The head of the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission), Konrad von Finckenstein, is ending his five-year term this week. On his way out, he expressed his concerns about how the web and mobile phones are preventing regulators from protecting Canadian culture. Sure, lots of people say Canada is just like a more northern US — but the CRTC (at least in the old days) had tools to help it shape a unique Canadian culture, like requirements that radio and television stations devote a certain percentage of their time to homegrown content. Finkenstein says that the regulating agency has outdated laws at its disposal and is powerless to the onslaught of so-called over-the-top broadcasting (i.e. when movies and TV shows are delivered over the internet instead of traditional methods). He even goes as far to say that "we have now moved into an era where the consumer is in control." According to The Globe and Mail, Finckenstein says that the commission needs to reexamine what kind of regulation is needed in this day and age and adapt.
Outgoing chief says Canada's broadcast commission can't protect Canadian culture from the internet
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the CRTC is a dinosaur that has no way of keeping up with how the world actually functions now. The CRTC is supposed to be about protecting the Canadian consumer but I think that in the last 5 years has been one of the most anti-consumer organizations in Canada.
The CRTC has to die or be * significantly*altered. The original goal of the organization is one that is no longer needed, and quite frankly doesn’t exist.
Posted on Jan 23, 2012 | 4:00 PM EST reply Recommend (11) Flag actions
How dare you speak that way about the CRTC! All you need for entertainment is a continuous loop of You Can’t do that on Television, Anne of Green Gables, North of 60, Moccasin Flats and Little Mosque on the Prairie with the occasional Hal Johnson & Joanne McLeod Body Break commercial sprinkled in. Just remember to keep fit, and have fun.
Posted on Jan 24, 2012 | 5:02 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Dont forget Coronation Street .non -stop …
Posted on Jan 25, 2012 | 7:53 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Well I rather welcome the thought of not having CanCon crap applying to over-the-top content. CanCon is just a form of foreign protectionism that shouldn’t exist in a democratic free market.
We have some great content in Canada but I don’t want to be force fed some of the crap content too. I don’t need Nickelback or Celine Dion or the like.
Posted on Jan 23, 2012 | 4:02 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Exactly. I will watch good shows, regardless to what country they are made in. Flashpoint is one of my favorite TV series, not because it is made in Canada, but because it is actually good.
Posted on Jan 23, 2012 | 4:09 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Both your views are overly simplistic. Full on, I don’t think the CRTC has a place in the new information world and many of it’s decisions were completely bone headed. However, both of you must be too young to remember what the radio was like before the canadian content laws were forced on radio. If you would hear a Canadian artist, you would fall over…radio stations played almost exclusively non-Canadian content and it was almost impossible for an artist in Canada to get any radio play. In those days, without radio, an artist had little chance of success. The cancon rules back then served a very good purpose and worked. However, I don’t believe this is now needed in an age where a new band can publish their own work online and there are online radio stations, etc…
TV and print is still a bit different and less widely accepted on the interent. It’s also much more costly for independent producers of entertainment to produce tv shows or movies than it is for people to produce music. One only needs to look at what CTV, Global and even CBC are doing to the airwaves in Canada and what is available on sat and cable…just pure US television. Most of it going after the lowest common denominator and quite assuredly destroying any culture or independent thought process.
I think until the cost of independent broadcasting comes down (even the likes of Google and Netflix can’t do it yet) and more people watch tv and read the paper online(blogs overtaking papers), then I think the CRTC still has a place.
The CRTC also is a useful tool for helping upstarts in the cell phone and internet providing game. Unfortunately, they have been bullied and lobbied into supporting Bell, Telus, Rogers, Quebecor, etc…almost exclusively and not helping bring in a better way to offer data to consumers.
They should be heavily regulating data “pipes” like the telephone cable, cable and wireless to stop the main players (Bell, Rogers, Telus, Quebecor) from destroying competition…those “pipes” should be somewhat owned by the public and allow private companies to provide the services….that would be a great move from the CRTC and future governements.
I don’t see that happening with the current right wing corporations before people government we now have in our federal parliament.
