Regulating Netflix the least of CRTC’s concerns: Blais

The CRTC is concerned with “much bigger issues with greater ramifications down the road” than the question of whether it will regulate over-the-top (OTT) services like Netflix, CRTC Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais said Thursday. As the CRTC makes decisions on issues raised at the Let’s Talk TV hearing earlier this fall, “‘regulating’ Netflix is the least of our concerns,” Blais told the Vancouver Board of Trade in a speech, according to speaking notes provided by the CRTC. The question of whether the CRTC should, or could, regulate such services was raised repeatedly during the hearing, during which Netflix Inc. and Google Inc.’s refusal to provide the CRTC information it had requested led to conflict between the two sides. The government also waded in, with both Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Heritage Minister Shelly Glover saying that the government would not impose a “tax” on online video. “Whether we choose to attack these disruptive services or learn from their success will be our regulatory decision to make and ours alone,” Blais said Thursday. He added that the CRTC’s demand for information from Netflix and Google during the hearing “is not about regulating them or not, as some uninformed casual observers would have you believe. This is about the integrity of an evidence-based proceeding.” Blais said that despite the rapid growth of OTT services in Canada, and the number of people who are choosing to cut the cord, the traditional TV system is stable. He pointed to CRTC data which shows that while some people are cutting the cord, those numbers amounted to 7,600 fewer TV-service subscribers last year; a 0.1 per cent decrease compared to a six per cent drop in home-phone lines. “And despite the mountain of media stories about Netflix, and Shomi, and HBO online, and CBS online and Bell’s Project Latte, let’s not lose sight of the fact that about 60 per cent of Canadians do not stream TV programming. Canadians still watch on average 28 hours of traditional TV a week,” Blais said, adding that “the hours of viewing to online video services, including cute kittens on YouTube, is only 1.9 hours per week.” While important shifts may be occurring, “the CRTC needs to examine the whole system, focus on real evidence, consider trend lines and act at a measured pace,” while considering its “legislative mandate and our obligation as an administrative tribunal to provide procedural fairness to all parties. “ “No one will benefit from a reckless regulator. If this is acting like a dinosaur, I will wear that label proudly,” he said. Blais said the CRTC has been able to adapt to “relentless change” in the past, and pointed to the emergence of satellite-television service. “It wasn’t that many years ago that Canadian firms were warning of ‘death stars,’ their rhetorical hyperbole to describe direct-broadcast satellites that could broadcast signals across Canada,” Blais said. “Well, the sky didn’t fall.” Instead, thanks “to a so-called threat to the cable industry, we were able to encourage the growth of Canadian businesses, help create job opportunities and investments in Canada, offered more marketplace choices for consumers and supported the production of content made by creators. The advent of more competition also led to less regulation in the cable industry to allow it to compete.” He added that “the lesson to be drawn is that the CRTC will not find wise counsel in the rhetoric of today’s pundits and incumbents who have created new technological 'death stars' to scare the regulator into action or inaction. Nor should we embrace knee-jerk solutions to complex problems.” Blais also pointed to the CRTC’s decision Thursday to forbid telecommunications companies from requiring subscribers to give a 30-day notice to cancel their TV, Internet and phone services, effective Jan. 23, 2015. The CRTC said in a press release that this was the first decision to come out of the Let’s Talk TV consultations, and that it will also apply to Internet and telephone service providers. The CRTC’s wireless code, which came into effect last year, established similar rules for wireless services, the CRTC added. The move was praised by OpenMedia.ca campaign manager Josh Tabish in a press release, who called it a “positive step forward for Canadians.” Glover commented on Twitter that the CRTC’s decision was consistent with the government’s “consumer-first agenda.” Blais said Thursday that the decision will “make it easier for Canadians to switch service providers and benefit from a more dynamic marketplace,” and that the 30-day notice policies were “a clear obstacle to healthy competition.” He said that beyond the Talk TV proceeding, the commission is “currently tackling one of the most ambitious regulatory agendas in over two decades,” pointing to last month’s hearing on wholesale wireless services and the upcoming hearing on wholesale wireline services. “Wireless and Internet services have impacts far beyond your access to entertainment such as TV shows and music. They will fundamentally shape the future of e-business in a digital economy, just as they will revolutionize electronic health, e-learning, machine-to-machine applications and smart transportation grids,” Blais said. Blais added that the CRTC has to ensure Canadians across the country can access these services, and that companies “have a fair opportunity to make a return on their investments.” “These are hard and very important issues. If you think this is about House of Cards and Orange is the New Black, you are missing the point about the breadth of potentially disruptive digital issues on the horizon,” Blais said. — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca

Regulating Netflix the least of CRTC’s concerns: Blais

Broadcast | November 6, 2014

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Regulating Netflix the least of CRTC’s concerns: Blais

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