Banff, Alberta
June 4, 2015
Jean-Pierre Blais, Chairman
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
Check against delivery
Good morning.
Before I begin, I would like to acknowledge that we meet today on the traditional territory of the Treaty 7 First Nations, including the Stoney and Siksika First Nations. I thank them and pay tribute to their Elders.
It’s always a pleasure for me to speak to television and radio broadcasters. I hold this industry close to my heart, having spent much of my career developing policies in the areas of culture and communications. It helps, too, that the CRTC has been delivering a lot of exciting change in the broadcasting industry in the past few months.
More on that in a moment.
I’m here today to give what you might call the first part of a two-part speech. I’m going to build on the ideas I present today when I deliver a second speech this weekend at the Banff World Media Festival. Any good broadcasting executive knows that there’s no reason to stop at one production when there’s a chance of boosting audience share with a sequel or a prequel.
Today, I want to give you an update on our recent activities. But I also want to look ahead a bit.
The work we’ve been doing at the CRTC in the past 12 months lends itself well to speculation about the future, about change and its consequences. It also reminds me of a film I re-watched recently: Back to the Future, the timeless classic that stars Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd.
I’d like to play with time travel a bit over the course of the next 20 or so minutes. We’ll start in 2015 to consider the current state of the television industry. Then we’ll travel back to 2013, when I came to Banff for the first time as Chair of the CRTC to talk about the future of television. We’ll wrap up back in 2015 to show you how the future came to pass.
So, to paraphrase the always-insightful Doc Emmett Brown, ladies and gentlemen, strap on your seatbelts. You’re about to see some serious stuff.
Age of Abundance
We live in an Age of Abundance. Audiovisual content—and television content in particular—is available to us at any time of the day or night, on any of the devices we choose. That simple fact is changing realities for everyone. Broadcasters are testing new ways to deliver content to audiences. Creators are producing better-quality programs than ever before.
And viewers? They control everything: what they watch, when they watch, where they watch, how they watch. They’re emperors in this abundant world.
This change is not a passing fad. It’s not the next VCR, reality television or gritty mini-series. It’s a paradigm shift set in motion by the ubiquity of broadband technology—and we’ve only just begun to see and feel its effects. That might scare some of you a bit. It might scare others a lot. It should. Because in the future, you’ll find that the old way of connecting with viewers, of buying advertising, of licensing content, of promoting programs, of scheduling nightly line-ups will not be effective. You’ll have to find new ways to bring viewers to the screen.
Having said that, there’s no time like the present to change. A paradigm shift such as this cannot be stopped. The progress it creates is inevitable—and frankly welcome. But the regulatory conditions under which the paradigm takes root and grows and evolves can be adjusted to allow change to happen in the public interest.
That’s where the CRTC fits in. It’s why we held the Let’s Talk TV conversation that you’ve heard so much about, and in which some of you may have participated. As much as possible, we wanted to draw a roadmap for the future of television that took everyone’s new realities into account and built on the strengths of our system.
Back to Banff, 2013
I hope none of this comes as a surprise. It shouldn’t. Travel with me back in time to June 2013, when I spoke at the World Media Festival about the shifting sands underneath our television industry.
I spoke about the fact that traditional television no longer holds a monopoly on information and entertainment.
That people consume programming in ways and on devices that didn’t exist a decade ago.
That broadcasting, as we once knew it, is no longer—and will never again be—the same.
That regulation—for its own sake—gains us nothing.
And that all of us who regulate and create and distribute works in the television industry had to change our thinking from making and following rules to fostering successful outcomes.
From rules to outcomes
I remind you of all this because, back in our present-day world, we have recently released a series of decisions that will serve as the foundation of television’s future.
Our decisions have set the stage for the evolution of a dynamic television industry that is rich in opportunity for creators, service providers and viewers. They embrace the reality of a new viewer-centric regime, and adjust the CRTC’s own focus to creating outcomes that benefit everyone.
Let me explain.
I said in 2013 that we had to shift our focus from producing great Canadian works to great works that happen to be Canadian. Soon, creators will be able to leverage pilot projects to create big budget, original, Canadian-certified content that audiences around the world want to watch.
I said that we had to shift our focus from constraint to choice. Soon, viewers will have access to an affordable entry-level service. Beyond that, they will be able to choose the channels they want on an individual basis or in small, reasonably priced bundles of channels. They will also soon be able to draw on a TV Code to help them make better informed decisions about their service provider.
And I said that we had to shift our focus from meeting quotas to embracing new potentials. We are moving away from outdated regulations and enabling broadcasters to use their innovation and creativity to meet the diverse needs and interests of Canadians.
With these and other changes, we are fostering a more dynamic marketplace. The linchpin of our decisions is the creation of content. Every year, taxpayers, the industry and the federal government invest billions of dollars in Canadian programming. That’s laudable. Canadian-made shows are the windows through which we see ourselves, and through which the world sees us.
