Media Regulation In Cannuckistan
In Cannuckistan all broadcast media is regulated through a body called the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).
This is the organization that allowed Al-Jazeera to be broadcast into Canada but refused Fox News Channel because of inflamitory content. For those of you who don't know the difference, and I know you're out there, Fox News is a seperate channel. It is not the little soundbyte that comes on after the Simpsons. They are different. (Fox News has since been allowed within a limited capacity.)
A while back, those little satellite thingies started beaming American TV signals directly at our homes and the CRTC lost physical control of what we were exposed to. All we needed was a dish and a receiver and the rest of the world was opened up to us. The CRTC didn't like that. Neither did the Canadian broadcasters. They didn't want us exposed to that nasty American media. They wailed and moaned and made laws and tried to maintain control through administrative means. They made it illegal for us to pick up those US signals. They got their own satellite systems in place so that we could pick up a feed with "Canadian Content". They knew that we're sheep and wouldn't notice.
Enter the Superbowl. More importantly, the "Bud-Bowl" at half-time. People became criminals by picking up bootleg US recievers and programming cards so they could watch the really cool stuff that wasn't allowed to be broadcast over the Canadian systems. The CRTC and Canadain broadcasters refered to these people as being part of a "grey market" and instituted media campagines calling them criminals. Understand that point clearly. Individuals who wish to watch "unfiltered" television from the US are considered "criminals". But wait, something cool happened last fall.
One of those "criminals" took his case to the Supreme Court of Quebec who ruled that it was unconstitutional for the CRTC to determine what we can and can not watch. The ruling was quite clear.
"Sun, October 31, 2004
CRTC beams down idiocy
By Gary Dunford -- For the Toronto Sun
THE SKY IS FALLING! A Quebec court rules Canadians can watch any satellite TV signal in the sky they choose to buy? The same week the CRTC prepares to screw up satellite radio? How very special..."
"...The gods have a sense of humour. And far better Charter of Rights timing than the federal government.
The Quebec court judge rules the charter guarantees Canadians freedom of expression, specifically "freedom of the press and other media of communication." That right covers new technology and aces contrary CRTC or government regulations.
Whoops.
Canuck broadcasting's usual Chicken Littles are running in circles, quacking. The end of CanCon! The end of Canadian culture! The sky is falling! And with the government finally accepting a few economic realities -- open skies for airlines -- well it should.
Two years ago the Supreme Court of Canada gave an approving nod to the government's cheerful, broadcaster-lobbied ban on the importation of "foreign TV satellite signals." But it specifically declined back then to rule if the Radiocommunnication Act ban violated the Charter of Rights.
Only a cynic would suggest the Supreme Court dodged that silver bullet because it already knew the answer.
A simple question
As the Quebec court case petitioner argued: "Why is it all right for me to buy a copy of the Sunday New York Times but not DirecTV?" The court's judgment: You can.
It's a question up to one million Canadians have stopped asking.
Anybody who wants to watch Fox News, ESPN, HBO on DirecTV has owned a system to watch it on for a decade, ever since the CRTC badly bungled the satellite TV issue.
This substantial grey market pays to subscribe to the same specialty programming Americans see, using a U.S. mailing address. A shrinking Canadian black market pays through the nose for sophisticated hacker decoder cards, increasingly unable to crack or steal the DirecTV signal.
Industry scare ads would have you believe both are theft.
But it was the CRTC that created Canada's satellite TV schnozzle. The agency repeatedly refused to allow Canada's Power Corp. from a co-venture that would have put Canada's networks and services of the time on the DirecTV bird. PowerDirect eventually gave up.
The CRTC diddled through a goofy decade of delays and unsuccessful launches for a made-in-Canada TV satellite system. Against all laws of economics, a country of 30 million got two. The same number as the country of 250 million south of us. We will eventually have less.
CanCon. Would. Just. Vanish
Royalty arrangements could never work out if "foreign" signals got in was the claim. CanCon would vanish. The sky would fall.
Canadian broadcasters and cable giants have made fortunes in this cozy, closed market. Cable, Expressvu and Star Choice are the 407ETRs of the sky, gatekeepers to profitable American programming. You want to see original episodes of The Sopranos the same night as your cousin in Buffalo? Pay whatever we ask.
