Canadian Heritage committee  We mentioned that briefly here. We are talking about perhaps—not favours—but openings on basic service so that independents can benefit from them.

Canadian Heritage committee  That has not happened yet, but...

Canadian Heritage committee  Precisely. In addition, if we want to sustain independents in their development... I read many of the debates that take place here in committee. Some people say that a company has to be big to succeed, but that is not true. All large companies were small at one time. Small companies must be given a chance to prosper.

Canadian Heritage committee  We hope not. You pointed out first of all that we cannot directly reach subscribers, but we do reach them through the BDUs. You are absolutely right. At recent CRTC hearings, my colleague Paul and I told the commission that with the arrival of digital technology, BDUs are in a position to know precisely what each user does with his digital terminal: what channel he tunes into, for how long he does so and what channel he switches to after that.

Canadian Heritage committee  We do not.

Canadian Heritage committee  No.

Canadian Heritage committee  We deal with Nielsen and they provide us with monthly reports. The BDUs have reports that are up to date to the second. Vertical integration comes into play because these people, now... If you look at the sheet we distributed, you will see that there are not very many independents, there are very few.

Canadian Heritage committee  They are all linked to BDUs.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, let's put it that way. A BDU that owns programming services can use the information from the decoders to determine which programs are the most watched. Then, if that programming belongs to an independent or if it has been acquired from a producer, all they need to do is find the producer and subsequently offer the programming themselves.

Canadian Heritage committee  No, not for the time being. We will come back to that in our document on vertical integration, because copyright is not taken into account. That is another area that needs to be looked at.

Canadian Heritage committee  MeteoMedia and The Weather Network are among the most widely distributed specialty channels, with 98% of all cable and satellite households receiving one or more of our services. This broad access, essential to our success, is in part thanks to early CRTC regulations requiring our distribution on basic cable.