The transformation from an era of a few terrestrial channels to hundreds of channels available via cable or satellite has pushed Canada’s broadcasting and telecommunications sector into an era of seismic shifts, the C.D. Howe Institute states in a newly released report. Bold initiatives are necessary to preserve the cultural fabric in the new millennium, and Canada needs a coherent strategy to benefit in an internet world.
The Howe document goes on to say that the transference of media to the internet “poses considerable challenges for one of the defining features of Canadian media regulation: the promotion of Canadian content.”
The transition from a “push†network, where entertainment choices were limited to that available at a given time, to a “pull†network, where content is available on demand, will render current tools obsolete, the think tank reports. Provocatively, C.D. Howe’s ‘Scrambled Signals’ study suggests that “Ownership regulations and exhibition and expenditure quotas that mandate Canadian ownership of media and the percentage of Canadian content broadcast or purchased will be unenforceable online and should be abolished.”
Continuing: “Other tools that promote Canadian content may still be useful in the future. Public broadcasting, including the CBC, could be bolstered to ensure an outlet for Canadian content. Public subsidy to Canadian content could ensure that there is Canadian content available for those who want it.
“However, the means of supporting this subsidy will have to change. In the past,
broadcasters directly and indirectly subsidized Canadian content production. Currently, cable and satellite companies are in a strong position to fund Canadian content given their potential market power over distribution networks. The rise of the Internet and wireless transmission will change that balance yet again.
“The future of telecommunications and broadcasting regulation should be limited to expressly anti-competitive activities. Parties should have access to distribution networks on commercially reasonable, arm’s-length terms that do not reflect the network owner’s potential conflicts of interest resulting from a desire to limit competition.
“As is so often the case, exiting from regulation is more difficult than entering it but Canadian policymakers have no choice but to embark on this transition. To that end, a review by an independent expert panel charged with proposing a transition roadmap is urgently needed.
About the C.D. Howe Institute
The C.D. Howe Institute is a leading independent, economic and social policy research institution. The Institute promotes sound policies in these fields for all Canadians through its research and communications. Its nationwide activities include regular policy roundtables and presentations by policy staff in major regional centres, as well as before parliamentary committees. The Institute’s individual and corporate members are drawn from business, universities and the professions across
the country.
