OTTAWA - The CRTC has launched a major review of the impact that the Internet is having on Canadian broadcasting and whether it should try to govern content on new digital media.
The federal regulator is in the midst of its most comprehensive review of national television policy in 15 years, and has heard complaints from broadcasters and cable-TV operators that they are losing market share to the Internet and other new-media platforms such as cellphones.
On Thursday, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission issued a 75-page compilation of stakeholder views as a starting point to what it said would be a wide-ranging review.
"This is not about regulation, this is about understanding what is actually happening in the new media and the impact on broadcasting," CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein said in an interview.
Still, the CRTC document on the issue released Thursday notes that the commission exempted the Internet from Canadian-content requirements in 1999 and that times have changed.
High-speed residential Internet access is now available to 93 per cent of Canadian households and has been adopted by more than 60 per cent. As well, Canadians are spending more time accessing broadcasting content over the Internet and on mobile devices.
"Accordingly, the commission now considers it appropriate to review new media and, if necessary, revise the exemption orders," the document states.
"Fundamentally, it is necessary to determine if the new media broadcasting environment is contributing sufficiently to the achievement of the broadcasting policy objectives of the Act, and if it will continue to do so."
Finckenstein explained that it would make no sense to take the CRTC's regulatory approach and transplant it to the new media, although he said the commission could recommend that government offer incentives to new media to ensure there is sufficient access to Canadian content if that is found to be necessary.
At the moment, the CRTC does not know answers to basic questions, he said, including the amount and nature of Canadian content on new media, or whether the new media is a threat to such traditional broadcast media as television, or merely complementary.
"I don't know. All I know is that it's been eight years and that's an eternity in this industry. We owe it to examine it and say, 'Is the decision we made in '99 still valid and if not, should it be altered and to what extent?' "
The regulator has given interested parties until July 11 to file comments. Two or three weeks of public hearings are being planned for early 2009.
The CRTC set out several issues it wants to pursue:
-What is broadcasting in new media?
-Should the creation and promotion of Canadian content for the new media environment be supported? If so, how?
-Are there barriers to accessing Canadian broadcasting content in the new media environment?
