TORONTO – Bell Media president Kevin Crull laid a verbal smackdown on the CRTC Monday in Toronto.
Speaking to a Broadcast Executives Society luncheon, Crull railed against last week’s CRTC vertical integration policy decision, which Bell is among just a few companies who came out against the Commission’s determination, saying the new policy will cause significant harm to the Canadian industry.
After pointing out the TV business suffers with “a failed financial model for delivering conventional television,” Crull also pointed out how his company (owners of conventional broadcast brands CTV and CTV Two along with specialty channels like TSN, Discovery, Comedy Network, MuchMusic and many others) faces new over-the-top challengers, too, who don’t face any regulation at all.
Referring to the likes of Netflix and others as “unregulated, well-capitalized foreign competitors who are entering our market without a broadcast license and aren’t facing the same rules as the rest of us,” Crull said the traditional TV business needs symmetry on the regulation front with foreign new media competitors, so that “the market creates winners and losers, not policy-makers. We are more than ready to compete, and we believe Canadian media is up to the challenge, but I’m afraid our regulators are doing significantly more harm than good lately.”
Echoing the sentiments of his regulatory chief, who told Cartt.ca last week it may be time to start over with new legislation, Crull tore into the CRTC’s vertical integration decision, saying the “severely misguided” policy contemplates imaginary problems that just don’t exist.
“These are challenging times in our industry and the last thing we need right now is innovation and risk taking being hindered by heavy-handed regulation,” he said. “The CRTC’s decision to oversee practically every aspect of our business – whether it be price, product availability and packaging – is outdated and it has been proven over and over again to hurt a country’s productivity and competitiveness.
“It’s clear that the CRTC believes large-scale companies are a bad thing – so much so that last week’s decision actually rewards companies who decided not to invest in broadcasting, as Bell and certain others have done,” Crull continued. “But I would point out that Bell’s acquisition of CTV strengthened our ability to marry resources, delivery methods and content, allowing us to provide consumers new products and services across all four screens. Our acquisition also bailed out the leader in an industry teetering on the brink of disaster in the last recession.”
The Bell Media president insisted the market between distributors and broadcasters is functioning well and this new regulation will injure attempts to innovate and experiment. “We don’t need regulation disrupting every business arrangement we pursue,” he added. “Companies like ours will be unable to rapidly test or introduce leading-edge service offerings for consumers because of uncertainty and a cumbersome process. And there is less likelihood that cable and satellite TV providers will choose to take a chance on new independent channels. The result of which could be fewer choices for consumers and less diversity.
“Make no mistake – this decision does not benefit consumers and it is a striking illustration of a regulator expanding its mandate, presumably in an effort to remain relevant, by imagining problems that just doesn’t exist,” he continued, “while ignoring the necessary hard work on threats to our broadcast system that do exist. Mr. Regulator, let’s support job growth for the media sector in Canada, not for the regulatory sector.”
Crull went on to outline some of the company’s recent developments on all four screens (TV, PC, tablet and smartphone), pointing out that in today’s world, “years are months, months are weeks, weeks are days when it comes to new services and new business models,” and how Bell Media is trying to help bring a new Canadian startup to market, “who I think has a social application that truly could be the next Twitter,” he said.
However, it has to happen quickly, within the next six months, if it’s going to be successful because “that’s how the new media space works,” Crull added. “We need a regulatory environment that supports speed to market and experimentation – exactly the opposite of the rules (the CRTC) just put in place.”
The company has not yet said if it plans to appeal the vertical integration decision to cabinet, for example, or if it will respond in another fashion.
– Greg O’Brien
