High Noon at the CRTC

In May of this year, the chair of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission acknowledged to a roomful of broadcasters in Cambridge, Ontario, that regulators such as the commission were losing the race against technology. The communications industry, said Konrad von Finckenstein, had “completely restructured itself,” while Canada’s regulatory system was created in “the previous century, before the digital revolution and before the internet.” It was a frank acknowledgement from a man whose job is getting increasingly difficult. The tools in his tool kit are becoming less and less effective.

The immediate source of debate for both von Finckenstein and his audience was new content platforms that have recently made their way into Canada, online services such as Netflix and Apple TV. Offering large catalogues of movies and television shows at a rock-bottom monthly price ($8), Netflix, an American website, expanded to Canada in the fall of 2010. A...