WINNIPEG – While his announcement that Shaw Communications’ VOIP launch in Winnipeg is imminent got some headlines after a speech last week, company CEO Jim Shaw used the forum to pound away at one of his favorite topics: transforming government policy.
After saying in the prepared text of his speech to the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce that he expected Shaw to launch voice over Internet protocol telephony in Winnipeg, “in the next few weeks,” he went on to outline his vision of a lighter regulatory regime for the telecom and TV industry.
Broadcast, telecom, it doesn’t matter, all areas of government regulation must be reined in so that it is more flexible, more open, said Mr. Shaw, who pointed directly at the difficulty controlling the satellite TV marketplace in Canada.
“The new, exciting world of communications is all about choice and control for you the consumer,” he said in his speech. “Canada needs the right regulatory framework to be able to give Canadians the choice and the control over their communications services… Digital satellite services straddle national borders. I don’t believe Canada or any other country can build walls big enough, thick enough or punitive enough to keep out the digital world. The picket fences are down and its now just one big backyard.”
So, what does this mean for government policy, its laws and the regulations written from them?
“It means that regulation must be radically simplified and refocused by giving Canadian consumers the choice and flexibility they want, and securing a fair, competitive marketplace so that Canadian consumers have access to the widest range of high-quality services at the best prices,” Mr. Shaw added.
While this might seem straightforward enough to the average consumer, “in Ottawa things are not that simple. We are way off-course right now,” he explained, and cited some examples:
“Today, broadcasting regulations require consumers to purchase a majority of Canadian services. While Shaw supports carrying a majority of Canadian services, we don’t believe Canadians should be forced to buy them.
“Not only are Canadians forced to buy a majority of Canadian services, CRTC rules also force them to take specific ‘mandatory’ services, such as TVA, CBC Newsworld and RDI. The regulations also require distributors to sell Canadian services in certain combinations with other Canadian and non-Canadian services.”
Mr. Shaw also railed against genre-protection for broadcasters and the fact that his DTH company, Star Choice, is forced to carry so many bandwidth-consuming near-identical broadcast signals. These rules shackle the companies, restraining how they are able to respond in a rapidly changing marketplace.
“We don’t have the freedom to develop unique products or offer what our customers want,” said Mr. Shaw.
“Consumer choice is also severely limited by regulations giving Canadian programmers monopolies in their given ‘genres’. This kills the incentive of those programmers to improve their services. Cable and satellite distributors are forced to duplicate broadcasting services. With only five major time-zones, the CRTC still forces Star Choice to carry 18 CBC channels.”
While Mr. Shaw talked of movement on the telecom side of the regulatory playing field, pointing to Industry Canada’s recently launched telecom policy review – which will look at simplifying regulations in the face of new technology – a similar review must happen in broadcasting, he explained, because “consumer demands on the broadcasting side may take a back seat to protecting very large and very wealthy Canadian programming companies from competition.
“Finally, if consumers remain frustrated with the Canadian broadcasting system, they will continue to leave the system. One million households already have gone to the illegal satellite black-market,” he said.
“We all need to tell government that we demand access, choice and flexibility. Light-handed, market-driven regulatory guidance should replace the regulation that now kills customer choice and limits our ability to innovate.”
The company holds out hope, however. “We believe the government and the CRTC understand the primacy of the consumer and will of the consumer to have access to the best possible products and services available from anywhere in the world. We believe they will ultimately recognize the convergence in these industry sectors,” he added.
“We believe government will soon free the telecommunications and broadcasting broadband sector to allow them to compete and offer the best there is from around the world. We hope they will start to move on those beliefs to benefit the consumer.”
– Greg O’Brien
