Canadian Heritage committee  I've highlighted on a number of occasions in my opening remarks the importance of news. Traditionally in our system, news has been delivered by the market. If you go back and look at a number of the studies over the years, that has not been an area of concern. But as we're moving forward, the CRTC certainly is getting more and more concerned about the delivery of news and information and how the broadcasting system contributes to our democracy and to informing Canadians and enlightening Canadians on that front.

Canadian Heritage committee  But who is producing that news that then gets repurposed on the various platforms? What we have found in our various studies is that Canadians still value news. They still value local news. It's very important to them. Many of them do consume it on the traditional platforms, and what is somewhat concerning, certainly for our country and for local news such as you're mentioning in the local areas—in the big markets it may be a different issue—is that those units that produce local news are certainly under duress and there's great concern.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, definitely. Both subscribership and revenues have been in decline in the last couple of years.

Canadian Heritage committee  It's a general question. Generally, yes, broadcasting properties are profitable. Each sector, as the report indicates, is going through different changes. One that is no longer profitable is conventional television as a whole.

Canadian Heritage committee  Overall, those companies do turn profits in the overall market. Now they operate in both the telecom and broadcasting fields, and their distribution units are more profitable, although less than they were in the past, than their media outlets, as I understand the difference between the two.

Canadian Heritage committee  Those are the distribution units that contribute to the Canada Media Fund. They continue to be able to contribute, and they do. Generally, we require that about 5% of the revenue goes toward the support of programming, which includes the Canada Media Fund.

Canadian Heritage committee  The Canada Media Fund has a very important role, and it's quite critical to the system. They are performing their mission as intended, but over the long term, the following is the important question: As the revenues of the distribution units continue to decline, does that 5%, which is based on revenue and not profits, also decline?

Canadian Heritage committee  The current act does say that it's all one system. I think what we're saying is that you cannot simply apply the current tools to all players, and in particular the new players. We need to be adaptable and to come up with the right tools and the right levers and the right contributions for each type of different player.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'll use the word “levy”, because we cannot impose taxes from the CRTC's standpoint, so it would be a levy or regulatory charge. Currently, all telecom services contribute towards what I call the “social objectives” of the Telecommunications Act, which include expanding broadband into rural areas.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'll start. We're just conferring on what data we do have with us. Right now, as you have properly noted, it's a question of the pace of change.

Canadian Heritage committee  What we're seeing in our market today is that over the long term, digital products will clearly be taking over. Digital forms of delivery will represent the future. Currently, by a vast majority, the consumption of television programming, for example, is done on traditional platforms.

Canadian Heritage committee  In terms of the consumption levels, the reach levels, as opposed to the number of hours, which was what we were answering in the previous question, are very high.

Canadian Heritage committee  I believe so. It's in that zone.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes—and growing.

Canadian Heritage committee  We can get you that, but just from memory, for traditional platforms it's about 26 hours a week. At the time of our report, it seemed to be about four to five hours online.