CNM Special Edition Update

AnalysisBill C-48 consultation document proposes new category of Internet retransmitterFederal government officials will discuss a new category of Internet retransmitter with significant operating restrictions at a closed-door meeting with industry stakeholders in Ottawa on Friday, March 22, Canadian NEW MEDIA has learned. In a consultation document circulated late on March 19, and obtained by CNM, the departments of Canadian Heritage and Industry Canada spell out several options for defining Bill C-48, all of which are couched in Internet-specific language. While the exact definition of a "new media retransmitter" remains to be hammered out, several options for restricting their operation are on the table. Most contentiously, territorial restrictions proposed for new media retransmitters would see those entities operate only as pay-per-view subscription services, with stringent conditions on monitoring and quickly shutting down unauthorized reception. The departments have also proposed a ban on banner ads. The consultation document, with the draft title Retransmission Conditions Regulations, sets out in six sections proposed regulations that must be in place before Bill C-48 can proceed to a hearing by the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. C-48 is a response by Canadian Heritage and Industry Canada to demands by broadcasters and content producers that operations such as JumpTV Canada Inc. and iCraveTV.com Inc. be prohibited from retransmitting North American off-air signals to viewers via the Internet. While the bill’s introduction has widely been seen as accomplishing those goals – largely the result of a high-profile spin campaign by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters and the Canadian Film and Television Production Association – the bill, in fact, only put power to make specific regulations in the hands of the Governor in Council. Now, the industry has before it a compromise position that’s unlikely to leave either broadcasters and producers, or JumpTV and its allies, fully satisfied. The consultation document, which does not reflect final policy determinations, first spells out two options for a "new media retransmitter" being weighed by the departments. First, the term could be defined as a person who carries on a broadcasting undertaking under the exemption order for new media issued by the CRTC in 1999 and who wouldn’t otherwise qualify as a lawful broadcasting undertaking without a licence. Or, in a second option, the departments are considering a more broadly-termed definition, which states simply that a new media retransmitter would be one that carries on a broadcasting undertaking by delivering or providing access to their signal over the Internet or a "comparable international network." In the second and likely most damaging section for operations such as JumpTV, the departments set out several proposed measures dealing with a territorial restriction. Among them, the departments are asking for feedback on suggestions that new media retransmitters could only broadcast to people "individually authorized to receive the retransmission only in Canada, and who under terms of that authorization submit to the new media retransmitter a separate request prior to the initiation of each discrete period of reception of the retransmission." Neither JumpTV nor iCraveTV have yet proposed working on such a pay-per-view, subscriber basis. In several more proposals, the departments propose new monitoring obligations to ensure that signals are only being received in Canada, though the language is sufficiently flexible to account for reasonable certainty – a concession that’s unlikely to please broadcasters and other parties looking for 100% territorial restriction. For example, the departments propose that new media retransmitters be forced to take action against hacks only if "those measures are available to the public and are being used for that purpose…" Still, it’s likely JumpTV and its allies will attack the proposed regulations as unfair since they would apply only to Internet companies. Although the consultation document later makes mention of new requirements for territorial restriction on direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV signals, neither cable companies nor DTH operators are required to operate in such fashion. The following two sections reinforce the measures that would be required to ensure a territorial restriction. In section five, and likely to stir up new controversy in the satellite TV industry, the departments have apparently taken JumpTV’s argument that DTH leakage into the United States is becoming a problem and proposed a new territorial restriction with technological enforcement on DTH players. Last fall, JumpTV lawyer Sunny Handa quoted from CNM affiliate publication Canadian Communications Reports to highlight that leakage was not limited to Internet players, and argued that it was unfair to require foolproof protection by JumpTV and other Internet retransmitters. In its consultation document, however, the departments note that DTH transmissions from Canada are already technologically protected to the satisfaction of rights-holders. However, the departments have apparently considered the technology neutrality of the bill, and are also soliciting input on whether a single measure of territorial restriction should be imposed on all retransmitters, regardless of which platform they choose.Finally, the departments are seeking input into a proposed ban on banner ads, with the exception of ads by the retransmitter explaining or touting their goods and services. The departments note that the consultation document is a draft paper for working purposes only, and that final wording of the regulations as prepared by the Department of Justice may vary from the wording contained in the document once policy decisions have been made. Canadian NEW MEDIA requested permission to attend the March 22 meeting of industry stakeholders but was rejected. The following is a list of groups believed to have received the consultation document and thus invited to the meeting: Aliant Inc. Bell Canada (ExpressVu) Canadian Association of Broadcasters Canadian Association of Internet Providers Canadian Cable Television Association Canadian Film and Television Production Association Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association Canadian Recording Industry Association CATAAlliance Directors Guild of Canada Fasken Martineau DuMoulin (Sunny Handa) Global Public Affairs (Sarah Anson-Cartwright) Information and Technology Association of Canada JumpTV L’Association des producteurs de films et de télévision du Québec McCarthy Tétrault (Peter Grant) National Association of Broadcasters Radio-Canada Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada Star Choice Communications Inc. Writers Guild of Canada Canadian NEW MEDIA will have more on this story including reaction to the consultation document from industry players in its upcoming edition

CNM Special Edition Update

News | 03/21/2002 5:00 am EST

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