Canadians should be able to watch what they want on their mobile devices regardless of which wireless company they are signed up with and what exclusive deals broadcasters may have signed, Rogers Communications argued Monday.
Rogers said if companies are allowed to sign exclusive deals for content on smartphones and other devices, it could mean customers would need multiple subscriptions and multiple devices to access shows they want.
Phil Lind, vice-chairman at Rogers, which owns the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team, said unless the content is shared fairly, consumers will suffer.
“You could easily end up with Bell owning NHL rights, Rogers owning Major League Baseball rights and Shaw owning NFL football content,” he told the hearing.
“Sports fans would be forced to buy three iPhones or three iPads and subscribe to three distributors to ensure they could catch all the action when and where they wanted.”
Rogers was the first presenter at six days of hearings by the CRTC into the ownership of media companies by national broadcasters.
Under its proposal, Rogers said companies should not be required to make content produced specifically for websites or mobile devices available to competitors, but that all broadcast material should be available to everyone.
However Pierre Karl Peladeau, chief executive of Quebecor Media Inc., which owns Quebec cable company Videotron, as well as Sun Media and TVA, called for less regulation during his presentation.
Peladeau dismissed Rogers’ concerns about users needing multiple devices and subscriptions.
“This is what competition is about,” he told reporters after his presentation.” At the end of the day you will have different products on different devices and I think this is how you’re going to be able to stimulate competition because if not, it is going to be plain vanilla everywhere.”
Peladeau said exclusive deals were acceptable, even if it meant that customers for his fledgling Videotron wireless service might not be able to watch the Montreal Canadiens, in which Bell holds a minority stake, on their smartphones.
“If it is open for bid, we will bid on it,” Peladeau said. “At the end of the day, this is what will be best, not only for the shareholders, but also for the entire marketplace.”
Bell and Telus were expected to appear before the commission on Tuesday, while Shaw Communications was to present on Wednesday.
Rogers Communications has its hands in many businesses, from cable TV and wireless to radio and TV broadcasting, Internet advertising, magazine publishing (including Marketing), and professional sports.
However, the media company noted that even though it is one of the largest cable and wireless companies in the country, its content assets are significantly smaller compared with BCE or Shaw.
As more TV content goes online and to mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, consumers want to see as much of it as possible from whatever provider they choose—no matter who owns it.
In recent years, much of Canada’s private broadcasting sector has been swallowed up by a handful of big communications companies.
CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein said concerns have been raised by independent distribution and programming services that rules are needed to prevent anti-competitive behaviour.
“The commission will only consider new or improved measures if convinced they are needed to maintain a competitive market and necessary to achieve the objectives of the Broadcasting Act,” said von Finckenstein.
The hearings were called after Shaw Communications bought 11 local Global TV stations across Canada and a group of specialty stations such as HGTV and Showcase for $2 billion.
Since the Shaw deal, BCE bought the rest of the CTV television network it didn’t already own for $1.3 billion.
The federal regulator imposed a moratorium on BCE from signing new exclusive deals that would prevent it from making the TV shows it owns the rights to available to rivals for broadcasting on mobile devices or over the internet.
