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Ten years after deciding not to regulate internet and two years after extending that decision to wireless services, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s (CRTC) has reopened the issue. The Canadian Conference of the Arts (CCA) was the first witness to appear at the Hearing on New Media which started earlier this week in Gatineau (Québec).

In his opening statement, CCA’s National Director Alain Pineau urged the CRTC to recognize the fact that internet and wireless are part of the Canadian broadcasting system and as such, must contribute to the pursuit of the cultural objectives set by Parliament in the Broadcasting Act. Studies show that between 50 and 70 percent of traffic on the New Media is either straightforward broadcasting, or akin to broadcasting as it is traditionally defined.

The free ride for ISPs and wireless providers should come to a speedy end. Canadian artists, creators, arts organizations and enterprises would benefit greatly from the implementation of a similar contribution requirement currently imposed on broadcasters, cable and satellite distributors. The content that could be generated by such a fund would create new opportunities for the creative economy both at home and in subsequent international markets.

In this context, the CCA has urged the CRTC to require Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to contribute 3% of revenues to a fund for the production of broadcast quality Canadian content for the Internet. Other broadcast distribution undertakings (i.e. traditional over the air broadcasters, cable and satellite distributors) are currently required to contribute 6% of revenues for the production of music and audio-visual programming. The difference in percentage reflects the proportion of broadcast material estimated to transit on new media.

The CCA position is consistent with that of other organizations who have or will appear before the CRTC on this question. The CRTC has an opportunity to implement a similar regime for the Internet and Wireless Service Providers in the wake of these hearings and address the concerns and aspirations of organizations such as ACTRA, SOCAN and other major cultural interests.

For the past three years, the CCA has taken every occasion possible to urge the CRTC to review its decision to exempt new media from any form of regulation. The CCA’s position, which is validated by the latest information available, is that the so-called new media actually act in large part like traditional distribution platforms, with the added advantages of interactivity and highly customized on-demand capacities.

It is important to stress that the CCA is not suggesting that the CRTC regulate user produced material, nor is it suggesting that any restrictions be imposed to accessing any website around the world nor any restrictions to freedom of speech, beyond those already imposed by the Criminal Code.

However, the CCA is convinced that it is essential to devise appropriate regulations to make sure that the “new” media make a financial contribution to ensure a strong presence of Canadian cultural products on these new platforms. The benefits of extending the contributions to Internet Service Providers will accrue directly to Canadian artists, creators and arts organizations and enterprises that participate in the creation of new Canadian web content.

The CCA has accordingly urged the Commission to implement a framework for regulating undertakings that receive subscription, advertising and/or public funding from broadcast content, regardless of the transmission conduit that carries that content to audiences. This approach creates a new and significant source of funding for the development of Canadian web content by artists, creators, arts organizations and enterprises to support and encourage innovation and creativity.

Currently licensed broadcasters who stream on the internet and offer complementary services should be subject to the same regulations concerning the production, exhibition and promotion of Canadian cultural products. The CRTC should not ignore thirty or forty large legacy broadcasting groups that are reusing, recycling and repurposing their existing radio and television content to give it new life online, to attract new revenues and to support and complement their traditional broadcasting activities.

Nor should the CRTC ignore the ISPs that benefit from making broadcasting content available to their subscribers and promote this as part of their marketing. It is CCA’s position that these are the kinds of New Media broadcasters that fall within the spirit of the Broadcasting Act. Broadcasting content is broadcasting content, whatever the distribution platform, a fact Parliament had the prescience to recognize when it adopted in 1991 a new Broadcasting Act which is technologically neutral.

Whatever benefit delivery option may be chosen, the CCA suggests that management costs and procedures should be kept to a minimum and that existing administrative structures be called upon to manage any new fund which may be created further to the current hearing.

New Media are at the core of the creative economy and it is expected that in time, they will surpass other means of distribution for what has traditionally been described as broadcasting. Interactive media developers engage the services of artists, musicians and other creators in their burgeoning industry. Recent data show that over 9000 Canadians are earning their livelihood in interactive media development, an industry that generated over $1.5 billion in revenues.

This is why in its various interventions with government, most notably in its pre-budget submissions, the CCA has invited the government to maintain and increase its investments for training and for the production of new media Canadian content. Music and audio-visual production is an important creator of jobs in Canada.

Finally, the CCA never misses an opportunity to defend the cultural and social objectives included in the Broadcasting Act, particularly in section 3, where we find the most complete expression of a Canadian cultural policy ever adopted by Parliament.

CCA Bulletin 5/09

February 19 , 2009

CCA Urges the CRTC to Create a Fund for New Media Productions