Or wait until we choose to buy it for you. Years later in some cases.
Canadians can judge for themselves whether this fight is about culture or economics. Viewers see each fall the broadcast industry's CanCon cultural initiatives: The fewest and cheapest possible..."
We now had freedom. Or did we? It would seem that the story has all but died with the MSM and the expected flooding of the Canadian market that we expected never came. It should be noted that the MSM was lobbying against opening up the market. Nothing changed. In fact, the CRTC is still trying to do it's thing. This time with Satellite Radio. The Sun article quoted above also mentions this new radio option as it continues.
"...Next week in Ottawa the CRTC gathers to do for satellite radio what it did for satellite TV. Two petitioners seek approval for a service piggybacked on existing US broadcasters, XM and Sirius.
Both feeds are up and running. Canadian subscribers would get Canadian music services and the CBC as part of the larger package. Receivers are original equipment in new cars, and walk-arounds are on their way. A grey market of Canuck early adapters -- 50,000? -- is already subscribed to one of the US systems. Deja vu.
There is an alternate "home-grown" system -- the first-ever satellite system that doesn't come from a satellite! Seventy ground transmitters (not built) will spread the signal. With half the channels of the established systems.
Will the CRTC give the nod to all and let the radio marketplace fight it out? And accept the premise that Canadians have a "right" to buy any TV entertainment-information service they choose?
Or will Ottawa spend the next year rejigging the law to clear the courts and line the pockets of its favourite players?
Golly gee. Has the CRTC ever done anything stupid before?"
After 8 months, the CRTC is finally ready to make a decision.
"CRTC to rule on subscription radio next week
Canadian Press
TORONTO — A ruling from the CRTC that could have a major impact on radio broadcasting in Canada will be handed down next Thursday afternoon.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission will announce its decision on three licence applications before it for subscription-based digital radio services.
Two satellite-delivered pay radio options have been operating in the U.S. for several years and both have entered into partnerships with domestic enterprises to apply for a similar service in Canada.
Canadian Satellite Radio (CSR) is a consortium involving former Toronto Raptors owner John Bitove Jr. and Washington-based XM Satellite Radio Holdings. The CBC and Standard Radio, meanwhile, partnered with XM's American rival Sirius Satellite Radio (to which shock jock Howard Stern is moving for its minimal regulatory oversight)..."
Here's an author's tip on how subtle media bias can be: Notice how the paragraph above references that nasty ol' Howard Stern right next to the names of the radio companies? End result is that your mind equates in the following manner: Howard Stern = Bad, Satellite Radio = Howard Stern, Satellite Radio = Bad.
"...A third option, from CHUM Ltd. and Montreal-based Astral Media, adds an interesting twist. It would forgo satellite delivery for the time being and proposes to deliver pay radio to consumers via a series of broadcast towers instead.
The services would offer between 60 and 100 commercial-free channels of music of various formats for a monthly fee, probably between $10 to $15.
Ian Morrison, spokesman for Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, says the watchdog group supports the CHUM/Astral application because it is compliant with the Broadcasting Act requirement for a significant level of Canadian programming..."
"...Morrison suspects that whatever decision the CRTC makes -- and especially if it tries to squeeze more Canadian content out of the Canada-U.S. satellite services -- someone will be upset enough to launch an appeal to the federal cabinet.
"If the bar is too low, we're upset, if the bar is too high, they're upset.''
There is also the slippery slope aspect. If the CRTC approves a service that delivers only five per cent Canadian content, the next time a conventional radio applicant applies for a licence renewal, he will question why he is still required to play 35 per cent -- a typical level for commercial radio..."
My theory is that the CRTC and "Friends of Canadian Broadcasting" wanted enough time to pass so that folks would forget about the Quebec ruling. So that we would forget that they don't have a choice but to provide unrestricted access to the satellite feeds.
Perhaps they need to be reminded.
For the record, I'm completely biased. I own one of these. I get my satellite radio feed from here. I listen primarily to these two talk radio channels. I also listen, unrestricted, to the Fox News radio channel.
