Changing the Channel on Canadian Communications Regulation /

This Commentary argues that the federal government review of broadcasting and communications policy should conclude that: • Ottawa should construct a unified policy framework for the Broadcasting Act and the Telecommunications Act that recognizes the convergence in conduits for accessing and delivering content; • Ottawa should eliminate the CRTC’s responsibility for Canadian cultural promotion and [...] A market without economic activity outside the arts and culture stable and predictable demand for content may sector, for example by contributing to the creation be unable to cultivate and maintain the cluster of of new designs and uses for goods and services.2 2 See Goldthwaite (1993) for examples from the Renaissance. [...] The relative to the benefits of the cultural programming bidder or bidders offering the better connection since those benefits would not accrue to business of such Canadian content, and at the lowest cost users of broadband services, nor to individual to the government, would win the Department’s subscribers in their multifaceted need to access the financial support. [...] In the case of a sector-specific regulator for potential anti- of abuse of dominance, the Competition Bureau competitive conduct by communications providers must demonstrate a lessening of competition and that the CRTC is ill-equipped to administer flowing from the particular conduct. [...] As discussed, the absence of the CRTC’s under the Let’s Talk TV Proceedings19 express consideration of the competitive implications In this decision, in order to qualify under the digital of exclusive VOD is a gap in the decision.