Warren Kinsella,
National Post
Published: Thursday, August 02, 2007


Bloggers, Internet enthusiasts and denizens of Facebook like to assert that, because of them, conventional broadcast media are doomed. Radio and television, the new media types claim, are going the way of the 45rpm single and the 8-track tape. They're wrong.

While it is certainly true that the Internet and its assorted offspring -- weblogs, file-sharing sites and online social networks --have exploded in popularity, an important new federal government report suggests that the Internet's popularity is lately surging because of conventional media. Instead of railing against the inevitable, smart media organizations have embraced the Internet, and adapted their offerings to cyberspace. It's a decision that is now paying off.

On one level, the release this week of the Broadcasting Policy Monitoring Report by the Canadian Radio-television Commission (CRTC) merits some skepticism. In 1999, after all, the selfsame broadcasting and telecommunications regulator declared that it would exempt the Internet (that is, a bona fide broadcast and telecom revolution) from regulatory scrutiny. Whether one approves of governmental regulatory oversight or not, it was a rather baffling decision, a little bit like dinosaurs expressing a lack of interest in an approaching meteor strike.

Since then, things have changed. As the Broadcasting Policy Monitoring Report makes clear, the CRTC has acquired a profound interest in all things Internet-related. So, too, Canadian broadcasters.

The report contains some noteworthy findings, as gathered by the CyberTRENDS firm for the CRTC:

-Seventy per cent of Canadian households subscribed to the Internet last year, an increase of 6% from the previous year. High-speed Internet access grew by nearly 10% in the same time frame.

-Nearly a quarter of Canadians now listen to radio over the Internet --and about 6% watch TV online.

-Almost 60% of Canadians are using their cellphones to access Web sites (while, surprisingly, only 4% used a Canadian-made Black-Berry to do so).

-The Internet is biggest in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario-- while attracting the smallest number of Web surfers in Quebec.

-Internet-based advertising has surged, with $1-billion being spent last year --almost doubling ad spending in 2005.

Cultural nationalists at the CRTC should be pleased: Many of these millions of Web surfers apparently like Canadian content. Most of those who listen to the radio over the Internet, for instance, report that they listen to all-Canadian radio programming between 90% and 100% of the time. The programming being watched on the Internet also includes material of largely local interest: news (38% of users), sports (21%) and weather (10%). This suggests that new media consumers are simply looking for traditional media in a different format.

While Canadians clearly prefer the Internet for the convenience it offers -- its choices, and its availability at times convenient to the user, not the broadcasters -- it is equally clear that Canadians are not prepared to completely abandon traditional media broadcasts, particularly now that those broadcasts are taking place online.

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/columnists/story.html?id=2657eecc-7dce-4522-a64a-d10de1a2ea51