Well, give it a shot. Try.
Evidence of meeting #4 for Canadian Heritage in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was content.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #4 for Canadian Heritage in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was content.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:05 p.m.
Canada Policy Counsel, Google Inc.
Okay. This is really my own speculation. This is not something I come to from my job or from any position we have corporately. I certainly think that there is a future for broadcasting, but it is a future that probably doesn't look like “appointment TV“ looks today. It looks like a model that's focused on consumer choice at its heart.
You've talked a little about how people can go online to watch what they want to watch, when they want to watch. That will be de rigueur. That will be, I think, the broadcasting experience. But again, that's a personal view, and I don't know precisely how that's going to play out in the long term, quite frankly.
12:05 p.m.
Liberal
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
Okay, but we're not talking about the end of the CTVs and Globals of this world. They'll still have a future in a way, but we don't know exactly what it is.
12:05 p.m.
Canada Policy Counsel, Google Inc.
I think that's true for all broadcasting, not just CTV and Global.
12:05 p.m.
Liberal
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
What's the impact of 3-D television?
We have seen studies that say that 3D television is coming in the next few years. Like anything else, at first, it will be very expensive and not be very accessible to people. Studies show that a large number of homes will have 3D televisions in the next few years and that it requires a lot more bandwidth and space to broadcast 3D television signals than conventional ones, as we know them today.
How do you think that will affect Google or the Internet industry?
12:05 p.m.
Canada Policy Counsel, Google Inc.
I think 3-D TV represents a tremendous opportunity for all sorts of players in this space, because it's cool and people are going to like it. It's going to be a new way of experiencing audiovisual content.
It is going to take up a lot more bandwidth, as you rightly identified. I don't know about spectrum, but bandwidth, so one of the things we are going to need is a better, faster broadband infrastructure in our country in order to support 3-D television across the country.
This is not just a 3-D TV issue, by the way, but we'll stick with the 3-D TV example. If you don't want to have a 3-D TV digital divide, that is, where people in Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa get 3-D TV, but people in Rimouski and northern Manitoba don't, we're going to need to think about making sure that the communications infrastructure exists.
Again, on some of the questions that other members have had about the role of government, I think there is a role for government to play in ensuring that we have the best broadband infrastructure in the world. That will act as the underlying network for all of these communication technologies that we've talked about. One of the implications of the virtuous hourglass is that if everything is being carried over the public Internet, we need a really, really fast, open, and reliable public Internet going everywhere.
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
Royal Galipeau Conservative Ottawa—Orléans, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I used to be on TV Ontario's board of directors. I advocated charging a fee on the sale of magnetic tapes and video tapes in order to create a fund to help and promote Canadian culture and to support artists. At that time, my children were angry with me because I wanted to raise the price of magnetic and video tapes. They said it would never help artists because they were the ones who had to buy the magnetic and video tapes.
Right now, I have trouble understanding how that access works. Obviously, I am from a different generation than my children. They are much smarter than I am. I have just started watching one of your products, YouTube, and I have noticed that many young artists, who could otherwise not afford to market their products, are showcasing their work on YouTube for free, and all of a sudden, they become successful because you helped them become known. What is the secret?
There is another thing I have a really hard time understanding. You are a multi-billion dollar company, and yet I never give you a penny. All the benefits that I get from your services are free. I wish it were like that when I went shopping, but it is not. Explain that to me.
12:10 p.m.
Canada Policy Counsel, Google Inc.
This is a question that I get asked frequently: how does Google make money? The answer is advertising. It's very simple. When you do a search on Google, there are sponsored links on the side, and if somebody clicks on them--
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
Royal Galipeau Conservative Ottawa—Orléans, ON
But the truth is that I don't even see them. I only see what I want to see.
12:10 p.m.
Canada Policy Counsel, Google Inc.
Well, then, I guess you're not making us any money.
12:10 p.m.
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
Royal Galipeau Conservative Ottawa—Orléans, ON
I work hard for the money I get. I try to keep it as long as I can.
12:10 p.m.
Canada Policy Counsel, Google Inc.
The answer is that when people click on those links, the advertisers pay for those clicks. There's an auction that is run every time somebody does a search and the ads are ranked based on an auction and their relevance. When people click on those ads--
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
Royal Galipeau Conservative Ottawa—Orléans, ON
Okay. So if I click on Robert Charlebois and listen to something he sings--by the way, it's not of very good quality--what I want to do after I've listened to it is buy his CD, which is of course of better quality.
12:10 p.m.
Canada Policy Counsel, Google Inc.
Sorry, but I'm not sure what you're describing--
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
Royal Galipeau Conservative Ottawa—Orléans, ON
Yes. On YouTube, does somebody make money from my click?
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
