Broadcasters opposed to STB measurement system proposal

Several independent broadcasters have written to the CRTC to say the regulator shouldn’t grant a request by TV providers to change a rule forcing cable and IPTV services to hand over viewership data. Currently, TV service providers are working on a set-top box viewership measurement system, the implementation date of which has been delayed due to factors including an attempt by Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron to withdraw from the group. There is currently both an active and a suspended condition of licence on the implementation of the system. The active COL requires the system -- which would combine the BDU data with that of ratings company Numeris -- to be implemented by September 2019. If, as is the case, it hasn’t been put in place by then, then the suspended COL is triggered, requiring individual BDUs to provide raw data to broadcasters. In August, BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc., and Shaw Communications Inc. asked the CRTC to remove the hard September 2019 date for delivery of STB data to the measurement system. They also said the COL to provide data directly to broadcasters should be suspended so long as “the licensee’s provision of set-top box data to a national set-top box-based audience measurement system has been operationalized.” The vertically integrated companies said requiring the viewership data to be handed over before the system is put in place would undermine the working group’s effort to launch that system. Bell and Rogers have both broadcast and BDU divisions, while Shaw is treated by the CRTC as vertically integrated because broadcaster Corus Entertainment Inc. is also owned by the Shaw family. In their replies, the independent broadcasters generally agreed that the deadline for the condition of licence could be moved, but opposed the proposed change to the conditional COL. CBC/Radio-Canada said that the deadline to get the measurement system up and running should be postponed, but not entirely eliminated, as the three TV providers have proposed. “The STB Working Group was established almost 5 years ago with an expectation that the Measurement System would be developed and implemented by 2017 or 2018 at the latest,” the public broadcaster’s intervention said. “It will soon be 2020 and the Measurement System is not yet in place. Given the history of this matter there is no basis for the complete elimination of the Commission’s deadline.” It said that the TV providers’ suggestion that the conditional COL be suspended until the system is “operationalized” would mean it could be suspended “for many months or even many years,” so long as some data is going to the measurement system, even if it’s not actually up and and running. It said “the final implementation of the Measurement System and delivery of processed STB data could be delayed indefinitely and programming services would have no alternative but to wait. They would not have any other form of access to STB data from a BDU.” The Independent Broadcast Group said that what the TV providers are asking for would mean non-vertically integrated services would “acquiesce to an indeterminate delay in implementing a national measurement system and to forgo access to set-top box data about individual programming services.” It said the BDUs should be held to a firm deadline. IBG argued that vertically integrated companies are already using set-top box data for the benefit of their broadcasting divisions. It said Bell's Strategic Audience Measurement tool and Rogers’ Rogers Enabled Data both use set-top box data for advertising sales, while Corus benefits from access to Shaw’s set-top boxes. “The strides made in accessing and using set-top box data in innovative and productive ways within individual VI companies stands in stark contrast to the lack of progress made in implementing a national system,” IBG argued. Blue Ant Media Inc. also said in its submission that a hard deadline for the implementation of the system is necessary to keep the progress on its development moving. It also said that when it put the initial suspended COL in place, the CRTC recognized that “vertically integrated BDUs are at an inherent advantage with respect to the collection of and access to such to such data vis-à-vis smaller independent services. With every delay in implementing the Measurement System, this disadvantage is growing and there is no persuasive reason for further delaying access to this information by programmers.” Pelmorex Corp. also agreed that “the experience of the past eight months have demonstrated, more than ever before, the need for firm deadlines to ensure the ultimate objective of the STB data policy – access to STB data by all programming services.” — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca

Broadcasters opposed to STB measurement system proposal

Broadcast | December 18, 2019

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Broadcasters opposed to STB measurement system proposal

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