Posted on Jan 23, 2012 | 10:31 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Yes, my statements were very simplistic but it sounds like we both agree that regulating radio content is no longer necessary. When it comes to television I’m a bit split, I know CTV and Global are almost entirely US television but I also find a lot of the Canadian content that CBC produces to a bit pointless. I have no interest in Afganada, Little Mosque on the Prairie, Arctic Air, etc.
I do agree we need currently need the CRTC to bring in new competition in wireless and wired networks but I see that more because the CRTC allowed the incumbents to entrench themselves so deeply that upstarts have a tremendous uphill battle.
Posted on Jan 24, 2012 | 11:45 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Nickelback is Canadian? That explains it…..
Posted on Jan 24, 2012 | 3:54 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Protecting Canadians hey? More like preventing competition in the interest of a few rich Caniadian’s. Take a look at my parent’s only non-dial up ISP pricing options.
The last thing we need is a couple rich old men, who know nothing about technology or it’s future crippling Canada’s innovative culture even more than it has been in the past.
Posted on Jan 23, 2012 | 4:08 PM EST reply Recommend (4) Flag actions
You are dead on about how the CRTC regulates wireless and cable…this needs to change.
However, it’s more about government being in the back pocket of big corporations than it is about some old farts not knowing about technology….this is purely about money and control over the future of information
Posted on Jan 23, 2012 | 10:33 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Protectionist policies always lead to inferior products and services.
Posted on Jan 23, 2012 | 4:13 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Without the CRTC, private networks wouldn’t even produce the incredibly few Canadian shows they do now. Though I do agree they need to change a bit.
In terms of the Internet, his concern has to do with an old way of thinking. As a young Canadian filmmaker/media producer, the Internet is a huge opportunity to produce things here and have them watched worldwide— even my tiny YouTube channel has viewers on every continent, something that even regulation would not have helped in old media. We need more support in growing our efforts, though, since it’s so incredibly easy to just fly down to LA in a couple of hours and set up shop there like most Canadians already have.
Posted on Jan 23, 2012 | 4:16 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
The only culture the CRTC preserved was the culture of big telecoms milking Canadians for as much of their disposable income as possible.
Canadian culture does not need protection from the Internet. With cable and broadcast TV, a certain percentage of Canadian content was required because there were a limited number of time slots available for programming.
For example, the number of TV shows that can be made available during prime time is limited. The number of non Canadian shows being broadcast during that time period directly impacts the number of Canadian shows that can be broadcast.
With internet streaming that is not a problem. All shows are available all the time. The number of non-Canadian shows available has no impact on the number of Canadian shows that can be made available. Enforcing a percentage would just limit the number of programs available. It would basically be censorship.
Frankly, I’m not sure why Canadian “culture” needs this protection in the first place. If Canadian shows can’t beat out American shows for viewers in Canada, are they really worth protecting? Instead of paying the CRTC of doing a terrible job of managing our telecoms, they should invest in improving the quality of Canadian programming (we do have some good shows though).
Posted on Jan 23, 2012 | 4:17 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
“we have now moved into an era where the consumer is in control.”
-and this is bad because?
Makes me angry as a Canadian and as a consumer!
CRTC sucks.
Posted on Jan 23, 2012 | 4:22 PM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
I’m not a Canadian, but statements like this (officials lamenting the loss of a fraction of their power) always make me angry.
Posted on Jan 24, 2012 | 12:03 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
While I get the anti-protectionism/CRTC-is-a-dinosaur thing…I can’t help but be afraid that the few Canadian interest shows/CBC related stuff that we have will get steamrolled in a second without the CRTC — not because they can’t compete, because the American monoculture is just too strong. Just look at how quick CTV is to jump and pick up american shows. And how lopsided our networks are — CTV will just keep buying things up and we’ll be left with basically another US station.
Posted on Jan 23, 2012 | 4:23 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
I think as long as the CBC receives federal funding they’d continue to produce Canadian interest shows. I can’t really think of much Canadian programming from CTV or Global that I’ve ever watched. What non-CBC content exists? (Obviously news but I don’t see us rebroadcasting US-news any time soon)
Now if Harper killed the CBC then I’d be worried, they do have some decent programming which I enjoy although except for the political comedy stuff I can’t say it’s particularly “uniquely Canadian”.
