GATINEAU, Que. - The Internet is growing so quickly and uncontrollably that time is running out for regulators to ensure Canadian content remains a significant player in the new media, cultural groups said Tuesday.
The warning came as the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission opened public hearings revisiting the decade-old question of whether the Internet should be regulated, and if so, how.
"What we simply want is a place for Canadian stories," said Richard Hardacre of the actors guild, ACTRA. "We know if we don't get it right now, tomorrow will be too late."
The actors and the Directors Guild of Canada made separate recommendations calling for the creation of a $100-million fund for the production of Canadian content for new media.
The fund would be paid for by the corporations that provide Internet and wireless services in Canada, such as Rogers Communications Inc. (TSX:RCI.B) and other cable companies, and phone companies such as BCE Inc. (TSX:BCE) and Telus Corp. (TSX:T).
Determining whether that is desirable, possible or even necessary will be the issue before the federal regulator over the next four weeks and, like last year's hearings on the future of broadcasting, it is pitting the various interests in the system against each other.
The CRTC decided in 1999 that the Internet, just then becoming a prominent force in commercial circles, should not be fettered or regulated.
But the world has changed since then, said commission chairman Konrad von Finckenstein, and the Internet is no longer the new kid on the media block.
About 93 per cent of Canadians have the ability to access all types of music, videos and films on their computers through a broadband connection, and an increasing number do.
That is precisely why the commission needs to move quickly to ensure Canadian programs have a guaranteed space on the new platforms, said ACTRA witnesses, which included actors Colin Mochrie of Whose Line Is It Anyway? and Degrassi's Charlotte Arnold.
Hollywood is already planning to begin making current-run films available on the Internet, which could be accessed from Canada without any restrictions or assurances Canadians films are also offered, they said.
Tuesday's first day of testimony brought a mostly united front of actors, producers and directors -- the creative end of Canadian broadcasting -- speaking with one voice in urging regulators to drop their hands-off approach to new media and begin treating it as just another delivery platform.
"Broadcasting is broadcasting regardless the distribution platform," argued Alain Pineau, national director of the Canadian Conference of the Arts, who also called for a production fund to "level playing field" between old and new media.
ACTRA and the Directors Guild of Canada said Internet providers should pay a levy representing three per cent of gross revenues, with wireless providers contributing 0.6 per cent of revenues. They estimated that would amount to about $100 million annually.
The actors guild would go even further in instituting content rules that would require "shelf space" on new media for Canadian productions.
The difficulty, as several commissioners noted, is that it is not clear if there is even a problem that needs to be tackled.
No one currently knows how much Canadian content is available on the Internet and portable devices such as cellphones, or how it would be possible to regulate such a free-form media platform where almost anything and everything can be accessed from anywhere in the world.
Harris Boyd, representing the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance, said measuring the extent of Canadian content would be a nightmare.
While content on over-the-air broadcasting and cable and satellite services can easily be managed, with the Internet, "there isn't anybody actually managing the content other than the customers who decide what they are going to access, from when and where.
"The bottom line is they are trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist," Boyd said.
Commissions challenged several of the witnesses, particularly those from ACTRA, over the suggestion that it should ensure space for Canadian programs on the Internet.
"I'm somewhat stunned by your overall approach," said von Finckenstein, who appeared to characterize the actors guild's recommendations as heavy-handed and somewhat impractical.
"Here you say shelf space is critical, and shelf space is unlimited. The question is whether you can find it."
But ACTRA national director Stephen Waddell insisted that while space on the Internet is unlimited, "there is too little Canadian product in the space."
Hardacre acknowledged the difficulty of mandating precise percentages of Canadian programming, but said it is still feasible for the CRTC to require Canadian programming be available, promoted and encourage its production through a special fund.
"If there's a shelf with lots of choices on it, we want some of those choices to be Canadian and we want a predominant amount of that to be dramatic programming," Hardacre explained.
Not all the witnesses saw the popularity of the Internet as threatening the very existence of traditional media, however. Brian Anthony of the directors guild said he views new media as an add-on rather than a replacement for traditional media.
And film-maker Sturla Gunnarsson said the Internet can also be an opportunity to showcase Canadian artists around the world.
The line-up of witnesses suggests the CRTC will be hearing more arguments in favour of regulation until March, when service providers -- who oppose any new limits, or fees -- get their turn.
