Canadian Heritage committee  First of all, I don't know what you would be doing if we were not coming here, but—

Canadian Heritage committee  If, coming to a series of these hearings, one of our ideas is transformed into law, it's something positive. The real issue here is that we appreciate the fact that in the multi-party types of meetings we have here, we can exchange with you and convey suggestions to you to make the system work better.

Canadian Heritage committee  I think politically it will be difficult.

Canadian Heritage committee  We have been told by the incumbents over the years, not just the current ones, that to create a communication department, from a purely political point of view, is to create a small department; it will go from the industrial level to a small department, and that in itself is the first hurdle, to consider that.

Canadian Heritage committee  I wouldn't say we're having trouble. When you have a solid proposal, you don't usually have trouble obtaining money to finance acquisitions or new projects. What I believe we should have is more incentives to undertake this kind of project, to take this kind of risk. This does not mean that we should replace funding by private financing, what we should have is an incentive so that people are willing to take this risk and to launch new products or to enter new fields.

Canadian Heritage committee  I think we need people like Tom Jenkins to be part of such a panel; people who have the expertise needed to understand the development of new media, and people who have had or who have good knowledge of our broadcasting system and today's new telecommunications sector. They have to be able to combine the two, so that action taken in one sector does not harm the other, in order to support even more stimulating development in the future.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you for the question. Thank you for calling me a pioneer and not a patriarch.

Canadian Heritage committee  I've lived through different governments, whether I was at the CRTC or in business, always in the media business. I've seen the benefits of having one department in charge of both telecommunications and broadcasting at the time, and having one vision for the future. As a matter of fact, the rest of the world came to see how it worked here and couldn't believe that we would have one regulatory authority, for example, for both telecom and broadcast when they had separate ones in most of the countries of the world, and the same thing at the level of the department.

Canadian Heritage committee  Good morning, Mr. Chair, committee members and staff. First of all, I would like to thank the committee for inviting Astral to participate in its study on emerging and digital media. Astral is a Canadian media company, active in the fields of specialty and pay television, radio, new media and out-of-home advertising both in the francophone and anglophone markets across Canada.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, madam, I am being well looked after this afternoon.

Canadian Heritage committee  —but it also adds challenges. Our imperative is to find sustainable business models. We must adapt our TV and radio services in order to remain relevant in the broadcasting value chain in light of the emergence of new competitors; we must invest and progress in the interactive media and evolve in order to remain connected to our audiences.

Industry committee  There are three parts to my answer. First, the advertisement you mentioned targets the English market. Bell also distributes our services. There is no mention of our company is this advertisement, but we are mentioned elsewhere. Secondly, merging the two acts into a single one, as the head of the CRTC suggested, is one of the options that should be examined by the proposed panel of experts.

Industry committee  As a communications consultant, one is surely aware of a number of things related to these types of issues. We don't believe they are too strong. We believe the fact that there are at least four or five big ones creates enough competition among themselves, except for the French language market.

Industry committee  When we look at the possibility of foreign ownership, of course, we think they will probably be Americans. It's not the capital funds that will come and buy the Canadian assets here in this sector; it will be the major players in the United States. They already provide us with some programming.

Industry committee  It does apply to all cable operators, all satellite operators like Bell ExpressVu and Shaw. They are regulated by the CRTC under the Broadcasting Act.