OTTAWA -- Liberal MP Pablo Rodriguez says parliamentarians are being "blackmailed" by Canada's private broadcasters and cable companies who are wrestling over ways to save the troubled television industry.

"What I find unfortunate is that if we don't give you this or give you that, you say you are going to have to cut services or cut channels, so I get the impression that this is a type of blackmail," Rodriguez told television executives appearing before a committee studying the future of the industry.

Heads of CTV and Canwest Television testified that local stations are bleeding money and unless the federal regulator allows them to charge cable companies a "fee-for-carriage," they will continue to close unprofitable shops.

"As a private broadcaster, we exist to make a profit," said Ivan Fecan, CTV's president and CEO. "If we don't see a way to make money, we cease to exist."

Canwest Television president and CEO Peter Viner also said local service will be cut without "structural changes."

But Canada's cable and satellite distributors said private broadcasters are exaggerating and that "fee-for-carriage" is not the solution.

"It must be denied," said Peter Bissonnette, president of Shaw Communications, a major cable company in western Canada.

He said a "tax" on 10 million Canadians would not create more local programming.

Both Bissonnette and Cogeco Cable's vice-president of corporate affairs, Yves Mayrand, conceded costs imposed on them "would be passed on to our consumers."

MPs were left not knowing whom to believe.

"I've never seen so many very well-off companies coming and blaming the other guy," said NDP heritage critic Charlie Angus.

ALTHIA.RAJ@SUNMEDIA.CA