

-www.cab-acr.ca