Blais doesn’t expect changes to new media exemption order

With a review of new media scheduled for next year, the head of Canada's broadcast regulator said he does not foresee any changes to the regulatory exemption for online media platforms like that of Netflix Inc. "Netflix benefits from an exemption, and therefore we've decided, on two occasions, not to require Netflix to have a licence, and I don't see that changing for the foreseeable future," CRTC Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais said in an interview Monday morning on CBC Radio program the Current. Blais said there is no evidence that online alternatives are "displacing" viewers from the traditional Canadian broadcasting system, and that most people are watching television from both online and traditional sources, as opposed to one or the other. The CRTC currently exempts new media services from regulation. In 2011, following a consultation about over-the-top, online TV services, which concluded there was not any need for regulation, it opened a “watching brief” on the issue. In a decision in 2009, the CRTC upheld an earlier decision to exempt new media, and said it planned to review the order again in 2014. "Given the pace of change in the new media environment, and in accordance with established policy, the Commission expects to conduct the next review of the broadcasting in new media environment within five years, or at such time as events dictate," it said in the decision in 2009. Blais told CBC the commission will conduct two or three "major proceedings" over the next 12 to 14 months, including a planned "conversation with Canadians" about television services. Following the release of the CRTC's annual Communications Monitoring Report at the end of September, he said, the commission will launch the first phase of its "conversation with Canadians" in the latter part of of October, which will be followed up by a more formal proceeding about television in 2014. Blais announced the review of television services in June, which is expected to look at a range of issues, including channel packaging, pricing, programming, pick-and-pay and on-demand options. It's not clear whether the broader TV review will also include the review of the new media exemption. "The first part of the conversations will be targeted to Canadians. Then there will be a proceeding for industry and other stakeholders, and the public, to comment for a rules-based approach," Denis Carmel, a spokesman for the CRTC, said by phone. The consultation may also review the possible elimination of niche programming requirements known as “genre protection," or priviliges called simultaneous substitution, which allow Canadian broadcasters to replace the signals of U.S. television stations with their own signals, which include Canadian ads, where the programming is the same. Simultaneous substitution will be part of the review, Blais said, as fewer Canadian producers and broadcasters need to rely on licensing American programming because many are successfully selling Canadian programming abroad. "I'm very much optimistic about the future of programming. Will that completely replace the model of simultaneous substitution that's been at the base of a lot of our programming? I don't know. That's one of the questions we'll be asking in this process. I think it will probably occur over time, because I don't think it's sustainable that Canadian broadcasters continue to rent their content, rather than own it, in an era where it's a nonlinear future," he said. When the Current host Anna Maria Tremonti asked whether the CRTC plans to regulate television packaging to make specialty channels available on an a la carte basis, as opposed to only in themed packages, Blais said: "I'd certainly agree that is the number one concern, and that will be front and centre with respect to our consultations," though he added that offering channels individually may mean higher costs per channel. Consumer pricing for television services is rising faster than inflation, he said. "That's why we want to have a good, rich conversation with Canadians. I know there are frustrations with prices," Blais said. In response to a question about the CRTC's wireless code decision this year—which said consumers can back out of wireless contracts after 24 months of service without a cancellation fee and which caps wireless providers' roaming charges—Blais said the regulator wants to create "a more dynamic marketplace" for mobile wireless services. —With reporting by Simon Doyle at sdoyle@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Blais doesn’t expect changes to new media exemption order

News | 09/16/2013 3:55 pm EDT

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