DEAR EDITOR,
Always nice to get quoted in cartt.ca. However, the quote from me in Monday’s edition is unfortunately misleading and inaccurate.
The quote as Cartt.ca chose to paraphrase it:
"On access rules
"Bell suggested yesterday the consumers should decide the fate of services and not the regulator. We say the consumers and not the BDU. (A simple preponderance rule) is more opportunity for consumers to take what they want versus what they don’t want – more opportunity for consumers to avoid services."
These were in fact two very separate quotes on two different subject matters. The actual first quote was:
"Bell suggested yesterday that consumers should be able to decide the fate of services and not the regulator. We would reword that to say that consumers should be able to decide the fate of services, whether now or in the future, and not the BDU."
As Cartt.ca identified, this related to access.
The second quote, offered somewhat later during CAB’s appearance, was in response to the Chair’s question about why penetration levels for specialty services are generally lower on DTH than on cable (something CAB’s Tara Rajan had just described):
"I think the answer is that in a digital environment where there is more flexibility to put services in different kinds of packages, them[e] packages and so on, there is more opportunity for consumers to take what they want versus what maybe they don’t want.
So by the nature of the technology, there is more opportunity for consumers to avoid services, if you will."
This clearly had nothing to do with a simple preponderance rule, which CAB opposes.
I fear this line will get misquoted by some stakeholders through the rest of the hearing in an attempt to suggest it means something more than simply an acknowledgement of the added level of packaging flexibility digital technology offers.
CAB is fully aware of the flexibility in packaging that digital technology brings and we embrace it; we just want to ensure that Canadians will still be able to access Canadian services in those flexible packages.
Simple preponderance will not ensure this happens.
Jay Thomson
vice-president regulatory and policy
Canadian Association of Broadcasters