This is the organization that allowed Al-Jazeera to be broadcast into Canada but refused Fox News Channel because of inflamitory content. For those of you who don't know the difference, and I know you're out there, Fox News is a seperate channel. It is not the little soundbyte that comes on after the Simpsons. They are different. (Fox News has since been allowed within a limited capacity.)
A while back, those little satellite thingies started beaming American TV signals directly at our homes and the CRTC lost physical control of what we were exposed to. All we needed was a dish and a receiver and the rest of the world was opened up to us. The CRTC didn't like that. Neither did the Canadian broadcasters. They didn't want us exposed to that nasty American media. They wailed and moaned and made laws and tried to maintain control through administrative means. They made it illegal for us to pick up those US signals. They got their own satellite systems in place so that we could pick up a feed with "Canadian Content". They knew that we're sheep and wouldn't notice.
Enter the Superbowl. More importantly, the "Bud-Bowl" at half-time. People became criminals by picking up bootleg US recievers and programming cards so they could watch the really cool stuff that wasn't allowed to be broadcast over the Canadian systems. The CRTC and Canadain broadcasters refered to these people as being part of a "grey market" and instituted media campagines calling them criminals. Understand that point clearly. Individuals who wish to watch "unfiltered" television from the US are considered "criminals". But wait, something cool happened last fall.
One of those "criminals" took his case to the Supreme Court of Quebec who ruled that it was unconstitutional for the CRTC to determine what we can and can not watch. The ruling was quite clear.
"Sun, October 31, 2004
CRTC beams down idiocy
By Gary Dunford -- For the Toronto Sun
THE SKY IS FALLING! A Quebec court rules Canadians can watch any satellite TV signal in the sky they choose to buy? The same week the CRTC prepares to screw up satellite radio? How very special..."
"...The gods have a sense of humour. And far better Charter of Rights timing than the federal government.
The Quebec court judge rules the charter guarantees Canadians freedom of expression, specifically "freedom of the press and other media of communication." That right covers new technology and aces contrary CRTC or government regulations.
Whoops.
Canuck broadcasting's usual Chicken Littles are running in circles, quacking. The end of CanCon! The end of Canadian culture! The sky is falling! And with the government finally accepting a few economic realities -- open skies for airlines -- well it should.
Two years ago the Supreme Court of Canada gave an approving nod to the government's cheerful, broadcaster-lobbied ban on the importation of "foreign TV satellite signals." But it specifically declined back then to rule if the Radiocommunnication Act ban violated the Charter of Rights.
Only a cynic would suggest the Supreme Court dodged that silver bullet because it already knew the answer.
A simple question
As the Quebec court case petitioner argued: "Why is it all right for me to buy a copy of the Sunday New York Times but not DirecTV?" The court's judgment: You can.
It's a question up to one million Canadians have stopped asking.
Anybody who wants to watch Fox News, ESPN, HBO on DirecTV has owned a system to watch it on for a decade, ever since the CRTC badly bungled the satellite TV issue.
This substantial grey market pays to subscribe to the same specialty programming Americans see, using a U.S. mailing address. A shrinking Canadian black market pays through the nose for sophisticated hacker decoder cards, increasingly unable to crack or steal the DirecTV signal.
Industry scare ads would have you believe both are theft.
But it was the CRTC that created Canada's satellite TV schnozzle. The agency repeatedly refused to allow Canada's Power Corp. from a co-venture that would have put Canada's networks and services of the time on the DirecTV bird. PowerDirect eventually gave up.
The CRTC diddled through a goofy decade of delays and unsuccessful launches for a made-in-Canada TV satellite system. Against all laws of economics, a country of 30 million got two. The same number as the country of 250 million south of us. We will eventually have less.
CanCon. Would. Just. Vanish
Royalty arrangements could never work out if "foreign" signals got in was the claim. CanCon would vanish. The sky would fall.
Canadian broadcasters and cable giants have made fortunes in this cozy, closed market. Cable, Expressvu and Star Choice are the 407ETRs of the sky, gatekeepers to profitable American programming. You want to see original episodes of The Sopranos the same night as your cousin in Buffalo? Pay whatever we ask.
