OTTAWA – Unintended consequences and potentially devilish details described potential outcomes of the CRTC’s TV Policy Review during panel sessions at the CMPA’s annual Prime Time conference last week in Ottawa.
In a panel titled Focus on Let’s Talk TV, independent broadcaster and content creator Blue Ant Media spoke about the problems that will come as a result of a pick and pay channel regime. Asha Daniere, executive VP of business and legal affairs at the company, noted that in a pick and pay environment, “discoverability” significantly increases in importance and difficulty. And, under a regime where consumers have even more choice in selecting their channels, content creation dollars could be shifting to programs that have a more international appeal.
“When we look at our model today would we spending all that money on creating programming that specifically appeals to Canadian audiences or do we really need to do something that builds international content,” she said. “So there’s a strange irony that’s coming out of all of this uncertainty.”
Bell Media noted that a la carte will cause channels to shut their doors because they simply won’t have enough ad revenue to support the business as sub numbers fall. Kevin Goldstein, VP of legal and regulatory affairs at the company, added premium pay channels that don’t rely on advertising should be able to survive, but those that need the advertising revenue will face a different situation.
“I think what’s been shown is the broader the penetration you have the more advertising and opportunity you get,” said Goldstein. “A service that’s in 80% of homes can charge $X, but if it’s in only 40% of homes it cannot offer the channel for $X. It will have a lot less advertising.”
The CRTC has already released a couple of decisions stemming from the massive Let’s Talk TV proceeding and more will be coming. On Thursday, content related decisions are expected to come down and week later, the big decisions on pick and pay and unbundling are expected to be delivered (as Cartt.ca first reported). While the industry waits for the commission to answer completely to the proceeding, content creators are beginning to feel the pinch.
“I was somewhat astonished that we’re not looking at how we can have a regulatory system that encourages people to subscribe to cable (which) creates a healthy system that funds production and Canadians can continue to get a broad range of programming and entertainment that they have today.” – Kevin Goldstein, Bell Media
Daniere said the way the CRTC has been handling the Talk TV decisions has had a “decelerating” and “stagnating effect” on program development. Jay Thomson, VP of broadcasting policy and regulatory affairs at the CMPA agreed.
In addition to the regulatory implementation challenges associated with the various commission decisions, there is an impact on production companies, he said. “We’re already seeing that the uncertainty around the decisions has caused delays in decision making on program production and program buy and that’s impacting producers,” stated Thomson. “And if this continues to drag out and drag out how many producers are going live through that delay?”
With such a large number of integrated and interconnected parts at play in the Let’s Talk TV proceeding, there is bound to be some challenges. But for Bell Media, the company expected the Commission to develop what would be a forward looking framework that establishes a healthy industry ecosystem.
“We spent a lot of time debating things that should have never even have been on the table. We’re having a debate about simultaneous substitution, we’re having a debate on how we should be encouraging more free over-the-air transmission so we can disconnect from the system,” he said. “I was somewhat astonished that we’re not looking at how we can have a regulatory system that encourages people to subscribe to cable (which) creates a healthy system that funds production and Canadians can continue to get a broad range of programming and entertainment that they have today.”
