Dear Editor,
This is in response to the letter to the editor Cartt.ca received from Bill Roberts, president and CEO of Vision TV, earlier this week criticizing the Rogers’ brief in the upcoming review of the regulatory frameworks governing BDUs and discretionary services. Mr. Roberts appears to have either misread or misunderstood our filing and I would like to set the record straight.
In his letter, Mr. Roberts alleges that our key message in this proceeding is to remove protections for Canadian services and make it easier to import foreign services. In fact, our key message in this proceeding is that the CRTC needs to reduce the regulatory burden on all players in the regulated broadcast system and simplify the rules to provide a better customer television experience or customers will migrate to alternative platforms (which has already begun). This message echoes the findings of the Dunbar/LeBlanc Report and responds to the very questions raised by the Commission in its originating public notice.
Mr. Roberts then alleges that if our position (as set out by him) was adopted by the Commission, sizable sums of money would be lost to the Canadian production and broadcast sectors both in 2005/2006 and going forward to 2010/11. Since he provides no substantiation for either his numbers or his assumptions, it is impossible to respond to them specifically.
His next allegation is that cable companies provide Internet services, therefore, our concern about customers migrating to the Internet is disingenuous because we bring in revenue through our activities as an ISP.
Unfortunately, Mr. Roberts fails to understand a few key facts. If our customers obtain their broadcasting services from the Internet, we do not earn additional revenue. If those customers cancel their cable television service, this leads to a sharp reduction in our revenue. It is therefore critical to our financial well-being that customers stay connected to the Canadian broadcasting system.
Mr. Roberts’ key message seems to be that the protections and privileges his service has enjoyed for the past 20 years should remain. Unfortunately for him, the world has changed. Rogers Cable has had to make many fundamental changes in order to compete with satellite providers. Canadian specialty services will also need to meet the challenge of today’s media environment.
Pam Dinsmore
VP – Regulatory
Rogers Cable Communications Inc.
