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More than ten years ago, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission decided that the delivery of content using new media platforms should be exempt from regulations and restrictions.
But, during CRTC hearings into Shaw Communications' bid for approval of its $2-billion deal to buy the television assets of CanWest Global, the issue of exclusivity concerning the owner of content and content delivery mechanisms again raised its head.
It's now "the elephant" as CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein said, adding that "people are very much afraid that you are going to use your enormous purchase power to buy exclusivity."
Although he was addressing cable CEO Jim Shaw, with concerns that if Shaw owned Canwest, it would keep content for itself, or price it at a disadvantageous point for it s competitors. But he may well have been speaking with George Cope at Bell, which has made its own pitch for control over CTV and its TV assets. He could also say the same thing to senior executives at Rogers Communications.
"The big fear that the preferential mode of distribution, of viewing things, will be new media," von Finckenstein said.
It's not necessarily a fear of new digital media platforms seems that should give the CRTC pause for reflection over previous decisions it has made, it is the control over content that carriers now, or may soon, have.
The need to exhibit a competitive market differentiation among such companies has already led to exclusive content offerings and deals in Canada. Customers of a given company (cable, satellite or mobile) already are offered special programming that other consumers cannot get, or they are prevented from watching certain content because it is offered exclusively by another service provider.
While there are plenty of such examples (Bell Mobility and the Olympics; Telus and the CFL, and so on) Shaw told the CRTC that his company has no plan to do such deals.
"It's not your business strategy to be exclusive?" von Finckenstein asked.
"That is 100-per-cent correct," Shaw responded.
Traditional cable and telco carriers also note that they themselves are being threatened, by so-called 'over-the-top' or streaming media competition such as Apple TV or Netflix.
Shaw has adjusted its position somewhat in terms of seeking approval for its acquisition and offering 'tangible benefits' in return, increasing its commitment to more than $180 million in scripting, production and new media support.
Shaw says it will also help with the upcoming digital transition in Canada by offering to provide free satellite signals to such communities, and converting more analog TV transmitters to digital than the regulator has stipulated.
Telus, one of the few major carriers in the country without a major content ownership or acquisition deal, is among those asking the CRTC for specific direction for content distribution on emerging platforms, such as exist with current broadcast regulations.
Source: Broadcaster, 09/27/2010
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