JumpTV president likens webcasting

The president of Internet upstart told a hostile audience of broadcasters and content producers that his company’s right to retransmit TV signals is no different than that already afforded to cablecos in Canada. "You hear a lot from the media establishment about how the Internet is different. But we see things differently," Farrel Miller said at a Feb. 2 conference organized by the University of Toronto’s Centre for Innovative Law and Policy. "It’s pretty clear that with the advent of cable 30 years ago, it enabled many people to get a TV signal. Fifty years later, it’s no different. We’re introducing a new medium." JumpTV plans to offer a 4"x 5" web window for its signals at 30 frames per second, which would likely create a 12-second delay from the original airing. Opponents say the delay prevents JumpTV from being treated as a retransmitter. Miller disagrees. "We don’t think any reasonable body or court is going to say a two-second delay is OK, a six-second delay is OK, but a 12-second delay isn’t," he said referring to delays in retransmissions over cable and MDS. David Kent, a lawyer for the Canadian Association of Broadcasters which took a lead role against Jump’s predecessor, iCraveTV, said the Internet would have a disruptive effect on broadcasting and would interfere with the carefully crafted regulatory balance between broadcasters and cable companies. Internet re-transmission, he added, would interfere with the regional basis for program sales, and dilute the producers’ ability to sell their products. The cable industry, represented at the forum by the Canadian Cable Television Association’s senior VP of law and regulatory affairs, called for a technology neutral law to deal with retransmission (CCR, Nov. 9/00). Chris Taylor adopted a neutral stance amid the vituperative debate, neither defending nor accusing JumpTV of violating Canadian law. The broadcasters and producers, on the other hand, pressed for the Internet to be excluded from Section 31 of the Copyright Act, which gives broadcast distributors a guaranteed right to retransmit local television signals.

JumpTV president likens webcasting

Broadcast | February 14, 2001

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