Promises confidentiality
GATINEAU – As part of the report on current Canadian content consumption patterns which the federal government has asked the CRTC to compile, a range of companies have been asked to provide very competitively sensitive information by the Regulator.
The Commission last week sent letters to foreign competitors Netflix, Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple and Spotify – as well as Bell, Rogers, Shaw, Corus, Pelmorex, Stingray and others, for certain sets of top line revenue, viewership and subscriber data when it comes to their digital platforms. The CRTC already has the data for the traditional platforms.
Specifically, the CRTC wants to get a specific handle on the companies’ digital media broadcasting activities in Canada and has asked companies for:
- top line subscription, advertising and other revenues for the 2016-17 broadcast year (ending August 31, 2017) earned in Canada
- total expenditures directed to Canadians for acquired or original content
- total Canadian paid and free subscriptions as of August 31st.
- total viewing or listening hours by Canadians
- total time spent by Canadians viewing or listening to Canadian content
It might seem a little weird for these companies to compile things as of last August (which of course is still the official broadcast year within which the CRTC works), but what is of most concern for the U.S. digital companies will be whether or not the data will remain confidential – something CRTC watchers and Cartt.ca readers will be aware was an awfully contentious portion of the Let’s Talk TV proceeding back in 2014.
Then-CRTC chair Jean-Pierre Blais let his temper get the better of him when he asked Google and Netflix for similar data and was instead faced with the refusal to provide such numbers from Netflix’s director of global public policy Corie Wright. As retaliation, Blais struck the evidence filed from Netflix and Google (which also refused his request) from the official record.
Back in 2014, Wright told Blais the reason for her reticence to provide the Commission with such sensitive information. “We were given to understand that if we submitted information that confidentiality couldn’t be guaranteed,” she said then. “However, if the panel can guarantee that our commercially sensitive information will have guaranteed confidential treatment, we would be happy to submit that information to you.”
So, in its letters sent last week, the Commission did its best to stress how confidentially this information will be treated.
“We anticipate that you may have concerns arising from the commercially sensitive nature of the information we are requesting. Furthermore, you may require some clarity concerning the procedure for designating the information you file as confidential and the potential for its disclosure. The Commission is varying its Rules of Procedure with respect to confidentiality and is making the determinations that follow,” reads the letters.
“Given the type of information being requested and the distinct nature of this proceeding, the Commission is designating this information as confidential as it is sensitive financial or commercial information that is consistently treated in a confidential manner by the person who submitted it. Accordingly, the Commission will not disclose or require the disclosure of the information you submit and you will not be required to prepare or file an abridged version for the record. This decision of the Commission is final and conclusive.”
We’ve asked if these digital behemoths will comply this time.
Illustration by Paul Lachine, Chatham, Ont.
