Success Through Understanding Technology
Commentary and insights on policy issues in telecommunications and the Internet.
Christine Dobby of the Globe and Mail reported last week that an old colleague of mine from Department of Communications days had committed a no-no by accepting a million dollar contract from the Axis of Evil while still working for the government of Canada. (With apologies to Bell - they are really not that bad).
I agree with this, wholeheartedly. To hell with facilities-based competition, as a concept.
https://www.cdhowe.org/intelligence-memos/konrad-w-von-finckenstein-direction-crtc-re-competition
Tim
Greetings. I was forwarded your recent blog and regretfully have to say you are misstating my views. Since 1978 I have urged a directive power and had that endorsed by Lambert, economic council and indirectly the Law Reform Commission. I supported Bernier’s directive even though it came close to amending the legislation. I have no problems with the principle of a directive although I think Bain’s has a strong hint of the same shopping list approach found in the Telecom Act and thus gives the CRTC considerable discretion in following, unlike Bernier’s.
Esteemed Professor Schultz:
So noted.
Denton
First, Navdeep Bains is owed our thanks for intervening with the CRTC by means of his proposed directive. It says all the right things, and it will almost certainly do some good. I will proceed to talk about how the obvious intent of policy directives can be avoided by the regulator, and not always in bad faith.
The Canadian Media Producers Association met this week in Ottawa. There was a Twitter hiccup in a panel discussion about the head of the CBC alluding to Netflix and cultural imperialism in the same breath. I would like to point out that whatever Catherine Tait said, it was a jeu d'esprit of no real significance. The deeper nonsense came from the CMPA's President, Reynolds Mastin, who maintained the true faith of Canadian regulated broadcasting. Near the end of the plenary at https://www.facebook.com/theCMPA/videos/872222383169417/ at 1:22:00 he lets Netflix have a blast of it. I quote him below.
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