OTTAWA — Canada’s largest, vertically integrated BDUs have a little over a year to start providing set-top box data to a national STB-based audience measurement system — a new condition of licence imposed by the CRTC when it announced August 2 the collective renewal of soon-to-expire licences for various terrestrial BDUs.
As it renews their respective licences for a new term starting September 1, 2018, the CRTC is imposing a condition of licence on Bell, Rogers, Shaw and Videotron that will require them to provide the set-top box (STB) data they collect regarding programming services they distribute to a national STB-based audience measurement system by no later than September 30, 2019, the CRTC announced in its Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2018-263 last week.
However, given the fact an STB-based national audience measurement system does not currently exist and may not be operational by the September 30, 2019, deadline, the CRTC has included an additional condition of licence on vertically integrated BDUs, on a suspensive basis, that would require them to provide STB data to Canadian programming services, upon written request. The BDUs would be required to provide STB data in the form of raw data or reports, within 30 days, at no cost to the Canadian programming services, and up to a maximum of two times per broadcast year, the CRTC stated in last week’s broadcasting decision. This secondary condition of licence is suspended until September 30, 2019 and thereafter, as long as a national STB measurement system is operational at that time, the CRTC added.
The STB Working Group — first formed in April 2015 as part of the CRTC’s “Let’s Talk TV” broadcasting policy — has been developing an STB-based national measurement system in conjunction with Numeris (formerly BBM). The STB Working Group includes members from Bell, Blue Ant Media, CBC, CCSA, Cogeco, Corus, Eastlink, Groupe V Media, Independent Broadcasters Group, Pelmorex, Quebecor, Rogers, SaskTel, Shaw and Telus. In an updated progress report filed in January 2018, the STB Working Group stated the projected date for the STB National Measurement Service is September 30, 2019.
The CRTC seems to have grown weary of the delays in the STB Working Group’s progress and — despite the objections of virtually every BDU, not just the vertically integrated ones, who either submitted interventions or appeared before the Commission during its BDU Licence Renewal hearing last fall — the CRTC is pushing ahead with including the condition of licence regarding the provision of STB data in this round of BDU licence renewals.
"Given the time that has elapsed since the formation of the STB Working Group, the Commission no longer considers it to be appropriate for that working group to proceed in the absence of firm deadlines." – CRTC
“[T]he development of a national STB-based audience measurement system has taken a significant amount of time. In the Commission’s view, given the stated objectives of such a system, establishing such a system as soon as is practicable would prove beneficial to the broadcasting system. Given the time that has elapsed since the formation of the STB Working Group, the Commission no longer considers it to be appropriate for that working group to proceed in the absence of firm deadlines,” the CRTC wrote in its decision.
“The Commission therefore finds it appropriate to require vertically integrated BDUs to provide STB data to a national STB-based audience measurement system by no later than 30 September 2019, so as to coincide with the STB Working Group’s revised date for the implementation of the STB National Measurement Service,” the CRTC added.
For the purpose of this condition of licence, the CRTC has defined “set-top box data” to mean anonymized bulk viewership data obtained by the licensee through a set-top box or by comparable means, but without including any portion of data that would allow the recipient to identify a particular subscriber or household.
The Commission said it intends to monitor the compliance of vertically integrated BDUs with regard to providing STB data to a national STB-based audience measurement system in accordance with the stated objectives of its “Let’s Talk TV” regulatory policy. Specifically, the CRTC said it considers these BDUs must provide information to the national system that is sufficient to:
- permit broadcasters to make more informed programming selections and scheduling decisions;
- provide broadcasters with new opportunities to effectively monetize advertisements;
- place BDUs in a better position to tailor the services offered and content of packages;
- place the Canadian broadcasting industry on a more equal footing with the international and online video markets; and,
- ensure that the privacy of individuals is protected.
Regarding the additional condition of licence requiring vertically integrated BDUs to provide STB data to Canadian programming services, should this condition of licence come into effect, the CRTC said its language “will ensure that programming services have a clear right to this data, at set intervals, and on a basis where cost cannot be used to discriminate unjustly against non-affiliated programming services.”
Furthermore, the CRTC said the STB data provided to programming services should be based on standard metrics for audience measurement, such as, but not limited to, total aggregate viewing minutes, average minute audience and the number of unique viewers over a minimum four-week period (or a longer period of time if deemed necessary and agreed to by the parties). In terms of the frequency at which STB data is provided, the Commission said the transfer of data between BDUs and programming services should occur at least twice a year, if requested, which would align with the frequency of the publication of Numeris’s Diary data.
While these conditions of licence will apply to all vertically integrated, terrestrial BDUs, they will not apply to direct-to-home undertakings, because the technical limitations of satellite technology do not enable them to return data from their set-top boxes, the CRTC said.
In addition, the conditions of licence related to providing STB data to a national system will not apply to independent BDUs, such as those operated by Cogeco, Eastlink, SaskTel and Telus, the Commission said, as the potential for BDUs to give an advantage to related programming services does not arise with these non-vertically integrated BDUs.
Local avails, community programming, accessibility
AS PART OF ITS GENERAL licence renewal process for BDU licences that are expiring this month, the CRTC made a number of other determinations in its broadcasting decision, which applies to all BDUs, not only the large, vertically integrated BDUs. Other factors the CRTC considered during this round of BDU licence renewals were related to community programming, “skinny basic” best practices, pricing of standalone services, accessibility, unpaid public service announcements in local availabilities, carriage of HD discretionary services, Wholesale Code protective provisions, compliance by application-based BDU platforms, and the launch of IP-based distribution systems.
