The Revolution will not be broadcast
As the war for television entitlements heats up Michael Geist explains just how far broadcast networks want to go beyond just a fee for carriage increase at the current CRTC hearings. Toronto Star:
Fee for carriage is only part of the story, as broadcasters are also seeking to: block U.S. signals; leave some Canadian communities without over-the-air television; and delay the transition to digital television transmission until 2013. The prospect of blocking U.S. television signals will come as a shock to many, but both CTV and CanWest, Canada’s two largest private broadcasters, have asked the CRTC to establish a new program-deletion policy.
For many years, Canadian broadcasters have benefited from simultaneous substitution, which allows them to air U.S. programs at the same time as U.S. broadcasters but to substitute their broadcast (complete with advertisements) on both channels. That policy is the reason programs such as House or Desperate Housewives air simultaneously in the U.S. and Canada, creating an important commercial advantage for Canadian broadcasters.
The broadcasters now wish to expand the simultaneous substitution policy with program deletion. It would provide that when a Canadian broadcaster purchases the rights to a U.S. program, they would have the right to air it whenever they choose within a seven-day window. The hook is cable and satellite companies would be required to block the U.S. broadcast of the same program if it did not air simultaneously. The proposal, which would lead to millions of Canadians regularly encountering blank screens instead of expected programs, would perversely increase the attractiveness of U.S. programming.
Geist goes on to suggest this will lead more Canadian television consumers turning to the internet as a viable alternative, and in this I agree. Once that happens, and its felt in the pockets of broadcast networks as well as cable and satellite providers -a big push will come to regulate the internet to control not just how we are watching but what we watch.
