Comparisons to iCrave miss global nature of new television portal says JumpTV.com

The man behind JumpTV.com says failure to secure a copyright tariff for broadcasts in Canada won’t stop his company from launching an international service for live and recorded television. CEO Farrel Miller contends legal retaliation from U.S. broadcasters also isn’t an issue – as it was with Internet upstart iCraveTV.com – because Canadian broadcast signals won’t be available to web surfers across the border. In an interview with Canadian NEW MEDIA, Miller dismissed comparisons that have been made between his company and iCraveTV, saying his proposed service is not limiting itself to the Canadian market, or to the retransmission of Canadian broadcast signals. JumpTV attracted the attention of Canada’s broadcast industry this summer when it applied to the Copyright Board for a new tariff that would permit re-transmission of over-the-air broadcast signals on the Internet (CNM, Sept. 20/00). Approaching the Copyright Board for an Internet tariff is a first step in a broader business plan. Miller says JumpTV also plans to introduce a technology to stop web users in the U.S. from being able to access Canadian broadcast signals on his site. ICrave’s service was sunk this winter by American broadcasters due to concerns over the leakage of signals into the U.S. market. Its temporary demise left a score of copyright questions unanswered, and Miller says solving those issues has been a priority for his company. "It’s not crystal-clear that the status quo (for tariffs) … is applicable to Internet retransmission," he says. "It works a different way. Of course, cable operators retransmit and they have cable subscribers who pay them a monthly fee – that’s their revenue model. As we outline in our letter (to the Copyright Board), we have a different revenue model. Our revenue model is not based on monthly subscriptions to what we’re doing…. That’s why we thought the appropriate thing was to make the application to the board to really pursue the proper channels within Canada." If successful, Miller says JumpTV could begin retransmitting Canadian broadcasting signals without any legal interference. While it has been pointed out that altering the original broadcast by running concurrent ads on a computer display might violate copyright laws, Miller says he doesn’t expect those objections to be a problem. "Just because that has been the model for many years, I haven’t seen a law that says that you cannot accompany any kind of re-transmission with advertising," he says. "We always want to act in accordance with the laws of Canada, and we don’t see anything that we would be doing that, if we were given a tariff, would be in violation of those laws….(We) think that our application, and the substance in our application would be totally within the bounds of Canadian law. Having said that, we think the proper channel to pursue is to make the application to the board." Miller expects the Copyright Board will act on JumpTV’s request due to the high profile nature of its business plan. He won’t speculate on the application’s chances before the quasi-judicial body, other than to say he believes it fits within the bounds of Canadian law. As expected, Canadian broadcasters were given an extension to comment on JumpTV’s application, and will now have until October 20 to file those comments with the board. Miller stresses that the Canadian component is only one of many deals the company will have to strike with collectives, rights-holders and other copyright boards from several countries. He says the portal will carry signals from around the world, including Europe and Asia. In some cases, agreements will be exclusive or will involve linking to broadcasters’ Internet sites. "That’s where I would say JumpTV is really different from a lot of the existing portals, or a lot of the existing companies on the Internet – a lot of them based in the United States." He says that while other sites might have six- to 10-minute video clips available, JumpTV will carry full live broadcasts as much as possible. For the moment, the company has no staff elsewhere around the world to develop those links. It’s focusing on Canada as a launching pad. The issue of leakage from one country into another, Miller says, has been solved with the use of a technology called Border Control, developed by an affiliate company of the same name. Still, he notes, leakage is less important an issue than iCraveTV’s objectors made it out to be. He notes a recent CNN.com article discussing the number of Americans who had signed up with Canadian DTH satellite operators so that they could receive CBC Olympics coverage live.Canadian broadcast signals offered via the satellite, like those offered on iCraveTV, are not authorized for distribution in the U.S. "I find it somewhat amusing because when you talk about leakage, all anyone in the United States has to do is buy a satellite dish and sign up with a Canadian satellite operator and boom, you get lots of leakage right there. Having said that, our system is about as foolproof as you get." Border Control and JumpTV.com currently employ about a dozen people. Miller says JumpTV has been privately financed, but won’t divulge further details about the ownership. He says Howard Greenspoon, listed as the sole principal of 2000051 Ontario Inc, is acting as an advisor to the company, but does not have an executive role. The numbered company is wholly-owned by JumpTV.com, and is the organization which sent an August 30 letter to the Copyright Board asking for the Internet-specific tariff. JumpTV.com is based in Montreal. Opposition to the JumpTV project has already begun mounting among broadcasters, and the head lawyer spearheading the effort against iCraveTV is telling media that the company’s plans won’t hold legal water. "Does JumpTV have solid legal standing? The answer is no," says McCarthy Tétrault lawyer Peter Grant. "The first issue is that this fellow is not operating yet. He’s simply gone to the board asking for a tariff. The board has sent out requests for responses to copyright collectives and rights owners." Grant says until the company begins operations, it’s premature to consider litigation. JumpTV doesn’t have a firm launch date set for the re-transmission of signals. Miller says the company will wait until the Copyright Board has made a ruling on its tariff application before announcing its next step.

Comparisons to iCrave miss global nature of new television portal says JumpTV.com

Broadcast | October 4, 2000

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