Downloading Prime-Time

Missing an episode of a TV drama used to mean waiting for the network to rerun the show or for the whole season to arrive in video stores. Now, missing an episode means a visit the next day to an online video store, like iTunes Video or Google Video, to purchase a digitalized, advertising-free copy. Seeing the revenues increasing, CBS launched CBS on Demand. And while this is convenient, it raises the nagging question about the survival of Canadian content.

Apple's Video iPod was the first to tap in to the online video business in October, 2005 and is now reaping the profits. Research done by Nielson / Net Ratings shows the American company has attracted 20.7 million Americans to their store and had sales of over 8 million videos. For $1.99 USD, audiences can download ABC primetime hits -- including Desperate Housewives and Lost. Web giant Google soon followed with its own selection of shows including Survivor and CSI.

For Canadian audiences and policy makers, the launch of online video stores is fraught with implications. While Canadians can't purchase from Google Video due to copyright complications, they can use iTunes. IBM issued a report looking at the effects of online TV show sales, which caused the Canadian Association of Broadcasters to announce "the end of television as we know it." Especially because the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has not yet proposed any regulations regarding the online sale of foreign cultural products.

'Swallowed by the sea'

Mainstream Canadian broadcasters earn the majority of their profit through the selling of advertising for American prime-time programming and the launch of online video stores - which essentially enables the audience to bypass the Canadian content provider - will greatly affect the budgets of Canadian networks and their ability to produce shows.

What is a deadlier blow to the Canadian television industry, however, is that these online video stores challenge Canada's indigenous programming. The lack of protection for local production will mean Canadian production could be swallowed by the sea of foreign - mainly American - productions when competing for the audience's active attention. Though the full impact of CRTC's inaction is not yet being felt due to the market's infancy, the time will come when online video stores become significant cultural product providers in Canada.

Canadian regulators have not yet demonstrated any intention to respond to the rapidly changing media landscape. As the arrival of the online video stores have amply demonstrated, the media industry and all actors involved need to be constantly reassessed and re-evaluated in light of the contemporary technologies.

There is no predicting what new technologies will arrive on the scene in the near future. What is for certain is that technology will continue to evolve and that old habits of consuming media products may easily be changed. For the media and other actors to survive (and to survive well), they all need to be ready to adapt in this constantly changing media landscape. At the same time, for Canadian cultural productions to break the cycle of disadvantage, Canadian regulators need to wake up and catch up to the newest technological evolution.

Vicky Chan is a third year student at Simon Fraser University working toward a double major in Communications and Political Science, focusing on how the increasingly globalized society impacts Canadian content.