CRTC New Media Review: Tomorrow will be too late

This winter, ACTRA's campaign for more Canadian TV drama moves to a new front: new media. The CRTC is undertaking a wide-ranging review of broadcasting in new media to determine whether broadcasting over the internet should be subject to federal regulations. In some ways, this is even more important than fighting for more Canadian drama on conventional TV since before we know it, most, if not all, broadcasting will be delivered on the internet.

ACTRA's key position is essentially the same as it was in 1999 when the CRTC last considered the issue - that the Commission must regulate broadcasting in new media and ensure that consumers have access to Canadian choices.

Unfortunately, in 1999 the CRTC decided to take a hands-off approach and 'exempt' new media from regulation. At the time, it felt that new media wasn't being used enough to transmit video and other programming to warrant its attention.

Times have changed.

Ten years ago, most folks used the internet for email and reading text. Today, it's a whole different story. It's estimated that more than 50% of the traffic on the internet falls under the definition of 'broadcasting'. So what is broadcasting? The Broadcasting Act defines a program as any combination of "sounds and visual images, that are intended to inform, enlighten or entertain." It also says that when on of these programs is transmitted "for reception by the public by means of broadcast receiving apparatus," there is a broadcast. So whether you are watching an episode of Corner Gas on your TV or CTV.ca, you are enjoying a 'broadcast'. And since it's the CRTC's job to regulate broadcasting - ACTRA says it's time the CRTC paid attention to the internet.

In the near future, the internet and mobile receiving devices will become the main way Canadians watch films and TV and listen to music. Broadcasters will no longer transmit "over-the-air" and major movies will move to the internet shortly after they're released in theatres.

As ACTRA predicted back in 1999, the CRTC's decision to exempt new media from regulation has already created a situation in which broadcasters and cable companies are now 'competing' with their unregulated selves. We've seen what happens when conventional broadcasters are let off the hook - Canadian TV drama disappears. New media will be no different.

The bottom line: if the CRTC doesn't take measures now to ensure a place for Canadian programming in this increasingly dominant medium, there won't be any. If the CRTC doesn't create a place for Canadian programming today, our culture and our industry will be buried. Tomorrow will be too late.

What ACTRA is saying to the CRTC:

The CRTC must rescind its exemption order and implement appropriate regulatory and funding measures for those who are involved in broadcasting in new media, whether as programmers (broadcasters), service providers (distributors) or producers.

To ensure that Canadian stories have a space in new media, ACTRA believes that:

• Those who are streaming live programs from Canada, through the Internet or to mobile receiving devices, must be licensed and subject to rules equivalent to conventional broadcasters.
• Those who are making programs available from Canada, through the internet or to mobile receiving devices, for viewing at a time and place chosen by the viewer (for example, ctv.ca) must be licensed and subject to regulations equivalent to other 'on-demand' programming undertakings.
• If the CRTC is going to create space for Canadian stories in new media, there must be stories to fill that space. To that end, ACTRA is proposing that internet Service Providers and Wireless Service Providers pay a levy of 3% of their gross revenues to an arms-length new media production fund like the Canadian Television Fund.
• To encourage websites not based in Canada to make room for Canadian products, ACTRA is recommend that federal government amend the Income Tax Act to provide that a Canadian advertiser may deduct from their expenses the cost of advertising on a non-Canadian Internet website or service only if that undertaking meets conditions the CRTC would develop in consultation with the industry. For example, if it makes material available through streaming (linear) or on-demand (non-linear) basis, that it ensures least 10% of its content and/or catalogue is Canadian. Or if it enables users to search for programs, that it provides an option to search only Canadian websites, or ensures that Canadian choices are among the first alternatives offered to Canadians.

Click here to read ACTRA's full submission to the CRTC.

Q and A

Q. This sounds a bit scary to me - why does ACTRA want to regulate the internet...?

A. ACTRA does NOT want to regulate the 'internet'. ACTRA is urging the CRTC only to regulate 'broadcasting' using new media tools - i.e. over the internet and mobile devices.

Q. I heard ACTRA wants to impose regulation over 'user generated content' - does that mean you want to stop people from putting videos of their dogs singing on YouTube? Or licence these folks as broadcasters?

A. ACTRA is asking the CRTC to reassert its jurisdiction over user-generated content. It can do that without imposing regulation now - but it should not give up the possibility that it will need to in the future. Obviously the CRTC will exercise it's authority in a manner that is appropriate for the technology and the use, and is free to regulate different elements according to different rules, or to permit certain players to be unregulated.

Q. I went to watch TV online at Global.ca and all I could find were U.S. series - what's up with that?

A. While Global and other private broadcasters have minimum content requirements for airing Canadian programming when they do it 'conventionally' or 'over-the-air' - there are no rules as to what they air online since the CRTC chose not to regulate broadcasting in new media in 1999.

Of course the other problem is because the CRTC relaxed the rules for producing and airing Canadian TV drama in 1999 - there aren't many Canadian shows period. If there are no dramatic series being produced for their TV channels, private broadcasters won't have shows to put online.

ACTRA has been calling on the CRTC to rip up its disastrous 1999 TV Policy for the past seven years. This spring, there's a real chance it will happen. When the CRTC reviews the licenses for private over-their-air broadcasters like CTV and Global it will be able to impose strict requirements for airing and programming Canadian TV drama.