Broadcasting regulation debate at electoral standstill as advocates, industry react

According to an advocacy group opposing restrictions on the internet, although the Conservative government has a better approach when it comes to the question on what to do about Bill C-10’s freedom of expression concerns, no party has a real grasp on the issues. “I think it's a little unfortunate, given how controversial Bill C-10 proves, that most of the parties have still endorsed in one form or another in their party platform,” OpenMedia campaign director Matt Hatfield told The Wire Report in a phone interview. “I think we're frustrated with an overall lack of leadership from all parties on this. There's no party that has a really clear grasp on the expression issues that are raised by the internet and how to take them on without infringing user rights.” On Monday, federal candidates from the five official parties held a French-language debate on culture, hosted by Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions and the University of Montreal and hosted by Radio-Canada’s Catherine Perrin. Asked about his party's criticism of Bill C-10 and the party's plans for the industry in the digital era, Conservative Party Montreal candidate Steve Shanahan said that the Conservatives agreed with 99.9 per cent of the bill except the discoverability requirements on Alphabet Inc.'s YouTube. Shanahan reiterated the Conservatives’ platform promise to impose a three per cent tax to be used to help artists by “encouraging web artists to buy publicity” rather than mandating discoverability. “We think simple is better,” Hatfield said. “Flat taxes are an approach that has fewer splash consequences for the internet… but it should come from a sort of basic taxes that don't privilege some content over others. The idea of messing with our algorithm so that some content appears ahead of other content is really wrongheaded. It's likely to lead to a lot of gaming the algorithm to get out of here and hide the feed rather than actually producing quality Canadian content.” During the debate, as a response to the Conservative’s criticism, Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault said its “illogical to reduce regulation while trying to promote English, French and Aboriginal content.” He argued that discoverability requirements were no different than the requirements in place for traditional broadcasters, noting that the CRTC “never told the CBC to air this program or that program just like for Quebecor, CTV and Cogeco”. However, Hatfield said the two requirements are completely different because “where we discover music and culture and all kinds of things that really speak to us, and are not some sort of generic Canadian identity material”. During Monday’s debate NDP MP Alexander Boulerice also said that web giants have to meet the same requirements for traditional media “especially for discoverability we have to go further, we have to implement rules for the YouTube algorithms for musicians from Canada to be seen by people who do their research on YouTube.” Hatfield added that OpenMedia preferred a taxation model for news compensation which would then be handed to news organizations equally by an independent body, rather than have companies make their own deals with web giants. While different formats have been thrown around on how best to compensate local news in the digital age legislation in other countries is evolving fairly quickly to be able to pick a model, according to Kevin Desjardins president of Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) who spoke to the Wire Report in a phone interview in August He said that the essence of any proposed legislation should allow for the fair ability of news outlets to bargain with the large digital players, noting that news compensation is the number one election priority for CAB. “And to not, you know, to not just have them have the winners or losers in the Canadian news market being decided, somewhere in Northern California.” He added that proposed taxes of streaming services like Netflix Inc. won’t necessarily contribute to the broadcasting sector unless some of the digital tax is “earmarked to broadcast and initiatives.” Corus Entertainment Inc. CEO Doug Murphy, for his part, said Tuesday at the BMO Annual Media and Telecom Conference that he is pleased with the broad alignment amongst parties on new broadcasting regulations. "Canadians now understand the inequities that we're facing as broadcasters in Canada. Here's the good news: every political party has now got broadcasting on its platform. And they've articulated plans that I think are very sensible in all cases," Murphy said. "I do believe that in the next six to eight quarters, we're going to be operating within a new regulatory regime, and I expect more flexibility in that regard," Murphy said in reference to Canadian programming expenditure requirements. During Monday’s debate Shanahan reiterated the Conservative’s plans to “redesign” the CBC by “splitting” both the CBC and Radio-Canada, giving the latter its own board of directors. “I’m a big fan of the CBC and radio at large but the entertainment side of the CBC, Canadians don’t like it as much… in the English-language community,” he said according to simultaneous translation. “The news service is excellent but I think we have to review their mandate.” Guilbeault shot back that the Conservatives plans for the CBC can’t be trusted because party leader Erin O’Toole’s views on the public broadcaster, as expressed during its leadership race, is different from the party’s current campaign platform. “You’re very reassuring here but the track record of your party and its commitment and the declaration of your leader are very concerning in my view,” Guilbeault said to Shanahan, according to simultaneous translation. The NDP didn’t speak to the CBC during the debate, aside from agreeing that the Conservative plan “wasn’t very reassuring." However, leader Jagmeet Singh previously said it should do away with its sponsored content and, through increased fundings, become ad-free. Desjardins said the NDP is “ touching on the right piece” in terms of its plans for CBC’s advertising initiatives, an issue for private broadcasters who feel it is playing more of a competitive role than a complementary role to the private sector. He also noted that for the French-language sector the problem is “much more profound” as Radio-Canada is an “aggressive competitor” in the Quebec marketplace. “Some of the pieces that have come up over the last few years have been very much focused on market driven solutions where they've (CBC) been able to use their parliamentary appropriation to put them into different spaces digitally,” he said. -- Reporting by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca, editing by Michael-Lee Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca.

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