Bram Abramson to the National Campus and Community Radio Association’s Station Managers’ Summit

Speech

Ottawa, Ontario
February 12, 2025

Bram Abramson, Commissioner for Ontario
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)

Check against delivery

Good morning. It’s great to visit with you here on unceded, unsurrendered Algonquin Anishnaabeg territory.

I thank the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation for having me as a guest, and for stewarding these lands and waters since time immemorial. And I thank the

National Campus and Community Radio Association for the opportunity to be with you today.

It is a real pleasure for me to be here among so many with a passion for community radio.

Community media is one of the three elements, alongside the public and private elements, that the Broadcasting Act recognizes as comprising the Canadian broadcasting system. This mix of ownership models helps enhance media pluralism, better lending itself to generating the diversity of perspectives and wide range of programming content that the public interest demands.  

At the same time, over-the-air radio is the longest-standing platform we oversee at the CRTC, and also its most durable. It has weathered technological change better than most other sectors. Despite the industry-wide shift to digital and streaming, campus and community radio continues to fill the role it has long played. You bring new music to new audiences. You amplify local stories to the broader public.

You give your members and your campus and local communities the opportunity to get involved and share their voices over the airwaves, out on the Internet, and among their friends and peers. Some of the ongoing discussions I hear these days about media ecosystem changes and how content creators and audiovisual production pipelines are adapting relate to the trend to building community around content earlier in the process. Your way of working embodies that.

Role of the CRTC

At the CRTC we have long been engaged in creating frameworks and stewarding the place in the broadcasting system of campus and community radio, ever since community radio’s creation in Canada in the early 1970s. Our first community radio policy was issued in 1976, through a public announcement. That is 50 years ago from next year.

Since then we issued new community and campus radio policies in 1985, 1992, 2000, and 2010.

Lately, we at the CRTC have been busy. The media environment has changed, and is continuing to change, in ways that are filled with opportunities but also fraught with risks. Yesterday I gave a talk at a telecom event that included a quote that applies just as well to what we are experiencing in the audio and audiovisual ecosystem, as we grapple with changes in how we support public-interest content and address market failure, and grapple with changes in the volume, velocity, and veracity of the information ecosystem.

At the CRTC, we hope we are taking a more optimistic view than Gramsci did. But the view that what is new is rooted in what came before it, and that the challenge is in how to marry those in the transition between them, is poignant. My colleagues and I are pondering many of the same questions all of you are, but from a different perspective and zoomed out to take in the broader audio and audiovisual environment.

That perspective is being brought to bear through a series of ongoing proceedings on building a fair, sustainable oversight framework for audio and audiovisual media that encompasses over-the-air, dedicated-distribution, and Internet-distributed media even-handedly. My colleagues at the CRTC have described our approach as being based on three pillars—high-quality content, a sustainable system, and clear and predictable rules. To give you some background on where we’re at and where we are heading, I will touch on each of these in turn.

High-quality content

First, we want Canadians to have access to the quality content they’re interested in, and that they can access it on the platforms they can easily access. From news to music, to drama, humour and comedy, to documentary programming and beyond, in English, in French, in Indigenous languages, and in diaspora languages.

And yes, that also means making available and having meaningful access to content made by Canadians and content made for Canadians. We are a country and we need to hear from each other. We need local content. We need content that speaks to regional and national affairs. We need to tell our stories to one another, including those made by official language minority communities, under-represented groups, and Indigenous peoples. And we want to make sure that content has a fair shake across the spectrum of traditional and online platforms.

To ensure we meet these goals in a way that considers the views and perspectives of everyone, we have been holding a series of public consultations. As you are likely aware, we ran a recent consultation examining how we can modernize radio processes: to provide more flexibility, reduce administrative burden, lower the cost of having to go in for licence renewals, streamline some of your reporting, and exempt some forms of radio whose regulation wouldn’t meaningfully advance the goals of the Broadcasting Act.

We also have another, upcoming public consultation on audio policy. When it is launched, we will be reviewing a number of aspects of radio and audio policy in Canada. We will examine what regulatory obligations should exist for the radio and audio industry in a modernized broadcasting framework. We’ll look at how audio players contribute to the strength of our broadcasting system. I hope many of you participate.

In the meantime, we soon plan to hold a public hearing on audiovisual content, including whether to change our points system for defining Canadian content in that environment moving forward, and the broader set of incentives and supports built on that system.

In parallel, we have been working for some time on co-developing an Indigenous Broadcasting Policy. We are collaborating closely with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples to co-develop a policy that meets the needs and interests of Indigenous nations and communities. The broadcasting system should reflect the experiences of all people in Canada, and support all the voices and perspectives that make up the rich tapestry of Canadian society. 

A sustainable broadcasting system

Second, we want to make sure the modernized framework we establish for the Canadian broadcasting system is sustainable for years to come. One that is capable of adapting to technological advancements and to changing market dynamics.

In this area, we have an ongoing public consultation on the market dynamics between small, medium and large market participants, including programmers, distributors, and streamers. We want to know how the current dynamics are impacting how markets deliver on the policy objectives set out in the Act, and how to ensure a sustainable, fair and competitive broadcasting system.

That public consultation is open for intervention through to February 24. I encourage you to participate and to share your views, so that we can take them into account in where we land. Our work is meant to ensure that the Canadian broadcasting system is set up to succeed and prepared to weather the next disruption that comes down the road.

A sustainable broadcasting system will require shared ways of communicating, knowing, and exchanging data. To that end, I want to take a moment to applaud your work to set up the Earshot digital distribution system. It is a system that makes it easier for independent artists and labels to reach new ears and audiences with a few clicks. At the same time, it is an intervention into making data on music, artists, producers, and lyrics available in a well-structured and public way.

For our goals for the Canadian broadcasting system to scale digitally, metadata governance and data interoperability will be essential. Your leadership in compiling and publishing structured data through !earshot is part of that ecosystem, and part of the kind of activity on which every element of the broadcasting system—public, private, and community—will have to cooperate as the broadcasting system scales.

Clear and predictable rules

Third, we want to ensure that any decisions and rules resulting from all this work is clear, transparent, and workable. We want all stakeholders, from radio stations to satellite operators to streamers, and across private, public, and community elements, to clearly understand their rights and responsibilities within the broadcasting system. We want them to have the flexibility to operate, strategize and react quickly to changing conditions.

That also includes those who participate in our proceedings. In another workstream, we hope to soon consult on reviewing how we fund the participation of groups that represent the public interest, under the heading of public interest participation. Our decisions are based on the public record and what is filed with us. Broader public participation will bring a greater diversity of perspectives and let us take decisions that are better informed by the public interest. By the same token, your participation will let us take decisions better informed by your interests.

Conclusion

So that, in a nutshell, is what we have been up to when it comes to audio and audiovisual media at the CRTC. I recognize it can sound like quite a lot. And to be frank, it is.

But we are holding all of these public consultations and proceedings because the task before us – modernizing the regulatory framework by which we oversee Canada’s broadcasting system – is no small feat. There are many complex and interconnected issues to be addressed. And our hope is, through extensive consultations, through talking to all players in the system, new and traditional, small and large, commercial and non-commercial as well as Canadians in general, we can create a sustainable broadcasting system that is built to last.

You and your stations fill a critical role in a distinct element of the broadcasting system. Please, get involved. Participate in our processes. If you haven’t toured your friendly regional CRTC Commissioner through to show them what you do, consider inviting them.

Your work, and ours, comes during a time of intense transition. We look forward to continuing to navigate it with you.