Or wait until we choose to buy it for you. Years later in some cases.
Canadians can judge for themselves whether this fight is about culture or economics. Viewers see each fall the broadcast industry's CanCon cultural initiatives: The fewest and cheapest possible..."
We now had freedom. Or did we? It would seem that the story has all but died with the MSM and the expected flooding of the Canadian market that we expected never came. It should be noted that the MSM was lobbying against opening up the market. Nothing changed. In fact, the CRTC is still trying to do it's thing. This time with Satellite Radio. The Sun article quoted above also mentions this new radio option as it continues.
"...Next week in Ottawa the CRTC gathers to do for satellite radio what it did for satellite TV. Two petitioners seek approval for a service piggybacked on existing US broadcasters, XM and Sirius.
Both feeds are up and running. Canadian subscribers would get Canadian music services and the CBC as part of the larger package. Receivers are original equipment in new cars, and walk-arounds are on their way. A grey market of Canuck early adapters -- 50,000? -- is already subscribed to one of the US systems. Deja vu.
There is an alternate "home-grown" system -- the first-ever satellite system that doesn't come from a satellite! Seventy ground transmitters (not built) will spread the signal. With half the channels of the established systems.
Will the CRTC give the nod to all and let the radio marketplace fight it out? And accept the premise that Canadians have a "right" to buy any TV entertainment-information service they choose?
Or will Ottawa spend the next year rejigging the law to clear the courts and line the pockets of its favourite players?
Golly gee. Has the CRTC ever done anything stupid before?"
After 8 months, the CRTC is finally ready to make a decision.
"CRTC to rule on subscription radio next week
Canadian Press
TORONTO — A ruling from the CRTC that could have a major impact on radio broadcasting in Canada will be handed down next Thursday afternoon.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission will announce its decision on three licence applications before it for subscription-based digital radio services.
Two satellite-delivered pay radio options have been operating in the U.S. for several years and both have entered into partnerships with domestic enterprises to apply for a similar service in Canada.
Canadian Satellite Radio (CSR) is a consortium involving former Toronto Raptors owner John Bitove Jr. and Washington-based XM Satellite Radio Holdings. The CBC and Standard Radio, meanwhile, partnered with XM's American rival Sirius Satellite Radio (to which shock jock Howard Stern is moving for its minimal regulatory oversight)..."
Here's an author's tip on how subtle media bias can be: Notice how the paragraph above references that nasty ol' Howard Stern right next to the names of the radio companies? End result is that your mind equates in the following manner: Howard Stern = Bad, Satellite Radio = Howard Stern, Satellite Radio = Bad.
"...A third option, from CHUM Ltd. and Montreal-based Astral Media, adds an interesting twist. It would forgo satellite delivery for the time being and proposes to deliver pay radio to consumers via a series of broadcast towers instead.
The services would offer between 60 and 100 commercial-free channels of music of various formats for a monthly fee, probably between $10 to $15.
Ian Morrison, spokesman for Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, says the watchdog group supports the CHUM/Astral application because it is compliant with the Broadcasting Act requirement for a significant level of Canadian programming..."
"...Morrison suspects that whatever decision the CRTC makes -- and especially if it tries to squeeze more Canadian content out of the Canada-U.S. satellite services -- someone will be upset enough to launch an appeal to the federal cabinet.
"If the bar is too low, we're upset, if the bar is too high, they're upset.''
There is also the slippery slope aspect. If the CRTC approves a service that delivers only five per cent Canadian content, the next time a conventional radio applicant applies for a licence renewal, he will question why he is still required to play 35 per cent -- a typical level for commercial radio..."
My theory is that the CRTC and "Friends of Canadian Broadcasting" wanted enough time to pass so that folks would forget about the Quebec ruling. So that we would forget that they don't have a choice but to provide unrestricted access to the satellite feeds.
Perhaps they need to be reminded.
For the record, I'm completely biased. I own one of these. I get my satellite radio feed from here. I listen primarily to these two talk radio channels. I also listen, unrestricted, to the Fox News radio channel.
posted by Richard at 06:05
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