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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

The REAL CRTC leadership criteria

The following is an excerpt from the head hunters description for their search for the new head of Canada's regulatory group - the CRTC.

"As Chief Executive Officer of the CRTC, the Chairperson establishes the corporate vision and values, defines the strategic priorities and plans and sets up the organization structure and operational systems and processes to guide the work of members and staff. This includes assigning members to panels and providing strong functional direction and expertise to members to enhance their conduct of delegated panel responsibilities and other areas of activity and to ensure executive direction of professional staff. He or she directs the development of policies, recommends their approval to the CRTC members and oversees their implementation."


I think we need a more ground level look at exactly what this position is going to demand in the coming years.

First off - REAL POWER


The new head of the CRTC is going to have the toughest challenges 'ever' in a rapidly changing media world. He/She will have to have enough power to work directly with the heads of the many 'billion dollar corporations' who have multi holdings in cities big and small across our country that impact on each other on a daily basis.

These giant media companies have radio stations, television stations, cable tv operations, satellite distributors; cell phone companies; internet companies; specialty channels; music companies; program distribution companies, and on and on and on.

In recent CRTC hearings it was quite obvious that some of the leaders of these companies feel they are indeed 'above the agenda' and to quote one very very rich gentleman who spoke at a hearing last fall "this is a total waste of my time."

The recent 'throttling' of internet speed is yet another concern that is an example of 'we're over and above' the rules and regulation in Canada.

The new leader will have to have the 'balls' to separate each and every one of these regulated business into a 'sole issue' where his/her decision is focussed directly on the one company that is dealing with the CRTC rather than the impact it could have on one or more other holdings down the line that the broadcaster holds in Canada.

Next: TECHNOLOGY SAVY


More than ever before technology is moving faster than the speed of the decision process and radio and television, specifically, is being affected by new devices, new ways of viewing/listening, and new 'options' for the consumer.

He/She will have to be fully up to speed 'personally' on all the technological developments that are happening around the world that will affect viewing and listening habits due to advances in technology. This alone requires a very hands on understanding of the cause/effect of new 'appliances' being developed as the border is now virtually gone between Canada and the United States with cyberspace delivery so much a part of our daily lives.

NEXT: COMPASSION


It's far too late to close the barn door as the horses are long gone from the pasture with our licencing process. Consolodation is here to stay and the 'chain store' style of running radio and television stations is now a coast to coast reality.

However, it must surely be realized that the game 'can' be changed by allowing new competitors on to the landscape with a 'real' opportunity to provide new and innovative programming in both radio and tv.

Over the past decade it has been nearly impossible, other than in the smaller markets, for this type of programming to evolve due to the decision making process of granting new licences.

In market after market, in the major cities in Canada, these new competitors have been licenced in 'stand alone' situations only to find that it is nearly impossible to compete on an even playing field with the billion dollar companies.

In markets where the new radio stations have been granted a licence the stations often only last about a year or two before they are a) either flipping formats 100% and giving up a 'niche' format or b) appearing before the CRTC again asking for 'another' licence with the criteria being that they need a second (or third) licence 'simply to survive.'


In television the United States has just seen the biggest quarter 'ever' of cancellations for cable/satellite service as viewers are moving to a 'mobile' platform - and when you're in the US you can now access virtually every major networks entire year of programming on demand (with few commercials or promos) via PC, laptop or tablet viewing.

Mobile is becoming a huge growth area and the new smart phones and tablets have triple the power they had a few years back with screen sizes (or apps to transfer to a big screen) that are very easy to watch.

The growth of Apple's iPad alone should be frightening to any terrestrial broadcaster - and as we've seen in the recent past when the impact is financial the only way to react is to 'cut service' (ie programming and people) to survive.


Finally, to me, the loss of the CANADIAN ASSOCIATION OF BROADCASTERS (CAB) a few years back was a sad statement meaning there is little meaningful dialogue between the broadcasters and the regulators.

The 'smaller market' guys are the ones hit the hardest - and they're the ones that need the greatest assistance to crash through the barriers to success that they have to deal with in Canada.

There hasn't been a 'major' review of CAN CON levels in years and we never did come up with a 'new and emerging music' policy so that new talent isn't being forced off the air by 40 year old badly over played Can Con. (With the deepest apologies to Trooper!)

Indeed we need 'more communication in the communications business.'

It's going to be a tough gig. This person will have to be 'extremely' in touch with where the radio and television industries are going as viewing and listening habits are being affected by the biggest paradign shift in a lifetime.

He/She will also need a Canadian Government that also understands these changes AND the CRTC must be given a set of rules and regulations that are strong; clearly understood; monitored; and practical so that the Canadian airwaves don't just simply slide away from the next generation of consumers at all levels.

