Thursday, January 25, 2007

 

CRTC to be headed by Konrad von Finckenstein

CRTCAt last, the CRTC has a new Chair, Konrad von Finckenstein.

Speculation had been that it would be difficult to fill the position, given the interventionist actions by Cabinet in the last year, with an unprecedented policy direction and the over-turning of a couple decisions.

In a converged communications environment, broadcast distribution looks pretty similar to telecom.

The new Chairman's background as the former head of the Competition Bureau would be consistent with the government's direction to use a competition law appraoch to the regulation of increasingly competitive and converged markets for telecom and broadcasting.

We'll certainly have more in the coming weeks.

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Posted by Mark Goldberg @ 1/25/2007 07:33:00 PM
Comments:
I knew that name sounded familiar, and I remember he was the the judge who shot down the music industry's attempt to identify people who had downloaded music using P2P technology.
Posted by Blogger Mark Evans : 8:14 PM, January 25, 2007
 
This is actually a pretty logical appointment coming from this government. Though having little telecom and broadcasting background (M&A reviews notwithstading - Astral, anyone?), he does have the rep of a non-nonsense hanging judge with little sympathy for poorly argued cases. The odd part, of course, is that he also has the rep of a guy high on his own power, and who can be slighly impatient with those who deny him the chance to exercise it. His 2003 proposals to revise the Competition Act to limit defences while at the same time enhancing the Bureau's ability to bully settlements comes to mind. Funny thing about that push (which was actually reveiwed after he left) is that the Bureau stepped in to fulfill a perceived dealy ( or failing) in Parliament's own plans to update certain aspects of the Act.

All in all, should be fun.
Posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 6:14 AM, January 26, 2007
 
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