Banff, Alberta
September 22, 2014
Tom Pentefountas, Vice-Chairman of Broadcasting
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
Check against delivery
Good morning everyone. I appreciate that so many of you managed to make it to this morning’s breakfast. Given the early hour, I’m flattered that you’re interested in hearing what the regulator has to say about your sector.
It’s a pleasure to be in the company of a group of proudly independent business people like you who serve rural Canadians with distinction. Some of you have done so for many decades now.
Few Canadians know that, before the start of CBC Television . . . before any television at all in Canada, in fact . . . even before the first Broadcasting Act and the creation of the original Canadian Radio-Television Commission, Canadian entrepreneurs were sending television signals down a cable to home TV sets to improve viewers’ reception.
In the early days, the cables your companies strung between homes carried one or two television channels. Who would have imaged that the cable industry would move to—and beyond—the 500-channel universe to the virtual world of the 21st century?
Who among the first cable pioneers would have predicted the day when the cable business would encompass not only television and radio, but eventually cellphones and the Internet? Such is our reality in today’s information society.
Your industry has witnessed an explosion of technological innovations over the years—from the launch of satellites and microwave transmissions, to UHF television signals and cable set-top converters.
Then there was pay TV and specialty channels, videotex and hybrid fibre-optic/coaxial cable distribution networks. And that only gets us to the 1990s when the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance (CCSA) was established.
Well, you don’t need me to tell you all about it. You lived through those changes—and were agile enough to adapt to them.
I can assure you, the Commission recognizes that these transitions haven’t been easy. In reality, it was often very difficult. But you persevered and drew strength from those experiences.
Today, the services you offer are vastly more sophisticated and diverse. So too are the challenges you face. Yet the spirit with which you deliver your services is proudly unchanged from your sector’s earliest days.
You remain committed to providing cutting-edge technology and world-class services to your customers with the kind of consumer-first focus most of your bigger competitors can only dream of.
In fact, you frequently know your customers on a first-name basis. You see them at the grocery store, at hockey practice and at the local café.
As you, no doubt, know: proximity has its privileges. You enjoy a level of approachability and special commitment to customers that is exclusive to smaller service providers. Commitment that is rewarded with customer loyalty.
That has been reinforced by the effectiveness of your “I Love Local Cable” campaign.
I am sorry I missed yesterday’s session examining a case study of the campaign, as I am interested in the results. I look forward to this evening’s awards ceremony.
Whoever you are, you have clearly demonstrated your sector’s unique strengths and fully seized its potential. You offer proof positive that a little ingenuity and innovation can go a long way to addressing potential threats to your industry.
Of course, as the industry continues to evolve, the challenge will be to maintain your competitive advantages.
How will your businesses react to continual adjustments in the economy, increased competition and unrelenting technological advances while still delivering exceptional customer service?
No one has all the answers to these questions, but I’m glad to see you are exploring many of these themes at this year’s meeting.
These are precisely the issues that we at the CRTC must grapple with every day. We have just begun to review and analyze the valuable input we received at the Let’s Talk TV hearing to help us come up with the right decision for the future.
A large group of cable operators represented your views at the hearing. As the Chairman remarked, it was a clear sign of how important these issues are to your membership.
We heard your concerns about how wholesale rates for services are currently structured, as well as the challenges you face in obtaining the Internet and mobile rights for some linear services. We also appreciated your input in the discussion surrounding the proposal of a slimmed-down basic television package.
We recognize that, at the end of the day, you want to be able to provide your customers with a similar offering as Canadians who live in major urban centres.
I am not here to tell you that I can wave a magic wand and make all of your wishes come true. The fact is, it’s far too soon to give you any indication of which way the Commission is leaning as we are in the very preliminary stages of analysis.
But what I can say, is that whatever decisions we ultimately make will be guided by what Canadians told us during the Let’s Talk TV consultations.
They told us they want a communication system that fosters choice and flexibility in selecting programming services. They want a system that encourages the creation of compelling and diverse Canadian programming. And one that empowers Canadians to make informed choices and provides recourse mechanisms in the case of disputes.
I can also tell you that, no matter what any new policy eventually looks like, my fellow Commissioners and I realize just how important the services are that you provide to people in small towns and villages from coast to coast to coast.
Unquestionably, your locally-based companies are a critical part of Canada’s communication system.
It’s thanks to people like you that rural residents all across this great country can count on access to vital 21st century communications services that enable them to participate in an information-based and digitally driven economy.
Maybe as important as having high-speed service or access to their favourite specialty channels, what also matters to them is that companies like yours offer local TV that reflects the local community. Talk about a diversity of programs!
What’s impressive to me is that you do this despite the challenges of geography, economies of scale and competition from long-established telecommunications carriers. No matter what the individual circumstances may be, you provide services comparable to those available in urban areas.
You understand that the rural customer is every bit as demanding—and, more importantly, as deserving—as his or her urban counterpart. And you make sure their expectations are met.
Your Association’s members serve close to 800,000 Canadians in rural and remote communities in every province and territory. No small feat in a country as vast as ours.
While your big city counterparts may count customers per pole, you ensure there’s a pole for every customer. They may focus on fibre-to-the-home; you make sure there’s fibre-to-the-farm.
Equally impressive, the CCSA’s membership includes television distribution companies operated by many small, family-owned companies, as well as a large number of First Nations and more than 20 not-for-profit community cooperatives.
Your cable and telephone businesses employ people that work in, live in, and contribute to the communities they serve. They provide crucial communication services to Canadians in high-cost serving areas that the major companies do not serve well – or at all. This is what sets you apart.
More than that, your companies contribute to your communities’ overall well-being—whether through your investments in infrastructure, local employment, training volunteers or supporting local charities and service clubs.
Not only consumers and communities benefit from the work of your organization. The CCSA also provides essential services for the businesses it represents.
The Association delivers streamlined services—and hefty savings. Your bulk purchases of equipment, tools and training enable your members to offer digital and high-definition television, high-speed Internet, video-on-demand, voice-over the Internet and other telecommunications services without breaking the bank. Or at least to minimize the breaking of the bank.
Just as valuable, you negotiate affiliation agreements and satellite delivery of television programming services, as well as administer contracts through a centralized billing system. This saves both money and time.
Add to that the efficiency and effectiveness of CCSA’s cooperative marketing and the powerful voice you bring to the public arena, especially when you come to organizations like the CRTC.
Your organization illustrates that the whole is, indeed, greater than the sum of its parts. You not only recognize, but mobilize, the power of partnerships to produce benefits for all your members—big and small.
I believe all of this bodes well for your sector, despite the persistent pace of change.
While I am only speaking from the heart, since the Commission still has a lot of work to do before reaching a decision stemming from our recent hearing, there is a single message I want to leave with you today.
It is this. So long as you continue to provide choice and competition for rural consumers of broadcasting and telecommunications services, it seems safe to say your future is secure. Because all Canadians should have fair and equal access to these services. And you have demonstrated, repeatedly, that it’s your raison d’être.
You have an enviable track record in constantly responding to your customers’ needs and expectations, ensuring they have comparable services to urbanites. So, I have no doubt you will meet whatever challenges the future holds in the same way you have all the others in the past—with tremendous success.
I look forward to watching this future unfold.
Thank you.
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