By doing away with old-fashioned tools such as broadcast quotas, genre protection and outdated certification criteria, and by requiring all broadcasters to invest in programs made by Canadians, we establish the conditions needed for broadcasters to create and promote compelling, high-quality content that audiences around the world will want to watch.
Australia has shown that it can create television programs for the world. So has Denmark. So has Britain. Canada is just as well-placed to succeed. We have the money to fund world-class productions: supports for Canadian television productions are worth more $4 billion each year. We have the people: our writers, producers, directors and actors—and let’s not forget musicians and authors—are celebrated the world over.
Let’s make television the next great stage on which we compete. Let’s take advantage of the world-class Canadian talent that lives here at home—or which hones its craft abroad—to create content that stands alongside the best in the world, that goes head to head against it—and wins!
Promotion and discoverability
An important piece of this puzzle is promotion. Creators and distributors have to adapt the tools they use to connect their shows with viewers to take into account the new television paradigm. It’s not enough anymore for them to continue to rely on broadcasters to attract viewer attention. Your role as intermediaries between creators and viewers—as content curators—is diminished. Every day, more and more people rely on word-of-mouth recommendations and curatorial algorithms built into streaming video-on-demand services to find their next favourite show.
Creators and distributors will have to work harder than ever before. They will have to work in new ways to create buzz and connect with viewers. It will be a difficult change, but those who embrace it—who innovate—will reap rewards.
The other piece of the puzzle that has to fall into place is discoverability. In the Age of Abundance, where viewers can choose from nearly limitless sources for content, discoverability can guide the viewer toward the programs that best meet his or her interests, and vice versa.
We’re hosting a summit on the matter in the coming months. At this event, we aim to bring together the best and brightest minds—public-policy makers, engineers, scientists, psychologists and more—from here at home and around the world to develop new models that connect creators, broadcasters and viewers. Discoverability is a challenge faced by audiovisual industries the world over. Our summit will tackle this challenge head on and bring about solutions that work for the world, not just for Canada.
Not to be lost in all this talk of promotion to the world is the significance of local television. This is still the platform that most of us turn to for information, education and culture. Local television matters. The CRTC affirmed that fact back in January.
In the coming months, we will launch a proceeding to review our approach to local and community programming. Our aim is to ensure that we still have the right policies and regulations in place to foster locally relevant, locally reflective and community access programming. And if those measures aren’t right for the new television age, we will take steps to change them.
Canadians value local television, and the CRTC will continue to support it.
The future of radio
We have spent much of the past year thinking about the future of television. That being the case, we have not lost sight of the radio industry. We’re thinking about its future, too. At a high level, let me say that radio is in a similar situation as television. Radio stations must be innovative and focused on the future in order to survive.
I don’t need to tell you all about the important role played by radio. It informs. It educates. It entertains. It connects us to culture. To our communities, both geographic and ethno-cultural. Among the myriad of media in our houses, our offices and our pockets, radio is the one that always runs reliably during a power outage. It is still the first place many of us turn to for reliable, up-to-date news and information during crises. It forms important connections to local communities across the country.
Yet radio in its traditional form is losing its appeal for some listeners. Young people are leaving the medium behind in favour of online streaming or subscription-based services. As they do, we regulators are finding—as we did with television—that broadcast quotas are becoming increasingly less effective. The question then becomes how to exploit radio’s role as a tastemaker? How can conventional radio continue to help people discover new music? Because in an entertainment setting, it excels in this role.
If part of the solution to radio’s problems is broadcast quotas, then let’s talk. We at the CRTC are not opposed to adjusting quotas. We are doing it for TV, after all. But before anyone makes such a shout, know that we won’t let go of quotas without first finding a replacement tool that helps us meet our mandated cultural policy objectives. Perhaps part of the answer lies in the promotion of Canadian artists on the airwaves. Or promoting Canadian acts by sending them to major music festivals such as South by Southwest.
Radio faces other difficult questions. What is the future of AM radio? What will be the role of digital radio? How do you make sure smartphones come equipped with FM chips that are turned on? How do you make sure the FM tuner on the connected car dashboard is easy to find?
We want to work with you to arrive at solutions to these and other challenges. Our journey begins this fall when we open a proceeding that will study French vocal music. That’s perhaps not a hot-button item for Western Canadian broadcasters, but the proceeding and its associated public hearing will doubtless help guide and inform future hearings on subjects that are more directly relevant to your interests.
Conclusion
That noted philosopher Marty McFly once said, “if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.” He’s right. Change may be unavoidable, but anyone can adapt to it—and survive—given the tools and the wherewithal.
The outcomes of our Let’s Talk TV conversation are solutions for the television industry in a changing age. We’ve put in place the framework to allow the industry to respond to viewers’ changing habits and tastes, to draw on the best strengths of our Canadian industry, and to create world-class programs and service-delivery models that work well for creators, distributors and viewers.
It’s now up to you—the industry—to put your mind to using these tools to create exceptional outcomes. Good luck.
Before I leave you today, I want to show you a short video clip. Since some of you weren’t able to go to the Canadian Club in Ottawa to hear my last speech, I brought a little bit of Ottawa to Alberta.
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