Posted on Jan 23, 2012 | 6:01 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
And you know what? As a Canadian, I don’t care. You want content made here? Give incentives. Support local, small media instead of throwing money at the large corporations. Put money back into us. Until then, we’re going to get the good stuff from elsewhere. Embrace the new technology we have at our disposal to promote our local content. The highest grossing Canadian movie is Bon Cop, Bad Cop. Friggin hilarious movie, especially to Quebecers and Ontarians. But to set that domestic record for gross? $12.5 million. That’s not much in the grand scheme of the movie industry.
This is the same idiot who said that “we must discipline the use of the Internet”. GTFO dinosaur. I don’t have high hopes, but I hope the next head will not waste our time and money keeping old media alive.
Posted on Jan 23, 2012 | 4:27 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Hopefully he will be the LAST head of the CRTC. It needs to be abolished. Let Industry Canada regulate spectrum and get the hell out of content regulation!
Posted on Jan 23, 2012 | 4:36 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Canada does need to do a better job of securing and containg cultural threats like Justin Bieber and Nickelback.
Posted on Jan 23, 2012 | 4:45 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Hey don’t blame us if people buy their crappy records. As a proud Canadian, every time I hear one of their songs, I just go to YouTube and fire up another Jon Lajoie song. Now THAT’S Canadian talent to be proud of…
DEFINITELY NSFW
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulIOrQasR18
Posted on Jan 24, 2012 | 11:21 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
So this is their top priority? They been screwing consumers by not enforcing laws to protect us from big telecom., and all they’re worked about is Canadian culture? CRTC, your not protecting Canadian culture, its your job to regulate.
Posted on Jan 24, 2012 | 10:58 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I believe CanCon was necessary, but not any longer. That was and should be the only mandate for the CRTC. Ruling on foreign ownership rules about cell phone carriers is not. That should be the portfolio of a Cabinet minister. I wish the CRTC packs it in.
On the other hand, thank you Verge for giving a damn and posting news that pertains to us up here, even though we are but a small fraction of the US population.
Posted on Jan 24, 2012 | 3:52 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
As someone who actually works in Canadian Television and Film, the CRTC and can con is absolutely essential to the survival of Canadian film and television. Without it, Americans would completely take over our industry. But there are two things that the CRTC can focus on to help. a) giving tax incentives to production of Canadian online dramatic and comedic content. We already give MAJOR tax incentive to Americans to shoot here, we should give the same incentives to Canadians b) force CTV and Rogers to invest in local Canadian production of online material. They would rather spend their money on American works. That’s fine. But if they committed a fraction of thier money to Canadian work, we’d at least have a chance.
Posted on Jan 24, 2012 | 7:33 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Love how he only says something on his way out when he has next to no more power to affect change.
Why didn’t he come to this realization a year or two ago – - he has had FIVE YEARS to figure this out and he does it in his last week? Greeeeaaaaat job buddy.
Posted on Jan 25, 2012 | 3:26 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Dont need the CRTC to protect canadian content .
Talent will outweigh any help the CRTC gives canadian media .
Arcade Fire has no problems selling albums in the world .
Posted on Jan 25, 2012 | 7:56 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
This is what drives me crazy. Arcade Fire benefits from CRTC Can Con regulations. The reason why Canadian musicians have done so well all over the world, from Rush to Bryan Adams to Celine to Bare Naked Ladies to Arcade Fire, is because of the CRTC. Canadian music is a success because of the CRTC.
Posted on Jan 26, 2012 | 1:07 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I just want to be able to access clips of The Daily Show on Comedy Central’s website and have cheaper internet bills. Is that too much to ask?
Posted on Jan 25, 2012 | 4:47 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Wasn’t the CRTC’s original reason for existing to prevent monopolism of telcos/cable by deciding on laws that allowed rogers phone and cable rights so that bell wasn’t the only big guy around?? (at least thats what I was told)
It seems nowadays the only thing we need protection against in regards to the internet is the CRTC itself…
Posted on Jan 25, 2012 | 5:56 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
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