GATINEAU, QUEBEC – The debate for the future of Canadian television is on.

Crucial CRTC hearings began Monday morning in a room packed with media executives, as CTVglobemedia argued that local TV programming is threatened unless the federal government intervenes in the current Canadian television regime.

In his opening statements, the chair of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, Konrad von Finckenstein, attempted to cut through the multi-million dollar ad campaigns launched by both sides.

"This hearing is not about the past," von Finckenstein told the room. "It is not about enshrining or protecting old business models. And it is not about taxing consumers."

The broadcasters, including CTV and CBC, want the right to charge cable companies for local programming. The cable and satellite carriers, led by telecom heavyweight Rogers Communications Inc., are resisting.

CTV suggested Canadians be offered a "skinny basic" television package – essentially, basic cable – at a low-cost rate fixed by the government, one that could only be increased by carriers with CRTC approval.

The broadcasters also argued that they want the right to negotiate a fee for their local channels from the cable and satellite companies, on a station-by-station basis. The CRTC has twice rejected broadcasters' arguments in previous hearings on the issue.

Von Finckenstein's opening statements seemed conciliatory to the broadcasters' argument – that the decline in advertising for local TV stations means Canadians may lose out on programming that reflects their communities. But his tough questioning reflected the CRTC's predicament: the federal agency is now, as it has been in the past, stuck between two highly antagonistic entities, and is faced with the possibility that it may inadvertently pass on costs to average consumers.

CTVglobemedia president and CEO Ivan Fecan, part of a large CTV group that included lawyers and U.S. consultants, told the commission what the broadcasters have argued in previous hearings on the "fee for carriage" issue, that the business model for local television is broken.

"Mountains of evidence has been filed in all of the hearings leading up to this one, demonstrating that the conventional business model is permanently compromised, that this is a long-term structural trend exacerbated by the recession," Fecan said.

With a furrowed brow, von Finckenstein questioned the assembled CTV executives, growing visibly frustrated by the broadcasters' arguments. The implication of CTV's arguments, von Finckenstein said, would lead to extra charges thrown at the average consumer, because of bickering between corporate giants who do big business with each other.

"You are in a symbiotic relationship," von Finckenstein said. "There has got to be a symbiotic solution."

Rogers, which began making its case in the early afternoon, came out swinging – saying that any type of negotiations would almost certainly turn sour, leading to signal blackouts and widespread consumer backlash. Nadir Mohamed, Rogers' CEO, lambasted what he called broadcasters' "destructive overspending" on U.S. programming. He also insinuated that the broadcasters' had failed to adopt to shifts in technology.

"They do not need a bailout," Mohamed said.

Rogers argued, as it has all along, that a fee-for-carriage-like proposal was unacceptable, that it combined what it saw as the worst of the U.S. system – signal compensation – and the worst of the Canadian system, which currently dictates mandatory carriage, mingled with Canadian content regulations.

"We are prepared to help broadcasters reinvigorate their business models for the digital and Internet age," Mohamed told the commission. "We are not prepared, however, to support a fundamentally flawed compensation proposal."

CRTC chair von Finckenstein seemed extremely frustrated by much of Rogers testimony before the committee, putting his head down in his hands at times, and repeating one idea throughout his long line of questioning.

"I must say I find your responses not very helpful, you're taking a very dogmatic stance rather than trying to understand what I'm asking from you," he said. "I think you and the (over-the-air broadcasters) are destroying each other."

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Throughout the hearings, von Finckenstein kept asking why both sides couldn't negotiate among themselves and then come to the CRTC with a proposal, which it could either approve or reject. When he asked the assembled Rogers' executives why they couldn't just negotiate, which is what the broadcasters want, Lind replied: "We don't have our hand out. They do."

The hearings will continue for two weeks, with testimony from a variety of stakeholders from ordinary citizens to other broadcasters, cable and satellite providers, and groups concerned with Canadian content, such as ACTRA, the actors' union.

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