Canadian Rights Market Study – Introductory Post
There is no longer any doubt that the television market is experiencing an outright revolution. The “new players‘‘—with leaders among VOD platforms the likes of YouTube and OTT servicessuch as Netflix—have imposed themselves in the last 18 months as alternatives to conventional television and are making a lasting mark in the competitive television marketplace.
This transformative trend dates back to sometime in 2005–2006 and has had many consequences in how television programming rights are negotiated throughout the world. The most notable consequences are without a doubt the increasing difficulty to obtain and exchange exclusive rights (per broadcast platform and per jurisdiction) and an increasing trend toward increasingly compressed media chronology, with less and less time separating the different media windows.
Canada’s television programming rights market has not been immune to these changes. To take stock of the state of business practices and Canada’s rights system, at the beginning of the year, we called upon Peter Miller, celebrated author of two previous analyses of the issue (2007, 2011).
This study is very timely for certain industry stakeholders given the CRTC has just completed its “Let’s Talk TV” notice of consultation (CRTC 2014-190) in time for the consultations that began on September 8, 2014. Stemming from this exercise, the CRTC conveyed 29 proposals in response to the 2,552 or so submissions that had been filed as at June 25, 2014 (the deadline for submitting observations). The public regulator now invites Canadian consumers and the industry itself to have themselves heard by September 19.
In our humble opinion, Miller’s study is very important for anyone who is interested in Canada’s TV broadcast industry and has questions on how the Canadian system has evolved since the arrival of VOD and OTT services.
Also, to whet readers’ appetites and facilitate understanding of this reference work, you will also find an overview of the study written by our policy analyst, Rod Butler. It will enable you to quickly appreciate the scope of this study and the many questions it answers.
Find the Canadian Rights Market Study as well as our overview of this important document in the research reports section.