To quote from today's POSTMEDIA article:

Whoever inherits the job, a successful tenure may hinge on whether the appointee can convince Ottawa to rewrite the rule book.

The Broadcast and Telecom acts — two pieces of legislation written decades ago — continue to dictate the commission's decision-making. The anachronistic framework has come to undermine the CRTC's powers, the departing chairman has warned repeatedly.

"Our present tools are very inadequate," von Finckenstein said late last year.

Since taking over in 2007, the former Federal Court judge has advocated merging legislation to reflect a consolidating marketplace that has seen the biggest broadcast entities bought up and integrated with larger telecommunications operators, such as Rogers Communications Inc. and BCE Inc.

Updated rules must also contemplate new web-based services such as Apple TV and Netflix Inc., which skirt Canadian regulation altogether."



I concur!

*****UPDATE ADDITION:******


Ian Morrison, of the advocacy group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, said it will be a challenging year for the CRTC, with a lot riding on the one the Conservatives pick to head the commission.

Ideally, that person would know the industry but also have the independence to withstand the deep-pocketed muscle of the broadcasting conglomerates.
“They have so much resources to manipulate the commission, they outgun the commission, they can afford very expensive lawyers,” Morrison said.



But the longtime watcher of Canada’s broadcast industry has his doubts whether the Conservatives will pick a strong leader for the CRTC.

“There’s a real danger that a bad appointment or a reduction in the authority of the CRTC could cause a thing that has served Canadians well for decades to unravel,” he said.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

It's a mobile video world!

We've come a long way from the 2 channel universe. At one time in Edmonton, believe it or not kids, we just had CBC and CFRN Television - and yes in gorgeous 'black and white.'


Yes I'm old enough to remember when we had one of these beauties - and I can actually remember the full television line-up from Sunday nights back in the late 50's. The World of Disney followed the 6 o'clock news; then Gunsmoke; followed by the Ed Sullivan Show. (It was off to bed after that)

The evolution of television, to oversimplfy it, then evolved through the 1960's - adding more 'local' television stations (ITV - which is now Global TV) - and finally cable came to town, offering television signals from Spokane, Washington.

In the 80's the evolution then turned to satellite - and many of us had these giant units in our backyards - bringing in (at that time) FREE television from the United States that often was 'scrambled' - meaning we'd have to either buy black market codes for the channels we wanted OR actually PAY for them, a la carte (which I loved).


Now that 2 channel universe became the 500 channel universe and it dwarfed that famous Bruce Springsteen song "57 Channels and nothing on."

Today, as I scan through my cable television guide in both Canada and the United States it's absolutely amazing to scoot through the 'hundreds and hundreds' of channels and end up saying that same statement..."there's nothing on television tonite."

It's a matter of personal choice but the amount of programming we now have is nothing short of amazing - and guess what - we're getting more!


If you have an ipad, or any other tablet, you can sign up to several MOBILE Video services, including iTunes and Netflix. You can now 'rent' video's that appear on your tablet for a 30 day period for anywhere from 99 cents to an average of $4.99. You can also 'buy' those video's as well.


Netflix service is available now in both countries - and in Canada for less than $8.00 a month you have unlimited viewing of an ever growing library of movies and tv shows.

Me? I'm addicted to the old classic shows - the Mad Mad Worlds; old TV shows like Rockford Files; the great documentaries that often were aired only once and on a specialty service that was so far up the channel guide you'd often miss the program.

In the United States there has been an unprecedented 'cancellation' of traditional cable and pay services since the introduction of 'mobile video'. One of the reasons, quite simply, is that we are 'over paying' for our cable/satellite service for the actual usage that the average viewer consumes. We are now also paying a premium to watch in High Definiation (HD) - as it is an add on to your regular cable meaning you're actuallly paying TWICE to watch it in HD instead of 'regular' cable.

*We subsidize the channels we don't watch by paying more for channels that we do watch!*


Where am I going with this?

Well at this moment I'm sitting in Edmonton Alberta Canada watching my Netflix feed from my condo in Phoenix Arizona on my ipad. It's a MOBILE world and the huge growth in tablets and the success of services like Netflix are 'only the beginning' in the mobile world.

There are 'several' new services being developed in the States, mostly from satellite and cable companies, or from companies like Disney that have huge libraries of movie content, that will be available to the consumer 'shortly,' and the consumer is only going to put up with being over charged for so long.

With devices like Slingbox we also now live in a borderless world and can access our home television virtually anywhere in the world on our tablets and smart phones.

We've come a long way from the two channel black and white universe - and I look forward to seeing where our giant Canadian cable and satellite companies go with this immense amount of competion that is very quickly coming to our borders.