CCTA calls on gov’t to enforce cultural policies by cracking down on TV piracy

The president and CEO of the Canadian Cable Television Association is calling on the federal government to stand up for its own television and cultural policies by cracking down on the illegal black and grey satellite television markets. Despite proposing in a speech last week that if government inaction continues then Ottawa should "let this industry do business like any other business," Janet Yale is tentative about the industry’s willingness to dismantle a broadcast system that has protected both Canadian distributors and broadcasters from outside competition. "That’s not a conversation we want to have now," she tells Canadian Communications Reports. "That’s really our plan B. Our plan A is to get the government to enforce the law and stop signal piracy." In the speech given September 19 in Toronto to the Broadcast Executives Society, Yale suggested that Canadian distributors should not have to heed carriage rules or contribute to Canadian culture and expression through such initiatives as the Canadian Television Fund (CTF) if the government won’t take action against the growing black and grey markets. "If indeed the government’s cultural policy objectives are of prime importance, then they should commit the resources necessary to empower the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) to safeguard our businesses and shut down illegal satellite dealers," she said. "…Because if (the government) doesn’t want to uphold its policy, then it should get out of our way. It should let this industry do business like any other business. When the customer starts shopping around the competition bypassing the Canadian system, it is good business to give customers what they want, because once they’re gone, they are not coming back." In an interview with CCR, Yale sidesteps the question of how quickly the CCTA would be willing to move forward on its plan B – pushing ahead to operate on grounds similar to illegal grey and black market systems, which don’t follow CRTC rules – if the government continues to fail to enforce the law. She returned to her key message: "The bottom line is simple: The government has to enforce its own laws and it has to do it now." In her speech, Yale pointed out that there were an estimated 700,000 illegal satellite dishes in the country. She added that the black and grey markets have deprived the CTF of $4 million to $7.5 million annually. Canadian distributors pay a percentage of their revenues into the CTF, while illegal satellite distributors bypass the system. "Five per cent of the market has gone illegal and without sanctions that number will get a lot bigger," she said. Yale tells CCR that the cable industry is acting through an anti-piracy coalition and on its own to fight the black and grey markets on three fronts (CCR, April 25/02, March 1/02). First, the association and some of its cable members have individually joined the Film and Video Security Office, which was formed by members of the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association to combat piracy of Canadian copyrighted works. The office has already been involved with one raid – against allmodchips.com of Vancouver this summer (CCR, July 18/02). "The office does the legwork and the collecting of evidence for law enforcement officers who can then do the enforcing," Yale notes. The anti-piracy coalition also plans to launch a series of public service announcements in late October or early November to reinforce to the public that buying illegal dishes is akin to stealing an apple from the store. Further, the coalition is planning to launch lawsuits against illegal dish dealers, although Yale won’t reveal details until papers have actually been filed in the courts. This month, Bell ExpressVu LP filed a $45-million lawsuit against three southern Ontario dish dealers and 25 unnamed parties on the grounds they conspired to defame and harm the direct-to-home satellite TV distributor. The lawsuit involves the reselling in Canada of U.S. dishes repatriated by Bell ExpressVu. Yale is also calling for changes to the Radiocommunication Act that would see penalties at least doubled for illegally selling hacker cards and dishes. "It’s like speeding. You might think twice about it if you know that fines are doubled," she says. "But while legislative changes are nice things to do, they are very slow. Our key message is that RCMP should act now. They can go in and seize equipment and make it clear to dealers that their business is over." Warren Ritchie, general manager of Kenora ON-based Norcom Telecommunications Ltd., notes that part of the signal piracy problem also involves Bell ExpressVu subscribers who pay only for a basic package but are able to use illegal cards to get more services than what they pay for. "Probably what’s more prevalent in our area – and I certainly have no numbers, it’s more talking to my technicians who have talked to people – is the ExpressVu black market," he says. "ExpressVu is winning because they get their dishes out there. And they get some of their programming packages purchased and if they figure out a way to stop the compromising of the equipment, they’ll probably have customers built in. People might then start paying for the services they’re currently getting (for free). We’ve seen a lot of ExpressVu dishes go up in the last year, and I’ve heard on the street that a lot is ‘black market’ ExpressVu." Yale says Bell ExpressVu – the company that funded the costly court battle that led to April’s Supreme Court of Canada decision that confirmed both the black and grey market were illegal – should monitor its customers (CCR, May 9/02; CCR Update April 26/02). "As a good corporate citizen, they should make sure that their subscribers aren’t stealing any of their services," she notes.

CCTA calls on gov’t to enforce cultural policies by cracking down on TV piracy

Broadcast | September 26, 2002

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