With regard to the inclusion of unpaid public service announcements (PSAs) in local availabilities of non-Canadian services, the CRTC appears to have taken a step to reinstate one aspect of a previous policy. Local availabilities, or “local avails”, refer to the two minutes of local advertising time made available each hour by US cable channels. In its “Let’s Talk TV” policy decision, the CRTC effectively disallowed Canadian BDUs from inserting PSAs into those local avails, by deciding that 75% of local avail time was to be reserved for the promotion of first-run, original Canadian TV programming, while the remaining 25% of time could be used to promote the BDUs’ own services. Prior to “Let’s Talk TV”, BDUs could also include unpaid PSAs in the 75% portion of local avail time.
During its BDU Licence Renewal hearing in October 2017, the CRTC heard from a number of BDUs that only a limited portion of local avail time was being used to promote first-run, original Canadian programming, resulting in a significant amount of unsold inventory being available.
In Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2018-271, also issued August 2, the CRTC has amended the general authorizations for BDUs so they can now insert unpaid Canadian PSAs in any of the unused inventory of local availabilities (either in the 75% portion reserved for the promotion of Canadian programs or in the 25% portion reserved for their own use), as long as they first offer at least 75% of the local avail inventory for the promotion of first-run, original Canadian TV programs.
CHL games and other pro shows are not access programming
With regard to matters related to community programming, the CRTC considered whether or not certain types of programming qualified as either local or access programming. CRTC regulations define local programming as that which reflects the community served within a licensed area and that is produced by either the licensee, by members of the community served or by a community television corporation residing in the licensed area. Access programming is defined as programming produced by an individual, group or community television corporation residing within the licensed area of a cable distribution undertaking, but that is not employed by the BDU operating the community channel on which such programming is being broadcast.
In this decision, the CRTC determined the broadcasting of Canadian Hockey League games does not qualify as access programming. The CHL is composed of three member leagues: the Western Hockey League, the Ontario Hockey League and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. For a CHL game to qualify as access programming, the creative control of the program would need to be in the hands of a community member who requested access, which is unlikely, the CRTC determined. As such, the CRTC stated that, as of September 1, 2018, BDUs will no longer be allowed to count CHL games as access programming. However, they will be permitted to count them as local programming, where the specific program meets the necessary criteria, the CRTC added.
In another determination regarding access programming, the CRTC decided programming that originates with media professionals, such as local radio hosts, current or former employees of broadcasters, or freelancers with previous broadcast experience, should also not be considered access programming. In the CRTC’s 2016 Community Television Policy, the Commission stated an access program “must originate from a community member who is neither employed by a BDU nor a media professional who is known to the public or who already has access to the broadcasting system.” With that in mind, the CRTC said in its most recent Broadcasting Decision that, going forward, programs originating with media professionals will generally not be considered access programming.
In its Community Television Policy, the Commission said it would be beneficial for the community TV sector to have a more systematic and standardized approach to evaluating BDU compliance with requirements related to their community channels. As part of the current BDU licence renewal proceeding, the CRTC initiated a community channel monitoring exercise in October 2016 by requesting logs and audiovisual recordings of programming broadcast by community channels that were referred to in intervenors’ complaints.
Several intervenors proposed that the CRTC initiate a follow-up proceeding that would examine ways to standardize logging and reporting requirements for community channels. The CRTC said, while the format used in the initial monitoring exercise may serve as an appropriate starting point for the monitoring of linear community channels going forward, it may not be an appropriate means for monitoring licensees that distribute community programming on an on-demand basis, where the viewer is able to choose the time to watch a program. Therefore, the Commission said it intends to initiate at some point in the future a public proceeding regarding an approach for monitoring licensees that distribute on-demand community programming.
In the meantime, the Commission indicated that a regular monitoring exercise focusing on a limited number of linear community channels and using data from a limited number of sample weeks should suffice as a monitoring tool going forward. In addition, BDUs that participate in the yearly monitoring exercise should be selected generally at random, the CRTC said. However, in certain circumstances where BDUs have been previously found to be in non-compliance, it may be appropriate to monitor them more closely during the next licence term, the CRTC added.
Accessibility
With respect to accessibility features and accessible devices, the CRTC made several decisions. Firstly, the closed captioning condition of licence and expectation, set out in the Community Television Policy, will take effect August 31, 2025, seven years following the coming into effect of the renewed BDU licences. This is designed to provide BDUs with sufficient time to ramp up production of closed captioning and to improve processes to make them more efficient and affordable, the CRTC said.
Secondly, the CRTC is requiring all BDU licensees, by condition of licence, to include in their annual returns information related to the following: the availability of accessible set-top boxes and remote controls, and their accessibility features; the penetration of accessible STBs and remote controls with the BDU’s customer base; and the number of accessibility-related queries received by the BDUs, and the number successfully resolved.
Thirdly, regarding the closed captioning of advertising, sponsorship messages and promotional messages inserted into local availabilities, the CRTC said it would provide BDU licensees with some flexibility in the matter. Rather than requiring BDUs by condition of licence to close caption any advertising, sponsorship messages and promos inserted in local avails, the CRTC said it would merely expect BDUs to do so.
For the most part, in considering other factors — such as skinny basic best practices, standalone service pricing, HD discretionary services, Wholesale Code protections, application-based BDU platform compliance and IP-based distribution systems — the Commission said it did not consider it necessary at this time to either take further action or to impose conditions of licence related to these matters.
The terms of individual BDUs’ licence renewals, including licence expiry dates, conditions of licence, expectations and encouragements for the BDUs, are set out in separate CRTC Broadcasting Decisions 2018-264 through 2018-270, also issued August 2.
To access information about each BDU’s licence renewal decision, click the BDU’s name below:
