As the contentious hearings on fee-for-carriage draw near, Rogers Communications on Tuesday officially marked the 40th anniversary of its local Rogers TV channel by reaffirming its support of community programming.

‘Local TV matters… we’ve said it a lot longer, although not as loudly as the broadcasters,’ Rogers Communications vice-chairman Phil Lind told a group of journalists and staff at the event at company headquarters in Toronto.

Lind talked up the importance of community television, pointing out that the cable giant pours $33 million per year into programming for Rogers TV, which produces 17,000 hours of local programming with ‘zero foreign content.’ Lind was flanked by Colette Watson, VP of Rogers TV, and Jan Innes, VP of communications at Rogers.

Rogers TV (Cable 10 in Toronto) was launched in October 1969 and has grown to include 34 stations across Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland. Programming consists of community-rooted live events such as junior hockey, talk shows, including the popular Sex at 11, and other lifestyle programming.

Insisting that cable companies ‘are the voice of local TV,’ Lind expressed frustration that Rogers’ support of local TV has been overlooked by media during the fee-for-carriage war with broadcasters including CTV, CBC and Global — which have launched the ‘Local TV Matters’ campaign.

‘One of our messages is that local TV is owned by us, not [just] by them, but you’d never know it by reading the papers,’ says Lind, who will also be appearing at the fee-for-carriage hearings, set for Dec. 7.

Rogers execs also discussed the future of community TV, predicting that on-demand will become more popular — giving viewers, who want to know what’s going on in their community, the opportunity to select the shows of their choice.

Rogers is also planning to launch an HD channel for Rogers TV in March 2010.