Please be very brief.
Evidence of meeting #27 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 media.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #27 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 media.
A recording is available from Parliament.
3:55 p.m.
Executive Director, Policy Development and Research Sector, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
I think you probably have some of the answers associated with that question. I'd be more than happy to provide information on what the tools are, and the exactitude of those tools, but I think I'd leave it to others to follow up on that.
3:55 p.m.
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
Thank you very much, and thank you to the witnesses for appearing before us today.
Digital technology is obviously changing a lot of how we perceive things. I certainly think it's making the world much smaller. The CRTC was designed in the 1960s, when we decided we'd put a big wall up around the country and try to create a unique Canadian market. I think that challenge is something that the CRTC today struggles with greatly. Communities within a few miles of the border could stick up an antenna and receive those signals anyway, but when it got a little further than that, those signals couldn't be pushed that far, so you were able to create a largely distinct Canadian market.
Now we have the advent of the Internet. Mr. Angus is lamenting about some of the access to broadband and so forth, but last week he indicated something that I think is very true, which is that his kids don't watch TV; they're on YouTube. My nieces are on YouTube every night. They don't watch TV; they're watching what they want to watch, on demand. I was interested to see that we now have Apple TV, and Netflix has come to Canada.
Can you confirm if there are any Canadian content restrictions on Netflix or Apple TV in Canada?
4 p.m.
Executive Director, Policy Development and Research Sector, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
There aren't specific ones, no.
4 p.m.
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
I'm not advocating that there should be. I don't believe there should be. I've been saying for some time that it's about time we had a review of the Broadcasting Act to determine exactly what the role of the CRTC is in moving forward in the modern digital environment. What is it that we're trying to accomplish? I think providing a stage and making sure that Canadian artists and quality Canadian content can access a global market is critically important for government, and I think it's of interest to all Canadians.
When the chair of the CRTC was here before, I said that the CRTC was established to be king of the sandbox; now the sandbox is in the middle of the beach. We're still trying to say who can play with the toys in the sandbox, but frankly, Canadians have a lot of access in terms of where they're going to go for their content.
If we look at modern technology and the choices Canadians are making, I'd relate this somewhat to vertical integration. You've indicated that you want to have a hearing on vertical integration and that you're concerned about it and where it's going, but if we look at examples like Netflix and Apple TV, clearly they are the models of where broadcasters want to go. They want to be able to provide people with the programming they want to watch, when they want to watch it, in the format that they want to watch it in.
How is the CRTC looking at that? What adjustments are you making, and what are your considerations with respect to that issue?
4 p.m.
Executive Director, Policy Development and Research Sector, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
As a result of the new media hearing, we mentioned that we will continue to monitor that environment. But it's clear that if you look at the landscape as it is now, there are many Canadian companies that have actually developed content and provided it either on iPhone or online. You hear radio now from different companies, whether Corus, the CBC, or others; Rogers Online is available; iIllico provides live TV from Quebecor. They're actually competing with the best of the best out there.
Although this environment is complementary, industry has taken action to provide content and make it visible in that environment. But it raises larger questions. In this abundance of content, how do you make Canadian programming or content more visible? How do you promote it and make it more visible in that world?
4 p.m.
Conservative
4 p.m.
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
I don't have a lot of time.
I guess I'll close by again thanking you. I look forward to your appearing in the hearing we're going to have on vertical integration, because I think there's some commonality between what we're looking at here and what that study will be looking at.
Thank you.
4 p.m.
Liberal
Bonnie Crombie Liberal Mississauga—Streetsville, ON
Where do I start? Let's talk about ISPs again.
CRTC ruled that ISPs aren't broadcasters, yet in June you said that a reassessment would be required if their role changed. Has there been a reassessment yet, and do you plan on doing one?
4 p.m.
Executive Director, Policy Development and Research Sector, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
You probably know that this went to the Federal Court of Appeal, and they categorically said that ISPs do not fall within the meaning of the Broadcasting Act. But there is another case now at the Supreme Court, and we'll wait to see what results. It's by the cultural communities. We'll wait to see what results come out.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Bonnie Crombie Liberal Mississauga—Streetsville, ON
How will you measure consumption and availability of broadcasting content in the new media specifically? Secondly, how will you do so for Canadian broadcasting content in the emerging and digital media?
