VMedia plans could ‘undermine’ broadcast system: Ethnic Channels

Granting VMedia Inc. licences to operate a national video-on-demand (VOD) service and expand its broadcast distribution service would mean approving a distribution structure that would “undermine the entire broadcasting system,” according to Ethnic Channels Group Ltd. The ethnic broadcaster said in an intervention filed with the CRTC last month that VMedia is distributing channels for which it does not hold rights and that are not authorized for distribution in Canada. It argued that “licensing V Media’s undertakings would legitimize the unauthorized distribution in Canada, via the Internet, of scores of non-Canadian television services.” Ethnic Channels is a Toronto based company that owns more than 60 TV channels that cater to different cultural groups across North America, according to its website. In its letter to the CRTC, the company gave the example of VMedia’s set-top box being used to provide illegal signals for Russian channels offered by a website called Bestrussiantv.com, which does not posses the rights for those channels. If VMedia’s activities are “sanctioned” by the commission, it said, “there will be nothing to prevent any Canadian or non-Canadian BDU from replicating V Media’s distribution model.” In its reply, VMedia noted that it is a broadcast distributor licensed by the CRTC and said that it “does not presently distribute video programming services beyond its licensed BDU services.” It added that its set-top box allows consumers to access both its licensed broadcast distribution service and the Internet. VMedia said that it also it markets its broadcast distribution services “through approximately 20 agents,” which can develop additional services to provide to customers through the set-top box, or sell the set-top boxes independently of VMedia’s TV service. “The VBox, which includes the functionality of a media player similar to AppleTV, Roku, Boxee, Chromecast or Samsung player, does not restrict the customers from accessing additional services they want to receive, be it from the agent or otherwise,” it said, adding that VMedia does not provide video programming outside of the services it is licensed to provide. “If has an issue with the rights to ‘over the top’ video programming services offered by VMedia’s agents or by bestrussiantv.com, then should complain to them,” VMedia said in its reply. “At its core, is railing against the Internet.” On Monday, the CRTC removed VMedia’s licence applications from the hearing they had been scheduled for and said it would reschedule them for a later date. “The date of the hearing on which these applications will be placed has not been made public,” CRTC spokeswoman Patricia Valladao said in an email Wednesday. VMedia, which already operates an Internet-protocol TV service in Ontario, is applying to the CRTC to expand its market across the country and increase the capabilities of its cloud-based PVR system, company director George Burger said in a phone interview. — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca

VMedia plans could ‘undermine’ broadcast system: Ethnic Channels

Broadcast | May 7, 2014

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VMedia plans could ‘undermine’ broadcast system: Ethnic Channels

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