CBS, one of the major U.S. networks, announced yesterday that it plans to take its All Access video streaming service global starting with the Canadian market next year. The move will increase consumer choice and once Hulu follows suit (which it eventually will), all the major U.S. broadcasters will be streaming directly to Canadians. Assuming broadcasters such as CBS begin to retain the video streaming rights to their own shows, this means that the Canadian broadcast licensing model that relies heavily on exclusive rights to U.S. programming and simultaneous substitution will rapidly come to an end. While the industry has been focused on the fighting the recent CRTC decision banning simsub from the Super Bowl, U.S. broadcasters are independently eroding the value of simsub, ultimately leaving Canadian broadcasters to bid on less attractive, “non-exclusive” rights.
Latest Posts
Canadian Telcos Take Aim At Kodi Addon Site With Shocking Search: True Purpose to “Destroy Livelihood of the Defendant”
Canadian telecom giants Bell, Rogers, and Videotron have escalated their copyright fight against the sale and distribution of Android set-top boxes and websites that facilitate distribution of addons for Kodi software. Kodi boxes – Android set-top boxes pre-loaded with the open source Kodi media player software – have become increasingly popular in recent years. The set-top boxes turn standard televisions into “smart TVs”, enabling users to access their own content and a wide range of video content found online. By all accounts, this includes authorized content such as YouTube, Netflix or other online video providers, as well as unauthorized streaming services that offer access to unlicensed content. The set-top box providers do not make the content available themselves, but rather sell a device preloaded with software that can be used to access both infringing and non-infringing content. In the case of “addon” sites, the sites point to addons or plugins that can be added to the Kodi media player software to make it easier to access online content.
Canada’s NAFTA Council: Political and Industry Boxes Checked But Missing Key Perspectives
The Canadian government unveiled a new NAFTA Advisory Council yesterday as it prepares for trade negotiations that start later this month. The Council advising Minister Chrystia Freeland is an impressive one with broad representation from across the political spectrum and from many industry sectors. Indeed, the council is presumably as much about signalling the government’s priorities and including potential critics as it is about the substance of the negotiations. The committee therefore includes Conservatives (Rona Ambrose and James Moore) and NDP members (Brian Topp), Perry Bellegarde (national chief of the AFN), Hassan Yussuf (President of the Canadian Labour Congress) and a representatives from the automotive, energy, financial, agriculture, entertainment, and entrepreneurial sectors.
Inconsistent Arguments and Questionable Claims: Bell Launches Yet Another Action Over CRTC’s Super Bowl Simsub Ruling
Jean-Pierre Blais’ term as CRTC chair was marked by dramatic changes in how policies were developed and in the substance of the policies themselves. As I wrote on his departure, Blais placed the Internet at the centre of the communications systems and worked to gradually revamp broadcast safeguards in an effort to make the Canadian system more globally competitive. With the appointment of new chair Ian Scott and vice-chair of broadcasting Caroline Simard, the established stakeholders will unsurprisingly test the new leadership to see if a change in approach is on the way. Yesterday, Bell took a major step in that direction as it asked the CRTC to rescind its order banning simultaneous substitution from the Super Bowl broadcast in Canada.
Bell had already filed a legal action, asked the government to intervene in the case, and ramped up lobbying pressure from the U.S., but the government rightly declined to overturn the decision with the case still before the courts. I’ve written extensively about the issue, making the case for why the CRTC got it right (if anything, it did not go far enough as simultaneous substitution has become less relevant as more subscribers cut the cable cord). After the Super Bowl broadcast, I argued that the viewership data largely vindicated the CRTC. Indeed, Bell’s data confirms that it massively over-estimated the impact of the simsub loss. In advance of the broadcast, it forecast a $40 million loss. It now claims an $11 million advertising loss, a fraction of its earlier estimate.
Why Fair Dealing is Not Destroying Canadian Publishing
While the copyright world waits for the likely appeal of the Access Copyright v. York University federal court decision (my post on the fair dealing legal errors, Ariel Katz on tariff legal errors), Canadian universities have begun to respond to the decision with many remaining committed to a reasonable policy based on licensing, open access, and fair dealing. Rather than a free-for-all, these approaches include spending hundreds of millions of dollars for access to thousands of copyright works.
This week, Intellectual Property Watch posted a longer piece of mine based on several recent posts and articles. It digs into the data, unpacking the realities behind revenues, guidelines, licensing, and emerging alternatives. The post begins:
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Quebec’s Streaming Regulation Bill 109: Unconstitutional, Unnecessary, and Unworkable 
Why the Government’s Plan for Warrantless Access to Internet Subscriber Information Will Lead to Millions of Disclosure Demands Each Year 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 235: Teresa Scassa on the Alberta Clearview AI Ruling That Could Have a Big Impact on Privacy and Generative AI 
What Is With This Government and Privacy?: Political Party Privacy Safeguards Removed in “Affordability Measures” Bill 
More Than Just Phone Book Data: Why the Government is Dangerously Misleading on its Warrantless Demands for Internet Subscriber Information
