MONTREAL - With Canadians watching more TV shows and video on websites, the CRTC is reviewing its policy of allowing broadcasting content to be unregulated on the Internet and cellphones.
  
The federal broadcast regulator has taken a hands-off approach to the distribution of broadcasting content over the Internet since 1999, while continuing to regulate radio and television outlets.

The CRTC also exempted broadcasting services that are received on cellphones and other mobile devices in 2007.

But, the growing dominance of the Internet is causing the CRTC to take a look at what it calls the "new media environment."

"Today, high-speed Internet access has been adopted by most Canadians, new technologies and applications are offering high-quality broadcasting content, and Canadians are spending more time accessing this type of content over the Internet and mobile devices,"  the regulator said Wednesday in a statement.

The CRTC said high-speed Internet access is now available to 93 per cent of Canadian households and has been adopted by more than 60 per cent.

Alan Sawyer of Toronto-based Two Solitudes Consulting said it's time for a policy review and the CRTC is expected to take a commercial focus and won't look at what individuals are doing with their websites.

"It will have been 10 years since the last time the commission really took a look at this and the world has changed hugely since then, particularly with respect to video content," Sawyer said.

"The bandwidth that's available now on the Internet, it's really feasible as a distribution vehicle for television content and it wasn't in 1999. The same is true for mobile (phones and devices). Video content for mobile didn't exist in 1999 but today it's a reality."

For example, the CRTC would likely look at broadcasters in Canada and what kind of content they're putting on their sites and at aggregating services that make TV shows available to be watched over the Internet, he said.

Although Sawyer did not advocate regulation such as Canadian content on commercial websites, he said Canadian culture and the Canadian entertainment industry need to be preserved and be able to flourish on the Internet and that could take incentives.

"If left unchecked, the Internet does have the potential to do severe damage to our cultural industries as they are today," said Sawyer, who did a study for the CRTC on TV content on the web and how Canadians watch it.

Analyst Carmi Levy said while it's an old argument that Canadian culture must be protected, he doesn't believe the CRTC's approach to the Internet will work.

"It's very hard to regulate it," said Levy, of Toronto-based AR Communications Inc. and a digital commentator.

"Unlike traditional media, there is no central point of control. There is no central point of access," he said of the web.

Levy said the CRTC should have acted about 15 years ago.

"It's completely unrealistic for the CRTC to think it can apply the same kind of regulatory thinking toward new media that it has provided toward traditional media."

While the CRTC isn't expected to focus on individuals in its policy review, Levy said any changes could eventually apply to anyone putting broadcast content on the Internet.

"The truth of the matter is in the age of new media we are all broadcasters. We are all capable of distributing content."

The CRTC said it will look at broadcast content on the Internet and mobile devices and its impact on the traditional broadcasting system, and whether incentives or regulatory measures are necessary to create Canadian content for these platforms.

The regulator will hold public hearings on the matter, beginning on Feb. 17.