CRTC Hearings Day 6

Another full slate of witnesses at Day 6 of the CRTC Hearings on Broadcasting and New Media. It was my turn to attend the hearings, so here is the rundown (the full transcript can be found here).

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The CBC went out of its way to position itself as the most new media friendly of Canada’s radio and television broadcasters. In their opening statement, the CBC referred to themselves as “new media broadcasters”. “New media broadcasting enables us to enhance accessibility, engagement and exposure to our content.”, said one of the CBC’s representatives. “We are truly in a dialogue with our viewers.” The CBC then took the smart position that in a new media environment that is global in scope, having an all-Canadian, high-quality option is not only part of the CBC’s mandate, but an essential element of its positioning in the marketplace. They admitted, however, that successful business models for “new media broadcasting” have yet to be determined. In their brief to the commission, the CBC appeared to be arguing for a stronger set of remedies, including the following:

"Licensed and off-air broadcasting services should be required to ensure the services are not being made available to Canadians by new media content aggregators unless such aggregators (read: Joost, JumpTV) agreed to comply with obligations established by the Commission for such entities."

However, in their opening presentation and in their response to questioning, they appeared to back away from those suggestions, arguing later that it was “not exactly their position” instead arguing that an ISP levy was the only “reasonable and effective funding approach”.

Some highlights from the Q and A. Much of the questions and answers seemed to pick up on the CBC”s positioning as a ‘new media broadcaster”, by asking its representatives to explain both how they imagine operating as the digital world evolves. Among the CBC’s answers were its suggestions that its presence in new media gives it a decided advantage when it comes to covering more regional stories. Two areas attracted the most interest: the question of how much of the Corp’s archives would be available online, and what the terms of trade were between the CBC and independent producers. Commissioner Michel Morin wanted to know why “The National” and “Le Telejournal” are not available online. Commissioner Tim Denton asked CBC representatives if they had ever gone directly to the public for funding, a la PBS.

A couple of other interesting statistics worth mentioning here. The CBC claimed that in the last month, it has seen a 47% increase in page use (I’ll have to look up what that measurement entails) and, for added effect, claimed that last month Canadians spent 99 million minutes online with the CBC. They also indicated that they have been experimenting using PPM measurements in Quebec, with the idea of expanding the use of this measurement tool to English-Canada, even though there are problems with this methodology. CBC’s head of research indicated that the IAB was on the verge of developing a standardized methodology for audience measurement in new media in Canada. Some other things to pass along. CBC representatives indicated that downloading podcasts is less popular a practice in Quebec than it is in English-speaking Canada. They also indicated rights issues have hindered the availability and distribution of what they call “straight entertainment programming”.

One other interesting thing. The CBC explained that they were allotted a certain amount of bandwidth by Akamai to stream the inauguration. It was the second time, they claimed that they have had “negotiated cap” rates with Akamai to regulate bandwidth and ensure that the system didn’t crash.

l'Association québécoise de l'industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la vidéo (ADISQ)
The primary voice for Quebec’s recording industry, ADISQ argued for the CRTC to regulate in a way that was described as “moderate”, “constructive”, and “resolute”.

Claiming that the music industry has been most directly affected by new media – and the illegal activities that take place on it – ADISQ argued that the CRTC should be guided by the lessons from the past. Further, they argued that “the implementation of regulatory guidelines for broadcasting in new media will promote the harmonious development of our culture and the new media companies, for the greater benefit of the general public”.

ADISQ argued that “non-interactive” music programmers (ie: online services provided by commercial radio stations) should be subject to the same rules that govern their activities on the airwaves. They also argued – without providing examples -- that the CRTC should establish “a formal framework for discussion to encourage dialogue between companies that provide an Internet access service and the community producing Canadian cultural content” with the hopes of coming to some kind of agreement “about the obligations that the companies providing an Internet access service would agree to undertake”

During the Q and A component, commissioners indirectly took up the question of dialogue ADISQ mentioned in its presentation by asking about the question of filtering. On that subject, ADISQ’s representative, Solange Drouin, argued that ADISQ didn’t believe that the CRTC should “force Canadian content” on its citizens; however, she also addressed the issue in such a way that would seem to indicate that one possibility would be to make the Canadian content “faster” to access (translation double-checked from the CPAC feed):

Everything is possible in terms of filtering and control – everything that goes through the pipes is possible. Everybody would be a volunteer to control pornographic sites or access….but if we ask is it possible to have a way of managing Canadian content in a different way so that it would be faster or broader and all of a sudden it is impossible. I believe it is clear that we could maybe think with ISPs about a way of giving priority to Canadian content or services without saying it’s the only supply.

Commissioner Michel Morin referred to a report tabled with the CRTC, “New Media Deep Packet Integration and Canadian Content” which appeared to make the suggest that DPI technologies could be used to prioritize Canadian content. He asked if ADISQ had read the report; they mentioned they did not but would consult it for their final submissions.

Shaw Rocket Fund
A not-for-profit corporation that provides equity financing to Canadian children’s and youth programming, the Shaw Rocket Fund appeared before the CRTC “as a voice for children under 18”. They argued that such groups deserve to be heard because “what these early adopters are doing is valuable in that it is what adults will be doing five years or so in the future”. Shaw Rocket Fund officials pointed to the fact that Canadian young people are “starting to move towards a self-defined identity of being Canadian”, a development they site as different from the previous generation. That said, they argued that investments in programming for young people has declined and that the dominance of Corus and Astral in the youth market is troubling for diversity. They argued that the CRTC should make Canadian children a priority in the broadcasting system; that the Shaw Rocket Fund, restricted in its investments to television programming, move into new media program financing; and that Canadian content for children’s programming is appropriately resourced.

Alliance for Children and Television
The ACT is an organization comprised of various parties – producers, broadcasters, and individuals – that are committed to the development of quality children’s television programming. The organization argued that the CRTC should take the appropriate steps necessary to ensure the proliferation of quality children’s television in the world of new media, including supporting the production of programming specifically for new media platforms, and to encourage contributions from internet and mobile communication providers.

Corus Entertainment
A major player in Canada’s entertainment industry – from its broadcasting holdings to those in publishing and television production, Corus offering a decidedly different perspective to the day’s hearings, The company argued that competition is the major challenge facing Canadian media companies, and argued that the CRTC could improve this situation by allowing Canadian media companies to become larger (and thus, globally competitive); to have investments in digital rights management be considered as eligible for tax credits that exist in broadcasting policy measures; and that the current exemption orders for new media should remain in place and that “the commission should make no attempt to regulate the new media activities of Canadian broadcasters”.

The first set of questions from Konrad von Finckenstein had to do with measurement – how to measure the amount of Canadian content online. KvF asked Corus representatives if they were participating in the ISAN project, a kind of digital watermarking for a/v content, which could be used to track Canadian content online. Corus argued that while ISAN numbers might be helpful in identifying inventory, it would not be useful to assess consumer demand for Canadian content.

A few other tidbits: Corus claims that 80,000 people have downloaded the application for iphones and ipods that gives users access to Corus radio stations. Corus also claimed that ComScore and HitBox, two audience measurement techniques, don’t appear to correlate to each other. One other thing: for those interested in the circulation of ideas, Chris Anderson’s book The Long Tail and Lawrence Lessig’s concept of “the hybrid economy” were both deployed by Corus during their testimony before the commission.