'Save Local TV' campaign not a code violation: CBSC

The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) said in a decision Wednesday that CTV’s “Save Local TV” campaign on fee-for-carriage last year did not violate any broadcast codes. The CBSC examined an advocacy campaign conducted by CTV-owned stations in May 2009 that had run related promotional spots and news reports.
Cable and satellite distributors had run a corresponding campaign called “Stop the TV Tax,” which opposed paying fees to broadcasters for the carriage of their over-the-air analogue signals. The distributors had complained to the CRTC that CTV-owned stations used their programming to air biased and unbalanced content to promote the campaign. That complaint, considered a “content issue,” was forwarded to the CBSC. The CBSC found that many of the segments under complaint were promotional spots or commercials that attempted to “sell” the broadcasters’ position in support of local television.