The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) last week launched consultations around market dynamics and the sustainability of Canada’s broadcasting system.
The consultations are covering a wide range of topics in the broadcasting system, from the discoverability of channels and services, the use of connected devices and the effectiveness of the CRTC’s current regulatory tools.
The Commission has posed an array of questions, including whether there are barriers to enter the market or be accessible to consumers. The questions also look at specific concerns for English- and French-language markets, as well as official language minority and Indigenous communities.
Among the issues the CRTC is exploring are the concept of “good faith” negotiations within the Broadcasting Act, data gathering and sharing, the market dynamics between large to small players within the system and the role of the CRTC in dispute resolution. The topics are meant to cover the streaming market as well as the traditional broadcast system.
We will be following the CRTC next week so stay tuned for coverage. Here is a breakdown of the first four day of consultations:
CRTC questions Google’s, YouTube’s business models
Bringing old regulatory models to the new digital age is “unnecessary” and could stifle innovation, argued representatives from Google Canada at the CRTC’s continued market dynamic hearings in Gatineau, Que.
“Google urges the Commission to exercise caution and restraint,” said Google Canada senior counsel Arun Krishnamurti (pictured) on Wednesday (June 25). “There is simply no rationale for transposing these regulatory tools onto online undertakings. It would be highly inappropriate for open platforms, YouTube in particular. Such top-down rules would interfere with the organic success Canadians have already found.”
Commissioners questioned Krishnamurti on YouTube’s various business models, seeking clarity on how the platform could be subject to certain regulations outside of its user-generated content, including its audio platform and transactional video on demand services.
Krishnamurti said many of the concerns raised in the proceeding – such as access to performance and advertising data – aren’t relevant to YouTube’s model. Neither are concerns around gatekeeping, since YouTube doesn’t support paid preferred placement on its platform, he said.
Check here for the complete coverage on the Google hearing.
Corus, Rogers talk commercial disputes
Representatives from Rogers Communications argued that the CRTC should heavily reduce the volume of regulations on broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs), relying on “market forces to achieve broadcasting policy objectives, whenever possible,” according to Bret Leech, president of residential services at Rogers.
Among the proposals is a reduction of Canadian ownership groups’ contributions to 5% of revenues, equivalent to the decision set out for foreign-owned online undertakings. Currently, large Canadian BDUs are required to contribute 30% of revenues. The reduced contributions should include the cost of 9.1(1)(h) wholesale fees as well as apply to local news programming, said Dean Shaikh, Rogers’ SVP of regulatory
affairs.
On the topic of conflict resolution, Susan Wheeler, Rogers’ VP, regulatory, broadcasting, said the CRTC should limit its scope of involvement on commercial disputes, echoing Bell’s call earlier in the week for faster decision-making through arbitration.
Rogers and Corus Entertainment are in the midst of a dispute over the carriage of several Corus lifestyle channels, including Home, Flavour and Slice, with Corus challenging Rogers’ decision to remove Slice from certain packages and move Home and Flavour’s channels. At press time, the channels remain in their current placement and packages due to the standstill rule, a decision that Rogers is challenging at the Federal Court of Appeal.
Check here for the complete coverage on the Corus and Rogers hearing.
Bell defends commercial interests of BDUs
According to Bell Canada Enterprises, the CRTC should keep public policy out of commercial negotiation disputes.
Ben Keys, director of content distribution at Bell Media, argued that it has become “increasingly challenging for parties to reach mutual agreement” in BDU negotiations. Part of the problem, according to Bell, is that the CRTC uses conflict resolution to achieve public policy objectives, rather than focus on commercial outcomes.
Keys also criticized delays in the CRTC’s decision-making process and its reluctance to move to arbitration. The company recommended that negotiations have a prescribed timeline, after which disputes will automatically move to arbitration, as well as have arbitration conducted by “independent commercial arbitrators” to ensure outcomes are based on commercial factors.
Check here for the complete coverage on the Bell hearing.
-Versions of these articles first appeared in Playback
