Promoting Canadian content through internet regulations: Call for comments

A few days ago the CRTC has opened up a public consultation regarding the exemption of regulation for new media. Among other things, new media contains the internet. The old exemption was from 1999 and now the CRTC is trying to decide whether or not it’s still appropriate.

User generated content, that is any content created by individuals, looks like it won’t be touched. Broadcast television shoehorned into the internet is open to potential regulation. One of the pieces of research commissioned by the CRTC calls for a tax similar to the one on broadcast television signals, to be harmonized among all formats so that the media trust doesn’t dwindle as users move to IPTV. ADISQ earlier asked for prioritization of Canadian content but have not yet weighed in on this.

The other piece of research doesn’t come with a recommendation, but does confirm that Canada is far behind.

“U.S. broadcasters are very advanced in terms of making broadcast content available through broadband. Major U.S. broadcasters make between 52 and 80% of their non-news evening/primetime programming available in full-episode format on-demand at their websites. Canada’s two largest private English-language broadcasters, by comparison, offer much less of their content this way (CTV offers 24% and Global TV offers 15%).”

That’s right, our best isn’t even half as good as their worst. Even paid content is lagging.

My main problem with Canadian content requirements on broadcast mediums is that it cuts down on customer choice. The internet was my way around that: I could finally binge on gabber or ebm which just isn’t found on Canadian stations. I could watch the current season of Little Britain rather than the two year old stuff that made its way onto cable here. None of the proposed solutions would impede my ability to get to any content, and the harmonized tax appears fair.

Nevertheless, I’m wary and will be watching the comments as they roll in.