Consumers are way ahead of CRTC

If nothing else, the federal government can recognize a populist proposal when it sees one. Consumer unhappiness with the way their TV watching options are sold to them was a pure gift.

So there it was in the last federal Throne Speech: a policy that Canadians should not have to pay for cable channels they do not watch, and that consumers should be able to select and pay for only what they choose to see.

A no-brainer, right?

So as part of that legislative effort, the Canadian Radio and Television Commission is holding two weeks of hearings in Gatineau, Que. Titled Let's Talk TV, it's our opportunity to give an opinion on how TV content will be delivered in the future. You have until Sept. 19 to make a formal comment to the CRTC, if you wish.

But as most conversations about no-brainers go, the reality is beginning to appear more complicated than the proposal.

People who stand to lose from a pick-and-pay billing environment are getting their message together.

The sum of their arguments is that giving individual consumers more choice in how they select TV shows and channels will probably ultimately result in less choice. Abandoning the “bundled” packages we have now will probably mean we will pay more, while having less to choose from.

We are told this discussion is being closely watched in the U.S. by legislators, TV content providers and consumer groups, where one expert has suggested we may be “two, three, five or 10 years” ahead of them in this process.

I think what we're going to find two, three, five or 10 years down the road is that this whole discussion is becoming irrelevant.

Despite the power of the multi-billion-dollar entertainment industry, the consumer eventually gets what the consumer wants.

What does the consumer want? I think the consumer wants the power of choice, not necessarily more choices. Consumers want to control what they purchase, in line with what they're willing to pay.

And we're not getting that now. Most Canadian cable customers are paying for a package of over 100 TV channels. In any month, they only watch 10-15 of them.

Yet a Forum Research poll of Canadian viewers this spring said half of respondents actually prefer the current model of content delivery. A third say they want a pick-and pay.

Doesn't that contradict what I just said about consumers wanting choice? Not necessarily. An actual study of the market suggests something more complicated.

One in six Canadian families buys TV shows online, outside of the cable universe. But that club is not an exclusive group.

Almost half of Canadian families watch both cable and online content these days. A bit more than a third watches cable content only. Another group has “cut the cord” entirely — and that group is growing. And about four per cent of us watch no television at all.

Those are the real numbers to watch. And, despite tales of woe that marginal or niche content producers are making to the CRTC, that is the universe we will soon live in — with or without the federal government legislating “more choice” to consumers.

I wish I had more choice in the content packages provided to me. More real choice, I mean. I pay $40 a month for the basic bundle, and use about 10 per cent of it.

I'm not prepared to pay much more, though I am tempted by the Netflix siren.

I don't want more reality TV, more chef competitions, or a left-handed knitting channel. I don't want a dozen obscure digital music channels to play through my crappy old TV speakers.

Right now, we are told that the U.S. TV market (from whence the majority of our content originates) is funded 50/50 between advertising and cable rental. A subscription channel needs about 25 per cent of the market to survive. (HBO is the top subscription channel of them all, with about 30 per cent penetration.)

If “forced” subscription bundling were dropped, ESPN says it would need to raise its per/family revenue from its current $6 to $30, to maintain current revenues. Revenues of $7.2 billion, that is.

I would say, sadly, goodby ESPN in that scenario.

I'm the customer here. If you want my money, give me a product that I would value, for the money that I'm willing to pay.

Right now, I'm paying $40 a month for content which I judge to be 90 per cent not worth the power bill for the TV. And I don't think I'm an outlier in the statistics.

A legislated fix via the CRTC will take years. Meanwhile, the market itself will decide the winners and losers.