Don’t exclude online services from Broadcasting Act: Private radio

Canada’s private radio broadcasters are fighting against a push to keep online services out of Canada’s broadcast laws, according to a submission sent to the Liberal government’s expert panel review of the future of Canada’s communications laws. The Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ Radio Council calls for a more “equitable regulatory framework” and “level playing field” when it comes to regulating foreign-streaming services, such as Spotify AB, Apple Inc.’s music and Alphabet Inc.’s Google Play Music, and opposes calls from the likes of Netflix Inc. to exclude online services from the Broadcasting Act. “We strongly oppose the notion of limiting the jurisdiction or excluding Internet-based services from the Act,” it said. Its own reading of the current law is online streaming services such as Netflix, Apple Music, YouTube and Spotify already count as broadcasters and that the CRTC has jurisdiction over them. “We believe that the definition of ‘broadcasting undertaking’ would encompass known and future online audio and music-based services, as well as a significant portion of activity on social media and news sites.” Netflix’s submission to the same review argues a new Broadcasting Act should be “crafted to unambiguously exclude online services,” a pitch made as some ISPs, content producers and other groups call for new kinds of regulations for foreign-based streaming services. The radio council represents more than 500 radio stations across Canada. Its submission is preoccupied with online music streaming and foreign digital giants, but says the specifics should be dealt with by the government and CRTC in the short term, and acknowledges that foreign-based digital companies can’t be regulated exactly the same as traditional radio broadcasters. “Establishing the precise nature of appropriate and equitable contributions would be the subject of a future CRTC proceeding.” It said it already has requested an “immediate review of the radio regulatory framework” to address some of the issues facing the industry and it is “cautiously optimistic” such a review will take place this year. On the other hand, it outlines a number of suggestions for changing some of the traditional broadcast industry’s rules amid declining advertising dollars and audience numbers. Some of those proposals include removing restrictions on owning more than two FM stations in a market -- which would allow them to realize “greater operating efficiencies” -- and considering reducing private radio’s CanCon contributions. “Relaxation of the regulatory obligations imposed on private radio may ultimately be necessary in order to remain competitive with online players,” it said. The CRTC’s Harnessing Change report said the radio industry’s revenues have been in “slight decline since 2014,” but the CAB argues the declines are worse than it estimates. The CAB submission said the radio industry has seen four successive years of “systemic revenue declines,” losing $103 million from 2013-2017 -- a 6.5 per cent drop. “The industry expects continuing and, potentially, greater declines through 2020,” it added, and expressed alarm things could get much worse after that if nothing is done. It said those downward trends are being “driven by an exodus of advertising revenue to digital platforms” like Google and Facebook Inc. But the council also warns of other major concerns on their horizon beyond digital giants to the forward-looking legislative review panel. Broadcasters raised concerns radio “tuners” that let Canadians access the AM or FM dial are being replaced by other technology, like smartphones, tablets and smart-speakers. It floats the idea of the government “requiring manufacturers to insert and activate FM chips in smartphones,” an idea floated by Cogeco Inc. in its own submission. That said, their biggest future concern, on top of competing with global digital platforms and concerns about access to radio tuners, is that eventually self-driving cars will enable other in-car media use. “The doomsday scenario for radio is that these trends coalesce in a way that effectively eliminates radio’s historic ownership of in-car listening,” it said. “The ‘connected car’, enabled by low cost wireless data plans and dashboards that reduce radio’s prominence, will massively increase access to online audio streaming over the next five years,” the submission outlines. “Truly autonomous vehicles, which could be available in as little as ten years, will open up car-based electronic entertainment and information from audio-based media to text and video.” Its current proposal on that front is “collaboration with automotive industry to ensure radio’s prominence on the dashboard continues.” — With reporting by Kyle Duggan at kduggan@thewirereport.ca and editing by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca

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Don’t exclude online services from Broadcasting Act: Private radio

Broadcast | February 4, 2019

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