Interactive television still too immature to regulate, says cable TV association

The Canadian Cable Television Association (CCTA) continues to call for a light regulatory approach to interactive television (ITV) in the wake of a newly released report by the CRTC and the announcement of another public process into the subject now underway. In comments to Canadian NEW MEDIA, Michael Hennessy, the CCTA’s senior VP of policy and regulatory affairs, says the report backs up the association’s assertions that the industry is too young to contemplate too many hard and fast rules. The CRTC report, released October 22, finds a vast array of potential services and technologies – reason enough, says Hennessy, to back off the subject of regulation for at least a while longer, despite calls by other parties for protection from gatekeeping by broadcast distributors including cable companies. The regulator has launched a public process into the topic – Broadcasting Public Notice CRTC 2002-63 – with comments due December 20. In the proceeding, the commission has asked for answers to a lengthy list of questions, with the issue of what constitutes program-related information high on the list. Throughout the ITV debate in Canada, several parties have expressed concerns that cable and direct-to-home satellite TV companies might act as gatekeepers to the interactive portions of broadcasts, and the question of must-carry content is foremost in the minds of broadcasters and others. One potential solution suggested by the CCTA is the application of a test used by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission dubbed the WGN criteria. But the CRTC would like further details about its applicability to the Canadian market. Hennessy says that while the WGN test is one potential solution to gatekeeping, the CCTA believes the broader answer remains a hands-off approach to the sector. "I’m not sure that the proceeding has announced is going to really clarify things. I think they will find, as we pointed out – and I think the BCE people pointed out – that you can take pretty well any example of a service and, by the way you configure that service, it could be broadcasting; it could be exempt new media broadcasting; or, it could be telecom. "So you’re not going to be able to come up with a generic thing on program-related…I would say there’s no more reason to regulate ITV than there was to regulate new media at this point. You could easily just come out with a blanket exemption on ITV the same way you did for new media and deal with the gatekeeping issues that are part of the program-related thing by using your undue preference rules," he says. "They’ve…tried to almost suggest in their questions that you should have a slightly different definition of program-related from, say, the WGN test to reflect the Canadian environment. The nationality of the service – when you’re trying to define whether something is broadcasting or telecom – is irrelevant. The outcome may not be irrelevant, and that’s why there’s all kinds of regulation, but the nationality of something doesn’t change whether it’s a program or not. It just doesn’t. Legally, you’re either within the definition of broadcasting or you’re not." Hennessy continues to praise the market-driven activities of Rogers Cable Inc. and CHUM Ltd. to drive Wink-enabled ITV services and points to their deals as an example of how regulation might be premature (CNM, March 7/02). "It’s sort of putting the cart before the horse…I’m not sure that the proceeding is that necessary or that they’ll be able to come up with anything generic enough to really answer the question of program-related or not. It’s sort of like trying to explicitly define things as broadcasting before the fact – which they recognized they couldn’t do in the new media case and I think they’ll recognize ultimately that you can’t do in this case."

Interactive television still too immature to regulate, says cable TV association

News | 10/30/2002 5:00 am EST

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