Canadians dreaming of unbundled, a la carte cable programming (or just cutting the cord altogether) now have something to hope for. The Canadian government is venturing into a very public review of its television regulations, with the potential to vastly change how Canadians access online portals like Netflix, and how much they pay for cable subscriptions.
The results of these hearings have the potential to be so explosive on the state of cable subscriptions worldwide, American companies have made the trip north to lobby Canadian policymakers at the hearings.
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Yesterday, at the opening of the Let’s Talk TV hearings—the government initiative consulting Canadians since 2013 on the state of television regulations—the chairman of the Canadian Radio and Television Commission, Jean-Pierre Blais, was blunt: “Canadian television finds itself at a crossroads.”
The findings from the Let’s Talk campaign will help the CRTC determine future broadcast regulations for everything from Netflix and YouTube to unbundling cable TV, and it’s the last chance for interested parties to formally lodge their opinions to the feds.
Canadian television finds itself at a crossroads.
Netflix representatives are set to speak, and other US media corporations like Disney have also already shown a ton of interest in potential Canadian cable subscription changes. Adweek reports that the multi-faceted American corporation is looking on in Ottawa with eager eyes to see whether or not Canada will become one of the first countries ever to institute pick-and-pay cable options.
If the Canadians were to adopt a pick-and-pay cable system (which it looks possible, given the mandate CRTC has already outlined), or force online production services to pay into the Canadian Media Fund, it would represent an absolutely major switch in broadcast policy.
In one scenario, cable companies could no longer bundle channels and force viewers to buy packages they don’t want, while Netflix might be forced to fund Canadian productions and jack subscription fees.
The CRTC Vine for the Let’s Talk campaign.
The Canadian government said it hopes to come to a decision on the future of television in Canada by January 2015, once the CRTC has thoroughly weighed the information from the Let’s Talk TV campaign and the current hearings.
Nonetheless, with a list of proposals already suggesting what the government could (but by no means is guaranteed to) do, the hearings will be more of a sounding board for what we might end up seeing in legislation.
On deck to testify for the next two weeks of hearings will be over 100 delegates ranging from officials of the National Film Board, Bell Canada, and Rogers, to American bigwigs like Google and Disney.
In his opening remarks, Blais admitted the current regulatory framework in place is outdated, and expressed an interest in modernizing it. “How Canadians interact with television has changed. Broadcasting has changed. It’s time the regulatory model also changed,” he said.
While the current regulatory regime heavily favours cable networks, Blais earmarked the future of online media, naming Google and Netflix as emerging, key players that the government needs to consider when legislating new regulations.
“[T]he regulatory model is not well set up to accommodate our modern realities,” Blais said, because “Canadians are watching television in different ways.”
Google already came down hard on the Canadian model, having been given one of the opening delegate positions after Blais spoke yesterday.
The opening of the Let’s Talk TV hearings. Image: Twitter
According to a CBC report, Google sees new mandatory funding and licensing payments put on online content producers as negative for consumers.
“Mandatory contributions would likely increase costs to consumers in the form of increased subscription fees and creators in the form of diminished licence fees or revenue share for them,” said Jason Kee, public policy and government relations counsel for Google.
In other words, Kee is suggesting in the event online producers like Google are forced to pay for licensing their content onto the Canadian net, or pay into media funds, would likely be reflected in subscription fees for users.
But in fairness to Kee, his company is attempting to maintain the sweet deal YouTube currently enjoys as an excellent, free source of news, without any paywalls for viewers that certainly jacks its overall viewership.
Ultimately, besides the international interest, the next few weeks will offer a glimpse into the future of Canadian cable television with implications far and wide.