4:05 p.m.
Executive Director, Policy Development and Research Sector, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
It's a good question. As part of the proceeding on the new media, the commission made a decision to establish a new media measurement working group with the aim of having a better understanding between the cultural groups, the industry, and others, and to participate in that group with the aim of having better metrics of this environment and being able to measure it.
Establishment of this group is in the initial phases at the moment, but we look forward to seeing some standards and metrics developed as we go forward.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Bonnie Crombie Liberal Mississauga—Streetsville, ON
Great.
Finally, on the issue of net neutrality, you've ruled on the matter and said that ISPs must ensure that the ways they use to manage traffic must not be “unjustly discriminatory or unduly preferential”. How do you ensure that ISPs manage Internet traffic in ways that are not unjustly discriminatory or unduly preferential?
4:05 p.m.
Executive Director, Telecommunications, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
We had a major proceeding in 2009 on net neutrality. We called it the Internet traffic management practices framework. We set up a framework, actually, and it's going to be complaint-driven. If we get a complaint in from an ISP, or from a Canadian who's concerned about traffic management, it will come to the commission, and we'll take a look at it through the framework. Some of the things we will consider are the purpose of the ITMP; whether the discrimination or preference created by the ITMP is as minimal as possible; whether it's designed to get to the specific purpose, which is traffic congestion with minimized unintended consequences for either the users or the content providers.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Bonnie Crombie Liberal Mississauga—Streetsville, ON
Can I just ask as well, are there enforcement measures to prevent these practices? Have they ever been used before?
4:05 p.m.
Executive Director, Telecommunications, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
As we mentioned in our opening comments, all complaints that we've received to date have been resolvable very easily. Most of them have been related to disclosure requirements. We want to make sure that if any ITMPs are used by ISPs, they're prominently displayed on the website, to make sure that everybody realizes just what the consequence is, what the ITMPs are, what the effects are, and how these are going to impact on the user experience. We've had cooperation completely from ISPs, so it is working.
November 2nd, 2010 / 4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Ruby Dhalla Liberal Brampton—Springdale, ON
Thank you very much for coming today.
I want to touch on an issue Mr. Del Mastro raised in respect to the changing dynamic of the emerging and digital media.
Given the ruling that the Federal Court of Appeal made in July about the Broadcasting Act not applying to ISPs and the need for an overall review of the CRTC and their regulatory framework for some of this emerging and digital media, could you provide the committee with some suggestions as to possible recommendations and what the committee could do in its report to ensure that we can keep up with this fast-changing pace?
As Mr. Del Mastro was saying, the kids these days are all on YouTube, all on the Internet. How do we ensure that there is a component of Canadian content? How do we ensure that there are levels set for children to get the appropriate material? What suggestions would you have for the committee?
4:05 p.m.
Executive Director, Policy Development and Research Sector, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
Clearly this is a large question that we'd have to come back to you on. But it goes back to the modern tools that we need. I would be more than happy to provide something to you, in terms of what tools in addition to any AMPs are needed in this fast, innovative, experimental environment in which we need a hands-off approach and only intervene when there is non-compliance in that environment.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Ruby Dhalla Liberal Brampton—Springdale, ON
Does the CRTC have a working group set up in the process right now? As the policy and research executive director, do you have any type of group under way here? Are you in consultations with individuals to ensure that the parameters of this type of framework to keep up with the fast-changing pace can be addressed?
4:05 p.m.
Executive Director, Policy Development and Research Sector, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
We are clearly looking not only in Canada but also internationally at what different tools are out there. There are good examples out there of countries that have not only implemented a converged act but have developed modern tools to take it forward.
But I think it's fair to say that many countries are looking into this issue, because in any digital strategy it's not only about the access, the content, and the capacity-building. The fourth element, an important element, is really a modern regulatory approach, a modern regulatory system.
4:05 p.m.
Conservative