Post Tagged with: "online video"

Why Are Consumers Missing from the CRTC’s Online Video Ruling?

Appeared in the Toronto Star on October 9, 2011 as Why Are Consumers Missing from CRTC’s Online Video Ruling? Earlier this year, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission launched a consultation into the policy implications of increasingly popular Internet-based video services such as Netflix. The consultation was the CRTC’s response […]

October 11, 2011 — Comments are Disabled — Columns Archive

CRTC Releases Online Video Report

The CRTC released its fact-finding report on over-the-top video yesterday. I’ll have more to say on the report in my column next week, but in the meantime the money quote is: the evidence does not demonstrate that the presence of OTT providers in Canada and greater consumption of OTT content […]

October 6, 2011 — 3 comments — News

The CRTC’s Over-the-Top Video Consult: Calls for Competition, Regulation, & De-Regulation

The final batch of submissions in the CRTC’s over-the-top video fact finding exercise were posted yesterday. I focused on the lack of evidence and the fear of competition for foreign content in my first post on the submissions. The latest group of submissions includes many of the biggest names – the telcos, Internet companies, and creator groups. The participants in this consultation fall into three main groups: those seeking competition, those who want more regulation, and those who want de-regulation.

What remains is the next step for the CRTC. It seems certain that there will be a full scale hearing, but the question is whether the Commission will cave to pressure from some groups for something immediately, or wait until the next new media hearing round in 2014. Given the lack of actual evidence – this has been a fear-finding exercise rather than a fact-finding one – the CRTC should surely label this a watching brief and wait until 2014.

A glance at each of the submission groups:

July 7, 2011 — 16 comments — News

CRTC Faces Charges of Bias in Online Video Consultation

Earlier this month Konrad von Finckenstein, the chair of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, was asked at an industry conference about the role of consumer groups in telecom regulation. He responded that consumer groups generally do not have a problem ensuring their views are heard, but that their effectiveness depended upon getting organized and developing the necessary knowledge and expertise to fully participate in regulatory proceedings.

Yet just as von Finckenstein was providing assurances to the consumer community, my weekly technology column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes the CRTC was erecting barriers to their participation in a consultation on online video services such as Netflix and AppleTV. In fact, the consultation (labeled a “fact-finding exercise”) has been marred by charges of CRTC bias that has led at least one consumer group to pull out altogether.

June 29, 2011 — 11 comments — Columns