A guest editorial from Norm Bolen, president & CEO, Canadian Media Production Association.

The Canadian broadcasting landscape has undergone a fundamental transformation in recent years. Consolidation, media concentration and vertical integration have been the trends – and those trends only appear to be accelerating.

Just a few weeks ago, the CRTC approved Shaw Communications’ acquisition of Canwest, and early in the new year it will be holding a hearing to review BCE’s acquisition of CTV.

Rumors are circulating in the industry about which remaining independent broadcasters are likely to be taken over next, with cable and satellite companies gobbling up broadcasters – and the rights to their content – in order to retain customers.

As the organization that represents Canada’s independent film, television and new media producers, we also believe that content is king. But as the number of players in the broadcasting system gets smaller, the shadow cast by those that are left grows ever larger, extending across conventional, pay and specialty television, as well as Internet and mobile platforms.

Clearly, we have entered the era of the BDU Broadcaster. The result is a highly imbalanced broadcasting system dominated by a handful of corporate giants with unprecedented market power.

We all should be concerned about this. An imbalanced broadcasting system is an unhealthy one, with serious consequences for programming choice and diversity. If ever there was a time to adopt measures to restore balance to the system, it’s now.

Fortunately, the CRTC is taking steps to ensure that all parts of the broadcasting system are healthy. For one, we welcome its decision to hold a hearing next spring on whether additional safeguards are needed to address the potentially anti-competitive effects of vertical integration.

We were also pleased by the CRTC’s strong support for Terms of Trade in its decision approving Shaw’s acquisition of Canwest. The Commission made clear that if Shaw and the other major private broadcast groups can’t reach a Terms of Trade deal with indie producers in time for next spring’s license renewal hearings, it may choose to take matters into its own hands and impose Terms of Trade. We are confident that this strong statement by the CRTC will get the parties back to the negotiating table in short order.

What are Terms of Trade? Simply put, they are a vehicle for maximizing the exploitation of Canadian content across all platforms and in all markets – and on terms that are fair to both independent producers and broadcasters.

More concretely, Terms of Trade are framework agreements that would govern development and licensing deals for Canadian programming. Done right, they would help ensure that the rights to a show are in the hands of the party best equipped to exploit them. This is the essence of a truly effective partnership.

We can all agree that Canadian broadcasters need a bundle of rights in order to build and maintain audiences in the domestic marketplace. At the same time, broadcasters may not be well placed to extract the full value of a show in international markets.

Independent producers, on the other hand, have the entrepreneurial drive, relationships and focus to take the international marketplace by storm and sell a show in many territories. When producers work the international market, the revenue earned from those sales gets ploughed right back into the development of new ideas and new shows – this benefits all stakeholders, including producers, broadcasters, and most importantly, audiences.

Let’s face it: even in a hyper-consolidated system, broadcasters and independent producers still need each other. This means that they need each other to be healthy. We are fully committed to sitting down with our broadcasting partners to work out Terms of Trade that strengthen both the relationship between broadcasters and independent producers, as well as the system as a whole.

From our perspective, this outcome is best achieved through negotiation rather than direct CRTC regulation. But one way or the other, for the health of the system, Terms of Trade need to happen. And they need to happen now.