The last few weeks have featured a who’s who in Canadian broadcast parading past the CRTC as part of the BDU hearings.
It should be interesting on Wednesday with Jim Shaw due up at 9:00.
Last week, he launched a preemptive strike (possibly preparing for a for a future cabinet appeal?) with a letter to the Prime Minister that said:
Instead of focusing on meeting customer preferences for open access to programming, cutting subsidies that reward broadcasters for the wrong behaviour, removing restrictions on programming and cutting onerous bureaucratic rules that limit customer choice – all of which are realistic and reasonable doorways to the future, we are forced again to look backwards to the past.
The CRTC review does not mark a movement toward a light at the end of the tunnel, but rather a fumbling toward deepening darkness.
…
The CRTC`s historic approach to cable as a mere instrument to promote Canadian content is outdated. Cable, in competition with the telcos, is building Canada`s information superhighway and our telecom and broadcasting policies should encourage not hinder this development.What is really needed are not more subsidies and micro-regulation by the CRTC, but rather a made-in-Canada broadband policy.
This is the final week scheduled for presentations. Wednesday morning’s appearance by Shaw should be especially entertaining. You can watch the hearings on CPAC on-line or listen to an audio feed by clicking here .
Update [April 23, 9:30 am]
Jim Shaw was a no-show at the hearing on Wednesday, sending Shaw Communications president Peter Bissonnette to head up what the CRTC chair called a “B-team”, reminiscent of Shaw’s critique during the Canadian TV Fund proceeding.