JACKSON POINT, Ont. – As part of a wide-ranging new media study, the CRTC will look at myriad issues, even discussing whether or not to regulate new media in Canada, CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein told an invitation-only broadcast event this week (we weren’t invited, sniffle,) launching the Commission’s New Media Project Initiative.
There’s no doubt that new media and the alternative ways Canadians can get audio and visual content is having — and will continue to have – a growing impact on traditional broadcasting, both culturally and economically. So, as the monitor of traditional media in Canada and the Acts and policies covering same, von Finckenstein said it’s high time the CRTC tries to figure out what the unregulated aspects of the new media/multiplatform universe will have on Canadian media.
Looking at the impact of new media “raises a host of questions,” said von Finckenstein in his speech, such as:
• Should we attempt to regulate new media? And if so, how?
• Should it be through traditional regulatory requirements?
• What other measures might be applied?
• Should there be incentives to encourage the delivery of Canadian content?
• Or can it be that these media will contribute to the objectives of the Broadcasting Act without regulation?
“These are all very big questions,” said von Finckenstein. “I don’t know what the answers are. But there is one thing I do know. For us at the CRTC, the guiding principle in our approach to new media will be exactly the same one that we have followed in our approach to traditional media: to regulate as effectively as we can to further the two primary goals of the Broadcasting Act – Canadian content and access to the system for all Canadians, whether as audiences or as participants.
In 1999 when the CRTC issued its first policy on new media, it defined new media broadcasting undertakings as those that provided broadcasting services delivered and accessed over the Internet. Back then, any such services had no impact on traditional broadcasters so it was considered unnecessary “at that time” to stimulate their carriage of Canadian content, said von Finckenstein. So they were exempt from regulation.
Of course, much has developed in the seven-plus years since. “The landscape has changed completely. High-quality video over the Internet is not just feasible today – it is here, thanks to the expansion of broadband capacity,” said von Finckenstein.
“In the last six months alone, well-financed television content aggregators like Joost and Babelgum have been launching their services, with global ambitions. Over five million Canadian homes now have high-speed broadband that can be used to access to these streaming video sources.”
It’s the relatively new ability of the Internet to deliver streaming video and audio at improving levels of quality (in effect, in real time) that poses some very tough questions for the regulator. “More and more Canadians are going to be accessing these sources of entertainment and information. The sources originate from all over the world as well in our own country. Are these new media going to bypass our system of regulation? In short, will they complement, undermine or replace our current broadcasting system?” asked von Finckenstein.
The Initiative will focus on subjects for research such as:
• The emerging economic and business models
• The changes in behaviour and expectations of the audience, and the needs of consumers
• Trends in technology and services
• Legal issues, such as rights management.
However, the primary focus will be on the emerging regulatory issues regarding content and access.
Content issues include:
• The availability of Canadian programming
• The possible erosion of contributions to Canadian content
• Diversity of voices; and
• Dealing with abusive material.
Access issues include:
• Striking a social, cultural and economic balance to deal with Internet traffic prioritization
• Rights management and geo-blocking; and the definition of what constitutes basic telecommunications service – will it include both telephony and broadband?
This New Media Initiative will be carried out in three phases with the first major output from the New Media Project Initiative will coming in March of 2008, with the release of a report on the regulatory impacts of new media. A year later, in March of 2009, a report on the new policy decisions that will emerge from the process will be published.
To von Finckenstein, this is an extraordinarily important document. “We cannot afford to err. In my view there is great urgency here; we have to be prepared, because these changes cannot be stopped. They are upon us now, and now is the time for us to conduct a searching inquiry into the nature of new media so as to assess their impact on our regulatory system,“ he said
Click here for von Finckenstein`s full speech.
– Greg O`Brien
