The Future of the Internet

An extremely interesting article in the Economist regarding the current state of the internet and how it is going to effect its future landscape.

Read the full article here

Bell buys up the rest of CTV

The saturation of Canadian media continues. Shaw recently bought up the debt ridden CanWest and now Bell (BCE) has taken full control of CTV and its other related media channels. The $3-billion deal gives Bell control over a wide range of popular programming, especially in the key news, sports and music streams. Both Shaw and Bell now have an iron grip on the way Canadians can view their favourite music videos, sports highlights and news headlines.
We are in the midst of an industrywide convergence trend that is changing the way subscribers receive (and pay for) new content.

Read full article here.

No Special Treatment for Sun TV News (Fox News North)

Quebecor Media seeks special treatment amid reports of Prime Ministerial pressure on CRTC Today Canada’s media democratization network, OpenMedia.ca, launched a campaign to encourage the public en masse to intervene in Sun TV News’ license application seeking special treatment from the CRTC. Sun TV News, now commonly called Fox News North, is asking Canada’s broadcast regulator for three years of mandatory access for its proposed service.

This means that all cable and satellite systems will be forced to carry the channel. No other digital channels of this type have this business guarantee. But Sun TV News says that it needs this access or its channel will not succeed. This application comes in spite of the CRTC’s ruling that it will not accept applications for specialty services to be given these access rights until October 2011, and will also not accept any applications for specialty services to be given mandatory basic carriage until June 2012.

Students are encouraged to send their comments through OpenMedia.ca in order to ensure that they will become part of the public record. They can do so here: http://openmedia.ca/NotSpecial

Background:

Quebecor’s VP of Development, Kory Teneycke, is Prime Minister Steven Harper’s former Director of Communications, and Sun TV News has been promoted as a conservative voice for Canada. Though the Prime Minister’s office denies throwing its weight behind Sun TV News, recent reports indicate that pressure has already been put on Commission Chair Konrad von Finckenstein to resign before his term ends in 2012.

At the same time former CRTC Vice-Chair Michel Arpin’s request to renew his term was denied. This suggests that the political pressure is being brought to bear on the CRTC to grant this license and special treatment. “The best way to stop political interference and special treatment for Fox News North,” said Steve Anderson, National Coordinator of OpenMedia.ca, “is for citizens to ensure their voices are heard during this proceeding. Someone must have unwisely told Teneycke and Quebecor that they deserve special privileges. We should all use the CRTC’s process to let them both know, you’re not special.”

According to Quebecor itself, the station will not be able to launch without mandatory access for all cable and satellite TV distributors – its over-the-air Sun TV channel in Toronto currently has a deficit of $50.3 million. The CRTC’s public hearing on Sun TV News is set to take place on November 19, 2010, in Gatineau, Quebec. Canadians have until October 1st 2010 to get on the public record.

Google and Verizon deal to threaten Net Neutrality

Since the FCC lost its case against Comcast back in April regarding the regulatory bodies ability to punish ISPs for throttling, net neutrality in the states has been on shaky grounds. In an effort to combat the threat to net neutrality, the FCC proposed a ‘third way’ approach in regulating the internet. This proposition has faced much opposition in Congress, who have asked the FCC to rethink their strategy.

If a toothless FCC wasn’t enough of a threat to net neutrality in the states, Google and Verizon two of the major players in Internet  content and service have announced that they are nearing an agreement that will allow Verizon to speed up some of Google’s content i.e. giving Google priority access. This deal will clearly overthrow the one scared tenant of the internet: a neutral network. If this deal goes through a new tiered system will emerge where those who are willing and able to pay will be able to get priority access for their content. If the deal is said to go through Google has said that it will not challenge Verizon’s ability to manage its broadband Internet Network.

So it has become clear that without any regulatory mandate in place for the FCC, the existence of neutral internet seems unlikely. As this deals near completion one will have to wonder how much longer before other companies sign such similar deals? And whether the FCC will able to reverse such deals or be able to assert its authority over broadband service?

Read the complete article here.

CRTC Issues Annual Report on Communications Industry

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission issued the annual Communications Monitoring Report today, presenting growth figures for Canada’s telecommunications and broadcasting industries in 2009.

General trends indicated a continuous increase in mobile and broadband internet usage, while conventional television and radio stations saw a decline in revenue last year.

“As technological convergence continues to evolve in the 21st century, Canadians are increasingly using mobile and Internet services to communicate and access broadcasting content. By the end of the year, there were 23.8 million wireless subscribers and 8.3 million broadband Internet subscribers.”

In the broadcasting industry, Canada saw revenue growth of 3%. This growth was primarily attributed to the specialty and pay television sector. In addition, Internet usage saw unprecedented levels of growth, as many citizens reported watching television and listening to the radio online.

The telecommunications industry reported revenue growth of 1.8%, reaching a total of $41 billion for 2009. Broadband internet usage could be seen in nearly every home, and internet access through mobile phones also increased by 5%.

To read more and view the Communications Monitoring Report, click here.

(Thanks to Tasha Sangha’s Blog for the information. Follow Tasha’s blog at Openmedia.ca here).

For more media news and information visit OpenMedia.ca

Secret FCC Meetings on Net Neutrality

Despite the FCC’s public promise of an open Internet, the FCC has, and continues to hold secret meetings with corporations to discuss the two main net neutrality proceedings: broadband reclassification and open Internet proposals. The FCC has allegedly summoned lobbyists from corporations such as AT&T, T Mobile, Sprint,Verizon, Google, Skype, and the Motion Picture Association of America, to give their two cents in hopes that a compromise could be reached.

After an article from ars technica exposed the meetings to the public, FCC Chief of Staff Edward Lazarus has updated the FCC blog with a list of scheduled meetings. Lazarus adds, “to promote transparency and keep the public informed, we will post notices of these meetings here at blog.broadband.gov. As always, our door is open to all ideas and all stakeholders. “

However, a list of corporate attendees does not say much at all. The details and minutes of these meetings should be made available to the public as well in order to “keep the public informed”.

“Despite public outrage and repeated promises of transparency, the FCC continues to meet behind closed doors with the largest companies to negotiate a secret deal that would short circuit public participation in policymaking that will shape the Internet for a generation,” declared Free Press’ Josh Silver. “The great irony here is that the FCC’s ‘transparency’ policy is part of the negotiations behind closed doors.”

Read more about the FCC meetings at ars technica.

(Thanks to Joyce Hui’s Blog at OpenMedia.ca. Follow her blog here)

Rogers to cut bandwidth to its Users in an Anti-Competitive move against Netflix

Shortly after Netflix announced that it was going to provide its movie rental services in Canada, Rogers has decided to reduce its data bandwidth on two of its data plans.

Although Rogers urges that the changes are unrelated to Netflix’s expansion to Canada, it is hard to believe that Rogers isn’t attempting to prevent competition to their On Demand Online service that already allows Canadians to view TV shows and movies on their computers and mobile devices.

Rogers plans to implement the changes to new customers’ data plans, causing Canadians to grow wearier of the giant telecommunications player. Capping bandwidth limits would cause users to be less willing and less able to stream movies online since streaming takes up a lot of bandwidth and may lead to extra charges for exceeding the limits

(Thanks to Joyce Hui’s blog for the info. Follow her blog at Openmedia.ca here)

Read the entire Globe and Mail article.

If you want to support and stop what Rogers is doing OpenMedia.ca and the SaveOurNet.ca coalition is calling on Industry Minister Tony Clement to mandate audits of ISP behavior. Students and Community Members can support this call here.