Best laid plans…
(ACA’s experience at the CRTC’s “Let’s Talk TV” hearings)
November 18th, 2014 | ACA Team,
By Bob Reaume, Vice President, Policy & Research, ACA
We thought we had a pretty good story. Newsworthy, even. But, as the saying goes… the best laid plans…
It was September 19th and the very last day of the CRTC’s public hearing on the future of TV in Canada appropriately called “Let’s Talk TV.”
ACA and our media partner organization the CMDC had come to Gatineau prepared to present our case to the chairman and four commissioners on advertising’s contribution to the broadcasting system. We had written and rehearsed our arguments around four specific points:
- the negative consequences of considering a ‘Pick-and-Pay’ TV channel policy
- the significant negative effects for advertisers of revoking Simultaneous Substitution
- the considerable upside to removing regulatory barriers to non-simultaneous substitution and access to cable ‘local avails;’ and
- support for an improved TV audience measurement service based on set-top-box data.
You can read our submission in more detail if you’d like. Point was we were all set: oral comments, arguments, rehearsed answers to possible questions, and, of course, a fully-formed important and interesting press release. Most of our work is usually behind the scenes, so when there is a public hearing like this, it presents an opportunity for us to get our name out there.
But this time it was not to be. You see we were scheduled to appear after a particular U.S. company that morning called Netflix. Perhaps you’ve heard of them?
You’ve probably read by now about what happened – Netflix refused to answer certain questions, a certain official stormed out for a break, then said official ordered the Netflix representative to file certain information by 5 pm Monday Eastern Standard Time. When it was finally done, every reporter in the room, cameras flashing, questions hurling, followed her out of the hearing room and actually all the way down the stairs into a cab. Leaving me standing there waving extra copies of our release. The best laid plans.
Despite the preceding drama, our presentation to the CRTC went well, and the panel seemed receptive to the points we raised. After all, for over sixty years, ad-supported television has been an essential marketing tool for advertisers. Last year we invested over three and a half billion dollars in the medium and I don’t think it is a stretch to say that advertising today is still the financial underpinning of the whole broadcasting system in Canada.
Read about ACA’s long-term broadcasting policy.
