MONTREAL – Spend long enough in a hearing room and you’ll zone out for a bit. Yes, we admit, it’s happened to us. “I wonder if we’ll be done in time for the hockey game… I really have to cut the grass when I get home…”
Then, one or more of the parties says something that makes you say: Did he/she just say that? Sometimes those moments make it into a story. Other times, not. Here are a few of those other times:
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DURING ITS INTERVENTION on Tuesday, Rogers SVP of video content David Purdy told commissioners he sees Rogers working in partnership to create its own original content for its over-the-top TV Everywhere platform to compete with the likes of Netflix’s House of Cards. Under questioning by CRTC vice-chair broadcasting Tom Pentefountas on that subject, he said:
“I don't think you need to approve the transaction in its current form in order to have that competition in the marketplace. I think it's a bit odd that (Bell) would suggest that only they are going to compete with Netflix in this marketplace. We certainly plan on rolling out our own subscription products that will compete with Netflix.
“…There are lots of suppliers out there producing original series content. Our belief and intention would be to go after the Starz, Encore, Showtime and anybody that's not locked down on an exclusive basis and secure that type of content. I think it's going to be common,” said Purdy.
“The interesting discussion going on in the marketplace right now is are over-the-top SVODs buying content or producing content on an exclusive basis? If they do so then there will be a natural reaction. It would be logical that we would start to produce content for an over-the-top SVOD. We'd partner with perhaps a Comcast who has a Streampix product in the marketplace.”
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Just prior to that exchange, again when talking with commissioner Pentefountas about the differences between Bell/Astral and Shaw/Corus, the parties noted there’s one big genre missing from the latter’s specialty channel portfolio when Purdy added: “neither Shaw nor Corus has an active sports offering in the marketplace and I know they are discussing launching a new channel.”
That was all anybody said about that. We asked Purdy afterwards to expand, if he could. He declined. Both Shaw and Corus reps we talked to said they have no sports channel plans in the works. So that’s that, then… perhaps.
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CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais made what we thought to be a noteworthy distinction during Cogeco Cable’s appearance on Wednesday when he outlined the difference between the words “unregulated” and “unlicensed” – saying the latter term is the correct one to use when talking about video content on the web in Canada.
“I never talk about regulated and unregulated,” he said. “I always talk about licensed and unlicensed for the very fact that one couldn't have exempted programming undertakings distributed over the internet or the web if we didn't have jurisdiction over it in the first place. That's the nature. And in fact, an exemption order is a form of regulation. We just don't require them to hold broadcasting licenses in the traditional sense.”
So, what does that mean? Well, to us it means that as so much more TV and film content makes its way to other platforms, causing seismic shifts in the licensed Canadian TV business, that exemption order established way back in 1999 could be revisited since – as the chair said above – the CRTC believes it does have jurisdiction over programming undertakings distributed over the web.
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Whoever wrote the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance opening speech gets a gold star for the best parallel of the week. It was a week filled with parallels like gorillas and sausage and wolves in sheep’s clothing but it was the CCSA’s trip to the barnyard that really grabbed our attention. When describing Bell’s relationship with the Alliance and its 115 member companies, Dean Abbass, general manager of Seaside Communications (Cape Breton) said:
“Our relationship with Bell and its controlled subsidiary, Bell Aliant, is complex, as they are both our competitors and our suppliers. In most cases, they are the only suppliers of services we need. We compete against Bell’s fibre-to-the-home and satellite services; we buy TV content from Bell; we receive non-Bell content over Bell satellites; we attach our cable and fibre to Bell’s poles; we re-sell Bell’s telephone service; we use Bell as a source of internet bandwidth.
“We’re like a flock of chickens who have to rent our hen house from Fox Real Estate, buy our feed from Fox Farm Supplies, and sell our eggs in competition with Foxmart Stores. Now the Foxes want you to let them force us to buy egg cartons, hen scratch, and bedding removal from Astral-Fox Industries. Is it any wonder we’re starting to feel like Sunday dinner?”
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Finally, and since this hearing is often preoccupied with new technology, we noted how BNN was doing their regular standups versus TVA. One a specialty service, one a conventional broadcaster. The conventional broadcaster uses truck, tower and big traditional broadcast technology, as you'll see in the photo below. The reporter has to go outside to do her work. BNN on the other hand, uses the Dejero Live box, made by Waterloo, Ontario's Dejero – and he was going live from right outside the hearing room via that little box on the left (and a closeup at the bottom). The Dejero box can transmit live using any cell network (albeit with a lag of about a second or so), but this box was hardwired in to make it immedate for its reporter on the scene. And it's easier to carry around than a van. Another wave of the future.
