Broadcasting and Telecommunications Converge in Canada: More Than a Question of Technology

As telecommunications, broadcasting and Internet businesses continue to converge functionally, what will be the Canadian regulatory response? Will the Government continue to consider the three elements separately, or will regulation need to take note of convergence? The question was posed by Konrad von Finckenstein, the Chair of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), when he recently testified before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology (INDU Committee). In the view of the CRTC Chair, the current regulatory scheme, with their separate broadcasting and telecoms statutes, is overly complicated, and there are compelling reasons for merging the regulation into one integrated regulatory scheme. For a bureaucrat, Von Finckenstein was remarkably blunt when commenting on Government intentions expressed in its statement regarding intended legislation to “open Canada’s doors further to venture capital and to foreign investment” in satellite and telecoms industries. Von Finckenstein’s view is that control of the telecommunications sector should remain firmly in Canadian hands. “If you don’t do this … we will have a branch plant communications industry”. His strongly-held view is that no longer can we separate regulation of the telecoms sector from that of broadcasting – traditional distinctions no longer apply between the so-called pipeline (the “medium”, for followers of Marshall McLuhan) and content (the “message”). As expressed in its news release, the INDU Committee has begun a review of Canadian foreign ownership rules because of the recent Cabinet decision on Globalive Communications Corporation (see E-TIPS® “Canadian Cabinet Approval for New Wireless Entrant a Surprise Holiday Package” Vol 8 No 13, December 16, 2009). For a copy of Von Finckenstein’s speaking notes, see: http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/com200/2010/s100413.htm Summary by: Richard Potter