BANFF – The CRTC has a new task ahead of it now: predict the future.
During her speech at the Banff World Television Festival today, Bev Oda, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women, said the Federal Government will ask the CRTC to study "how continuing technological changes are expected to shape the entire broadcasting industry in the years ahead."
Oda is using Section 15 of the Broadcasting Act, which lets the government request that the CRTC hold hearings or report on issues that fall under the Commission’s jurisdiction.
"With the arrival of new technologies, the growth of the private sector and the virtual explosion of choice on our airways, much has changed in broadcasting," said Minister Oda. "This study will provide the government with crucial information to ensure that the Canadian broadcasting system as a whole remains responsive to the needs and interests of all Canadians. This will help the government as it sets broadcasting policy for the 21st century."
The CRTC will undertake a factual examination of the evolution of audio-video technologies (including television and radio), how current and future generations of Canadians use those technologies and their impact on the broadcasting system as a whole, says the press release. "We want to gain key insights into how changing technologies and usage patterns will affect all elements of the broadcasting sector, from public and private broadcasters to independent producers, from advertisers to distributors, and from creators to Canadian audiences," added the Minister.
She wants the report by December 14, 2006. How it gets done will be left up to the Commission, which is already busy with its radio policy review and a TV policy review which it is believed will be announced Monday – to say nothing of its telecom files, some of which overlap with broadcasting.
