Telecommunication Redefine CRTC Role to Order in the Airwaves and Protection against Local Media Monopolies, Liberalize Foreign Ownership Rules

Transcription

1 Telecommunication Redefine CRTC Role to Order in the Airwaves and Protection against Local Media Monopolies, Liberalize Foreign Ownership Rules BDO Dunwoody CEO/Business Leader Poll by COMPAS in the Financial Post for Publication April 3, 2006 COMPAS Inc. Public Opinion and Customer Research April 3, 2006

2 1.0 Introduction In a setting of continual international talks on trade and investment liberalization, the CEOs and business leaders on the COMPAS panel call for a substantially less dirigiste role for the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission. They want the Commission to focus on protecting media pluralism in local areas with media monopolies and to assure order in the airwaves. They see strong content rules as harmful, not helpful, to Canadian identity, and strong regulation as harmful, not helpful, to economic development. In the wake of the sale to foreign interests of Fairmont Hotels and other heritage properties, panelists favour allowing foreign investors to acquire majority ownership in telecom carriers and broadcasters, a situation which would favour consumers and investors alike, they believe. These are the key findings from this past week s survey of the COMPAS panel of business leaders and CEOs on behalf of The Financial Post under sponsorship of BDO Dunwoody LLP. 2.0 Strong Repudiation of Traditional CRTC Role and Desire for More Limited Power By a wide margin, CEOs and business leaders on the panel call for a much more limited role for the CRTC. Its future role should be mainly to protect a diversity of communication in small towns and regions where local media monopolies flourish, as shown in table 2A. Far from strengthening Canadian identity through Canadian content rules, 2:1 majorities believe that the Commission inadvertently weakens Canadian identity by protecting inferior product while slowing innovation and development in telecom. In the context of multilateral trade talks, panelists believe that international barriers to the consumption of telecom services, including broadcasting, should be dissolved with the telecom regulator s function largely limited to preserving order, as shown in table 2B. 2

3 Table 2A: (Q2) In the following debates, please indicate which side you prefer. The CRTC should limit its role to where it can do good, protecting freedom of expression in small towns and regions where local media monopolies flourish Strong CRTC oversight of all Canadian broadcasting is essential for democracy [UNPROMPTED] Don t know 5 The CRTC inadvertently weakens Canadian identity by protecting inferior product The CRTC s Canadian content rules are essential for a strong Canadian identity [UNPROMPTED] Don t know 6 CRTC regulations retard innovation and development in telecom, slowing economic growth as a result The CRTC s orderly regulation of telecom is essential for the growth of telecom and our economy [UNPROMPTED] Don t know 8 %

4 Table 2B: (Q1) Multilateral trade talks on ending foreign ownership restrictions and two major Canadian government reports have prompted renewed debate about the future of telecom. On a 5-point scale, where 1 means disagree strongly and 5 means agree strongly, please indicate how you feel about each of the following opinions. [RANDOMIZE] Consumers and businesses should be allowed to subscribe to any broadcast service irrespective of country of origin Consumers and businesses should be allowed to buy any data or telephone service from any supplier irrespective of country of origin The main focus of CRTC regulation should be to protect broadcasters and mobile telephone providers from disorder in the airwaves Government should subsidize broadband coverage in areas of the country where it is uneconomic for commercial service Mean DNK Allow Majority Foreign Ownership Benefits Expected to be Widespread On the heels of the sale of Fairmont Hotels and other Canadian heritage properties to foreign interests, the panel believes that foreign investors should also be allowed to acquire majority interests in Canadian telecom carriers and broadcasters, as shown in table 3A. 4

5 Business consumers, retail consumers, and investors would be the big gainers from liberalization of ownership rules, as shown in table 3B, while employees would not be. Table 3A: (Q3) What is the highest percentage of voting shares that foreign investors should be allowed to buy... [ROTATE] Mean DNK in a telecom carrier? 65 2 in a broadcasting company? 61 2 Table 3B: (Q4) On a 5-point scale, where 1 means benefit not at all and 5, means benefit a lot, how much would each of the following benefit if foreign ownership in telecom were allowed to increase to 50%? [RANDOMIZE] Mean DNK Investors Heavy corporate users of telecom Consumers The Canadian telecom industry Employees Methodology The COMPAS web-survey of CEOs and leaders of small, medium, and large corporations was conducted March 28-31, Respondents constitute an essentially hand-picked panel with a higher numerical representation of small and medium-sized firms. Because of the small population of CEOs and business leaders from which the sample was drawn, the study can be considered more accurate than comparably sized general public studies. In studies of the general public, 5

6 surveys of 123 are deemed accurate to within approximately 8.9 percentage points 19 times out of 20. The principal and co-investigator on this study are Conrad Winn, Ph.D and Tamara Gottlieb. 6