The world of Canadian media, and even more so that of Quebec media, is vulnerable to pressure from major American key players. To have viable media that are different from American media, we need rules ensuring the Canadian presence in communication spaces. The neglect to evolve and apply regulations partly explains the crisis facing the media.
At different times, laws have imposed requirements to ensure reinvestment in the production of Canadian programs of a portion of the revenues derived from the broadcast or distribution of media content. Unfortunately, with the advent of the Internet, we neglected to adapt these rules to new contexts.
From the beginning of the 20th centurye century, faced with the surge of American stations which, received on this side of the border, monopolized listening and advertising, the federal government created Radio-Canada. In the 1960s, when television was in its golden age, legislation was changed to allow private Canadian companies to broadcast programs purchased in the United States, but on the condition that they produce and broadcast programs with Canadian content. When, in the 1970s and 1980s, cable distribution became the dominant mode of television consumption, the authorities forced the Canadianization of cable networks, at the time largely owned by foreign capital. We also required that a portion of revenues from cable subscriptions be reinvested in Canadian productions.
With the advent of the Internet and the changes that this imposed on business models, the authorities should have prioritized the upgrading of regulatory frameworks in order to ensure in the long term the capacity to produce and listen to broadcasts emanating from of Canadian creativity. Rather than anticipating what many observers predicted, namely the shift to the Internet of the majority of consumption of images, news and music, the Canadian authorities swallowed the myth of an Internet where Canadian content would find magically their place.
The current crisis largely stems from the transfer of advertising revenue to large online platforms. Previously, the media could, by crafting an attractive schedule or news package, build up mass audiences, which they then offered to those who wished to reach these masses of individuals with their advertising. The Internet has undermined the viability of this model.
Advertising revenue shift
The advent of social networks and other online platforms has led to a radical shift in the ability to value the attention of individuals. In just a few years, we have moved from an environment where mass media dominated the advertising market to one where online platforms reign thanks to their ability to capture and analyze the masses of data produced by all those who are connected. Now, the advertising market is mainly based on targeting individuals based on their interests. Online platforms are in a position to offer them advertisements adapted to what the observation and calculation of their attention reveals.
The link between the media’s ability to build mass audiences by creating schedules and information content developed using professional validation methods and the ability to capture advertising revenue has been broken. It is possible for online platforms to value attention simply by opening their spaces to anyone who wants attention. Hence the weakening of the ability to report on issues of public interest using transparent and rigorous journalistic processes.
Rather than giving themselves the means to understand these changes and act accordingly, Canadian authorities have limited themselves to observing the transfers of listening and advertising to online platforms. Dazzled by the prospects of an open, borderless and supposedly impossible-to-regulate connected environment, they have for too long failed to establish innovative ways and means to bring the laws up to speed.
Indeed, faced with the changes brought about by the Internet, the challenge is not to try to apply to these environments the laws designed for broadcasts on paper, by wave or by cable. Rather, it is about designing innovative regulatory frameworks. In line with what distinguishes Canadian regulations, measures are needed to ensure the reinvestment in the production of Canadian content of a portion of the resources that Canadians devote to their media consumption directly (through their subscriptions) or indirectly by being targeted by personalized advertisements.
The current crisis is the result of the laissez-faire policies that governments and the CRTC have practiced for more than twenty years. It is the failure of those who only have libertarian slogans to offer to remedy the disappointments of our media universe. If we continue to listen to them, the crisis will only grow.
Professor, Pierre Trudel teaches media and information technology law at the University of Montreal.