MONT TREMBLANT – Seven CRTC commissioners made the trip to Mont Tremblant this week to attend the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance annual general meeting and conference.
Besides keynote speaker Michel Arpin, who is vice-chair, broadcasting, and telecom vice-chair Leonard Katz, commissioners Rita Cugini, Timothy Denton, Suzanne Lamarre, Marc Patrone and Louise Poirier were all on hand – as was executive director, broadcasting, Scott Hutton.
“As a matter of fact we have quorum to make decisions,” joked Arpin in his speech to delegates.
He addressed a number of issues but didn’t say too much that was new in his 20-plus minutes at the podium. While many surely would have loved to get a sneak peek at what the Commission is thinking on the BDU and specialty services policies due out in just over a month (October 30th), the vice-chair wouldn’t.
“I would have liked nothing more to give you a preview of where we are heading,” said Arpin, but, “the CRTC staff and commissioners are here to make sure I don’t drop any hints.”
However, what the new BDU policy won’t speak to is community television, he said. Operators large and small had asked for changes to the community channel provisions that are part of owning a cable operation. The most controversial is the request to be able to offer advertising, not just sponsorship, on cable community channels – as well as a change in the definition of community programming so that content that’s more regional in nature, that can be shared among cable systems, can count as community programming.
“These are all interesting ideas that deserve more debate,” said Arpin, who added the Commission will hold a separate public proceeding on community TV in 2009 or 2010.
Arpin also touched on signal costs and getting high definition programming in places that aren’t Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, Montreal, or the other main centres – something the CRTC plans to get to the bottom of when the broadcasters come before them for their license renewal next year. “We want to know what they plan to do for small communities,” he said.
Finally, the broadcasting vice-chair touched upon the upcoming public notice that will soon be issued in advance of a 2009 hearing on new media.
“In 1999, the CRTC decided that it would not regulate services that deliver this type of content (video) over the Internet. A few years later, in 2007, it exempted broadcasting services that are received through cell phones and other mobile devices,” said Arpin.
“We made these decisions for the very good reason that these services were not having a significant impact on the audiences or revenues of traditional radio and television broadcasters. We also found that Canadian content was available on the new platforms without any regulatory intervention.
“Some time has passed and we must now ask ourselves if this approach is still appropriate.”
But that doesn’t mean the Commission wants to attempt what everyone knows is impossible, said Arpin, who added: “The Commission has no intention of regulating new media.”
