Viewers placed ‘ in the driver’s seat’
Cable, satellite contracts would have to be easier to understand under code
Canada’s broadcast regulator issued its final thrust Thursday in a series of moves aimed at positioning consumers “in the driver’s seat,” ahead of the country’s broadcasters, offering up a draft code that would require cable and satellite companies to make customer contracts easier to understand.
Broadcast service providers would also have to more clearly spell out fees and policies surrounding early contract cancellations and adding or removing individual channels under the code.
In issuing the proposed code, the Canadian Radio- television and Telecommunications Commission also said it expects closed- captioning services for Canadians with disabilities, already available through regular television programming, to be included free of charge when those programs are broadcast online and on mobile devices.
And it said described video — a talk- over service for visually impaired viewers — must be expanded, with a requirement that all programs aired between 7 and 11 p. m. include the service by September 2019.
“Canadians will have access to compelling television content, the freedom to choose the content that meets their needs and tools to navigate a dynamic marketplace,” CRTC chairman Jean- Pierre Blais said. “They are now in the driver’s seat.”
The CRTC received more than 13,000 submissions from individuals, interest groups and industry players since it launched a wideranging consultation process called Let’s Talk TV in 2013.
From the get- go, the commission made clear i ts decisions would move regulation in a more consumer- friendly direction, away from favouring the commercial marketplace.
It should come as no surprise, said John Lawson of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, given statements made by Blais when he was named by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to the regulatory body in June 2012.
“When he was first appointed, he did a number of interviews and quite clearly said ‘ I’m here to do consumer stuff,’” Lawson said.
It’s a welcome change for consumer advocacy groups like Open-Media, which have been encouraging a change in direction since the days when former CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein declared in a public hearing that “citizen comments and concerns are out of scope” with its mandate.
“There’s definitely been a cultural change,” said Open-Media campaign co- ordinator Josh Tabish.
“That being said, they still have a long way to go to improve things.”
The decisions have sparked disappointment and even outrage on the part of some broadcasters.
But they are not intended to invoke a negative reaction from industry, said Scott Hutton, the CRTC’s executive director, broadcasting.
“It’s not putting down companies,” he said. “It’s essentially looking at the Broadcasting Act and ensuring that everyone who is in the industry and everyone who should benefit from those objectives ... get something out of it.”
The TV code proposal follows other recent CRTC directives that prohibited 30- day cancellation policies and required cable and satellite services to offer individual channel selection on top of a trimmed- down, lower- cost basic TV service.
The regulator also announced a dramatic overhaul of what some critics had complained were protectionist rules governing the amount of Canadian television programming.
The CRTC said last month it was eliminating the 55 per cent daytime quota for Canadian programs that local TV stations must broadcast, but maintaining rules requiring that broadcasters spend to produce Canadian content.
The regulator is accepting public comments on the draft TV service code until May 25.