OTTAWA – At the International Institute of Communications (IIC), 16th annual Canadian conference Wednesday morning, we quickly got into the heart of the matter with two panel discussions to tackle the Review of Canada’s Broadcasting and Telecommunications Acts.
Two bi-lingual panels of four people each got to have their kicks at the can for almost three hours to offer their points of view, perspectives on how the two Acts needs to change.
To structure the debate, the moderators (Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien and University du Québec à Montréal professor Catalina Briceño) suggested that participants outline what they would definitely keep in the Acts, or what they definitely wanted to see changed in the Broadcasting Act for the first panel and Telecom Act for the second panel.
We mostly heard about what they wanted to change.
More funding for content and operations and a leveling of the playing field by getting the Netflixes of this world to contribute to funding Canadian content, or perhaps changing the laws to force Canadian internet service providers to contribute a percentage of their revenues to Canadian content production, was top of mind for each of the broadcasting panel members TV5 Quebec Canada CEO Marie-Phillipe Bouchard, ATN CEO Shan Chandrasekar, APTN CEO Jean LaRose and Skystone Media president Stephen Stohn.
The possibility of revoking the CRTC’s Digital Media Exemption Order (the 1999 order – revisited a couple of times since by the Commission – which essentially says to leave the internet unregulated) seems to have gotten everybody’s vote on potential immediate changes required – and all agreed on Chandrasekar’s call for far more stringent protections when it comes to content piracy. He was one of the leaders of the FairPlay Canada Coalition and application to the Commission which the CRTC decided to dismiss, earlier this year.
LaRose added that it was time these Acts make clearer and better mention of Indigenous Canadians and their communities and the role they play and should play in these industries.
Stohn also fretted about how the day may well come when American studios and broadcasters – upon which Canadian broadcasters depend to fill their schedules and earn most of their ad dollars – cease selling their content to the likes of Corus and Bell Media and instead go direct to Canadian consumers. He called this the “Can-pocalypse” and he’s right, it would be, if that comes to pass, because our system is not at all ready for such a shock.
In short, it was a list of asks that the chair, and various members, of the Broadcasting and Telecom Legislation Review expert panel who were present heard that may or may not have been useful – but were indicative of the state of mind of members of the industry who are the bulk of the IIC delegates.
The BTLR panel's report, however, is due in January 2019 (with a preliminary look due first in June) and a new Act is not likely to be in enacted until 2020 at the soonest (or 2025 as others have suggested), which means there is a risk that the broadcasting as we know it could by then be decimated.
Later on that evening Janet Yale, chair of the BTLR panel appeared in front of the Senate Committee on Transport and Communications and indicated in her opening remarks that “it’s not enough to hear about challenges – those are pretty well documented. Our real ambition is to identify remedies.”
We’ll have more on her appearance at the Senate later on.
The second telecom-focused panel at the IIC stirred a different tone with a panel comprised of competitors (Iristel’s CEO Samer Bishay and Rogers VP regulatory cable Pam Dinsmore), University of Montreal professor Alain Saulnier and Lianna McDonald from the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.
While the professor advocated more money for CBC/Radio-Canada (he worked for nearly 30 years at Radio-Canada) Bishay, whose company also serves the far north with ICE Wireless, suggested Canada emulate Kenya, which ensures incumbents give open access to 40% of their spectrum to MVNO competitors. Dinsmore advocated changes to the powers of the Commission in dealing with right of ways, saying it should have the ultimate authority over provincial utilities or municipalities when it comes to siting because next generation 5G technology will require even more installations – albeit far smaller ones – than the current norm.
While that is all déjà vu if you have been following the industry for some time, what really got the attention of the audience is the comments from McDonald. We had heard about the carriage and content the industry normally talks about, however she talked about another type of content that is criminal in nature and so despicable it is hard to remain insensitive.
How does that fit on a discussion on adapting the Acts? The Canadian Centre for Child Protection wants the protection of kids and families who have been violated this way protected in the Acts (and in the Copyright Act, too, for that matter). The CCCP is interested in taking down sites (and people) that distribute child pornography. They are subject matter experts which want the ability to get more expeditious removal of such content enshrined in law.
We’ll see what impact this had on the BTLR panel itself Thursday as all members will be on stage to close IIC Canada Thursday afternoon.
Photo courtesy of Cartt.ca Twitter follower Owen Ripley.
