The past few years have seen a significant shift in the way people perceive television, especially with the advent of Internet Protocol Television (IPTV). In Canada, this is not just an event; it is a development that is fundamentally changing the way Canadians go about getting and enjoying their favorite broadcasts, whether these be shows, films, or live events. This paper examines the arrival of IPTV in Canada, the advantages it presents, and the challenges it poses.
Internet protocol television is a relatively new technology that promises to change the way people watch television. Watching through the internet has not always been a new idea. However, the way we receive and use internet television is continually changing. IPTV, in short, means watching television via the Internet. But this is quite a bit of a definition. In fact, by using the term “television,” we are not being even partially honest. The incontestable truth is the growing impact of IPTV and its approach to inching closer towards television.
Technological development, and changing consumer preference has led to a very IPTV-friendly environment in Canada. Three of the biggest operators of the Canadian telecom industry: Bell, Rogers, and Telus have released their IPTV services. In fact, Bell’s offering, Fibe TV is an answer to video watching on portable devices gaining tremendous traction. For this reason, Fibe TV provides a Cloud DVR feature where recorded shows are stored in the Internet Protocol’s backbone, unlike the original service that required a physical component, and are available on either TVs or any device connecting to the Internet. This feature pretty much guarantees that would-be recorders of “The Amazing Race” can catch the show anytime, anywhere, even if they miss it during its regular timeslot.
IPTV has many benefits, but its flexibility is perhaps its greatest asset. As long as they have internet service, users can watch programming whenever and wherever they want. And this “content anytime, anywhere” capability is really what appeals most to younger audiences, who, with their smartphones, seem to consider the most basic necessity of life to be the ability to watch programming on their own terms, without being tethered to a specific time and place. That young audience clearly seems to like the affordability factor of most IPTV services as well. In fact, with their slimmed-down channel selections, some IPTV platforms offer more content diversity than 21st-century homeschooled BAT: the basic cable package.
Often filled with the latest technologies, IPTV services allow consumers to pause, rewind and zip through live programming, enables recording of shows with filling your virtual cloud with content and on its simplest, will provide instant access of kinds of on-demand content the operators can offer by providing, for example like those from Bell, Shaw or Telus. IPTV — or Internet Protocol Television — is essentially digital TV transmitted to your browser over the internet, rather than through the kind of cable infrastructure that, to some extent, still dominates the Canadian pay TV marketplace. Yet this division of IP vs. cable has very little bearing on your actual TV experience; what’s at stake is the battle for the viewer’s eyeball.
Moreover, a big impediment comes from the regulatory side. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has the mandate to ensure fair competition and to protect broadcasting consumers. Regulating this fast-evolving, technically complex, and highly competitive platform is not an easy task, and the CRTC must accomplish it using an old regulatory toolbox. However, the decision made on May 22, 2008, signaled a new era for the IPTV platform in Canada.
IPTV is changing the Canadian television landscape in ways almost dizzying, and it’s bringing many unprecedented opportunities along with it. The tremendous potential here is clear: IPTV is a medium that not only provides options for viewers but also presents integrated somewhat panoptic solutions for the television industry itself.
Despite all the benefits IPTV brings, it exposes viewers as well as the industry to various serious challenges. But what are the opportunities that IPTV creates for us viewers and the industry in general, and what are the challenges that it poses? What does it all mean for the future television landscape in Canada?