Carving out Canadian content capacity

Are there solutions to give Canadian content access to the fast lane on our domestic network?

An idea floated in a conversation with GlassBox TV was whether Canadian ISPs should treat “.ca” traffic with priority.

GlassBox seemed to be more concerned about access to Canadian content from within walled gardens – such as mobile TV services offered by wireless service providers.

Does this accomplish enough to satisfy the concerns of Canada’s creative community that our content needs support to ensure that Canadian voices will have a platform?

Questions from both vice-chairs touched on this kind of discrimination. One question went so far as to ask about using deep packet inspection to give preference to Canadian content.

I’ll go further: what if Canadian content was exempted from monthly download caps? Would that help ensure opportunities for content distribution?

The global competition issue is where the new media proceeding meets the net neutrality debate. Elements of Canada’s creative community, seeking to impose content regulation on defined Canadian websites may end up handicapping the ability of web operators to succeed by limiting their flexibility in business models.

Are there forms of incentives that make for a better approach than allocating a pre-set percentage on content availability?