Archive for July, 2011

Cogecocomplaint

Cogecocomplaint.pdf

July 7, 2011 — Comments are Disabled — General

512810.pdf

July 7, 2011 — Comments are Disabled — General

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

EU To Target Data Roaming Fees

The European Union has announced plans to tackle data roaming fees by establishing a cap of the costs per MB charged to consumers. An OECD study recently found that Canadians face some of the highest roaming fees in the developed world.

July 7, 2011 — 1 comment — News

The Netflix Fear: Competition (But Not the Competition You Might Think)

The CRTC’s deadline for submissions to the over-the-top video “fact finding” exercise passed yesterday. While many notable submissions will likely appear on the CRTC site today, there are enough there already to get a good feel for where this is headed. I wrote last week about the perceived bias against consumer interests in this consultation, but the reality is that the industry arguments are thus far so devoid of actual evidence that the Commission should be well positioned to leave the issue alone at least until the next new media hearing in 2014.

The submissions include the usual fear mongering about services like Netflix. The winner so far comes from the Stingray Digital Group, which warns:

Just as Napster wreaked havoc on the record label industry in the early 2000’s and played a major role in the collapse of the music retail industry, so too will the new breed of OTT music services materially disrupt licensed Canadian music services and the Canadian broadcasting system if the status quo is left unchecked.

Other submissions contains lots of rhetoric about the dangers of an unregulated over-the-top services market, but no actual evidence of real harm.

July 6, 2011 — 13 comments — News