Rogers and Shaw show similarities at DoV proceeding

While those who attended the CRTC's Diversity of Voices proceeding in Gatineau to witness the presentations of Shaw Communications Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc., at the end of the day Monday and first thing Thursday morning, respectively, certainly saw a contrast in styles - literally a diversity of voices - there was a lot of uniformity in the messages. Anytime Shaw CEO Jim Shaw is part of a comparison, contrast will almost always be served. Watching Shaw break up the commission and the audience with his bumptious demeanour is reminiscent of golfer John Daly entertaining the press gallery following a round at the US Open. Rogers' vice chair Phil Lind, on the other hand, was more the model of what one may expect at a CRTC hearing. This brazenness and tactfulness of their respective styles was even evident in each BDU's opening comments to the commission. "We believe the BDU rules have to be eliminated right across the board," said Shaw on Monday. "This will drive diversity and choice in the system by allowing licensees to respond to the demands of their customers....The very last thing the Canadian broadcasting system needs right now is new rules." "In general," said Lind on Thursday, "we believe that the imposition of fixed regulations or rules of this kind in a rapidly changing technical, business and consumer environment may create more uncertainty, not less." Lind was referring to the three rules proposed by CBC on Monday - limit ownership of media in a single market to only two of newspaper, television and radio; no entity should own more than 33% of all specialty channels; no entity should own more than two BDUs in a given market - which Rogers had the advantage of three days to analyze. Having presented the same day as CBC, Shaw couldn't offer a prepared opinion of the recommended regulations. Instead he had to assess the proposal on the spot. "The CBC thing to me seems fine for them because...they pretty well have national coverage," said Shaw. "They kind of talk the other side of their mouth when they say that because they want all the rules just to stop everybody from getting close to them." Suffice it to say, Shaw also didn't recommend adopting the CBC's media-ownership rules. The two BDUs were equally open in acknowledging that consumer demand drives their business, and meeting this demand directly serves broadcast diversity. In that, both cablecos are in favour of eliminating the 5:1 Category 2 rule, which requires BDUs to distribute five Category 2 specialty channels from outside owners for each one it distributes and owns itself. Commissioner Stuart Langford asked each BDU if in reciprocation for the CRTC eliminating the 5:1 rule, would they agree to give the commission greater power to punish those who unfairly begin to favour their own programming? Shaw and Rogers both agreed with little or no objection. And as chairman Konrad von Finckenstein summed up before he began questioning Rogers, "I am not surprised by your response; it is very much in line with other major media players." The BDUs may service opposite sides of the country, but their interests are mostly the same. Shaw, in fact, illustrated this similarity when taking about the implications of further consolidation within the BDU space. "If you had the satellite companies and they went together, just for an example, you would have a lot of capacity that would come back on, for innovation, satellite delivery products, Internet, maybe a phone product on the satellite for rural Canadians," he said. "You would have a lot of things happening because you would have this system where you wouldn't have all the duplication. Right now, everybody runs with the same thing....When you look at Rogers and Shaw, they basically have the same stuff on everywhere."

Rogers and Shaw show similarities at DoV proceeding

Broadcast | September 21, 2007

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