Consensus on CRTC data collection for foreign outlets; disagreement on how

Civil groups and Canadian telecoms companies agree that the CRTC should extend its digital survey to foreign digital media broadcasting undertakings operating in Canada, but can’t find consensus on the best threshold or if it even has the authority to do so, according to interventions in the CRTC's consultation in the matter. “Information about foreign digital media broadcasting undertakings operating in Canada should be gathered,” the Forum for Research and Policy in Communications (FRPC) wrote in its intervention. “Yet while the CRTC is free at any time to amend or even rescind its Digital Media Exemption Order it unfortunately has no legal authority to require foreign digital (or conventional) broadcasting undertakings to submit information to the commission.” The FRPC noted that the Broadcasting Act allows the CRTC jurisdiction over broadcast undertakings with a “reasonable nexus” to Canada, however, it does limit the commission’s authority to only order the reporting of data to broadcasters that it has licensed. It recommended the government rescind “in its entirety” the current direction to the CRTC, which enshrines the ineligibility of non-Canadian broadcasters Until then, the FRPC wrote, “the most that the commission can expect is that some foreign broadcasters will volunteer such information. While one may hope that this information will be reasonably accurate, there would be no way of ensuring the information’s accuracy.” Shaw Communications Inc. argued that the CRTC should suspend all consideration of the digital survey until Bill C-10, the revised Broadcasting Act, reaches royal assent. “The survey, in its present form, is grounded in, and reflects, the current regulatory framework, which is frozen in the past,” Shaw wrote in its intervention. “Moreover… the commission presently lacks powers to enforce the survey’s data collection among the DMBUs that account for the vast majority of revenues and subscribers in Canada.” In March 2019, the CRTC outlined its plan, and issued a consultation, for expanding the annual broadcasters’ survey to collect information about licenced broadcasters and TV providers’ “digital media broadcasting activities.” In June, it issued a second round of consultations, expanding the scope of its proposed digital media survey. Interveners during the first round, the commission noted, expressed concern the survey would “capture only the broadcasting activities of digital media broadcasting undertakings operated by licensees of Canadian broadcasting undertakings” rather than the full scope of activities in the Canadian broadcasting system. There was also concern about the "commercially sensitive nature” of some of the data that was proposed to be collected. One of the questions asked by the CRTC in its new round of consultations was whether participation in the survey should be required based on a threshold approach that would exempt digital media broadcasting undertakings that provide services in Canada but do not significantly engage in broadcasting activities, and the metrics it should use to determine the exemption. The Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) said it supported expanding the survey to all digital media broadcasting undertakings (DMBUs) that serve a significant amount of, or derive significant revenue from, Canadians -- but that it is up to the DMBUs to comment on the thresholds. “Information with respect to services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, CBS All Access, and others, are also crucial to understanding the contemporary broadcasting system in Canada,” it wrote to the commission in its latest intervention. It did suggest that audience and viewership be added to the proposed metrics (revenues and subscriptions) because “a loss-leading service, such as Amazon Prime, may not generate significant revenues on its own, but may drive business to other services that do, while also competing for viewers with other broadcasting undertakings.” Rogers Communications Inc. also agreed with a survey for all DMBUs operating in Canada, provided that the requirements to submit data publicly does not place Canadian DMBUs at a competitive disadvantage to foreign DMBUs, and that participation should be required on a revenue threshold basis for DMBUs grossing more than $25 million annually from its Canadian activities. “We dismissed the (subscriber) approach because of the significant shift in recent years in advertising revenue from linear broadcasters to online platforms,” Rogers wrote. “If a subscriber approach was adopted even in combination with some advertising threshold, it is likely that the Survey would exclude some DMBU participants that are having a significant impact on the Canadian broadcasting system.” In regard to the confidentiality concerns, Rogers wrote that no information regarding revenues, expenses or subscriptions of any DMBU should be disclosed due to competitive concerns. It said only aggregated data on the basis of the country of origin of the DMBUs should be disclosed to the public, anything else would “expose Canadian DMBUs to a significant competitive disadvantage with respect to the larger digital streaming services like Netflix and Spotify or web giants like Facebook and Google/YouTube”. WGC said that higher level data should be collected on a quarterly basis -- another question posed by the CRTC in the consultation -- because it mirrors the practices currently in place for large broadcasting distribution undertakings, and will also allow for a more rapid response to the changing market. “In today’s digital environment, key data and analytics are available to these companies themselves not just quarterly, but monthly, weekly, daily, hourly, and even in real time. There should be no barrier, technological or otherwise, to reporting basic, high-level data on a quarterly basis,” WGC wrote. However, Rogers called the quarterly reporting “unreasonable” because it would undermine the CRTC’s own objectives “to collect only the minimum amount of information necessary” while creating more administrative burdens on DMBUs. “It is rare for the commission to impose quarterly reporting requirements on the undertakings it regulates and, typically, such filings are only mandated where there is evidence that a licensee has failed to comply with one or more regulatory obligations,” Rogers argued. -- Reporting by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca

Consensus on CRTC data collection for foreign outlets; disagreement on how

Broadcast | August 9, 2021

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Consensus on CRTC data collection for foreign outlets; disagreement on how

Broadcast | August 9, 2021

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