Industry committee  In 1992 the U.S. Congress recognized that copyright was not sufficient in and of itself to remunerate local television stations. They implemented a retransmisison consent regime that required distributors to secure the consent of the station owner before they packaged and sold those channels.

Industry committee  I think that the Copyright Board is limited by the policies that it implements. The reality is that the mismeasurement of viewing of U.S. services in Canada has led to the unfair treatment of U.S. stations in Canada. The gaming of the system that has allowed different property owners to benefit while U.S. station owners have lost out is something that has to be dealt with at the macro level.

Industry committee  I reaffirm that it's outdated, but it has to be addressed in the context of a larger policy.

Industry committee  May I just supplement? I think that the U.S. Congress offers an excellent example here. To protect television stations, they diversified beyond copyright and implemented a retransmission consent regime which just required the distributor to obtain the consent of the signal owner before content was retransmitted, and that simple consent requirement instilled a negotiation between the two parties, and it evolved.

Industry committee  I think something that impacts rural Canadians is the cost of their cable or television package. I think right now our copyright system encourages the oversupply of duplicate programming in the way that they price the distant signals that they are packaging. I like to say that American television channels are the MSG of our Canadian cable package, because at every stage in development, they've used U.S. services and demands for U.S. services to grow the channel package.

Industry committee  I just think it's important for committee members to understand and appreciate that it was accommodating U.S. border stations that led to the copyright regime as we know it now, and Canadians benefited from that accommodation of U.S. border services. Unfortunately, it didn't go far enough, and we now find ourselves in a position where large distribution companies in Canada are benefiting.

Industry committee  I think it's important to appreciate that Canada's policies have consistently allowed our broadcasting distribution undertakings and our satellite relay distributions undertakings to benefit, in that they're allowed to appropriate or take U.S. digital signals, package them without the consent of the U.S. station owners, and then sell those channels to Canadians.

Industry committee  Mr. Chair, vice-chairs, committee members, clerk, and committee staff, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today as part of the statutory review of the Copyright Act. My name is Frank Schiller. I am here as a Canadian adviser to Border Broadcasters, Inc., the not-for-profit copyright collective that represents 26 over-the-air American television stations, including ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox affiliates.