DragonI

Spotify and ThinkGeek are the latest major players to announce their participation in the Internet-Wide Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality scheduled for July 12th to oppose the FCC’s plan to slash Title II, the legal foundation for net neutrality rules that protect online free speech and innovation.

Twitter, Reddit, Netflix, Amazon, Kickstarter, Etsy, Vimeo, Private Internet Access, Mozilla, OK Cupid, Imgur, PornHub, Medium, and hundreds of other major sites are also participating. Yesterday, representatives for Facebook and Google told multiple reporters that the web giants plan to participate.

More than 50,000 people, sites, and organizations have signed on to the effort overall, and more announcements from major companies are expected in the coming days. Participants will display prominent messages on their homepages on July 12 or encourage users to take action in other ways, using push notifications, videos, social media, and emails.

See the announcement for the day of action here: https://battleforthenet.com/july12  

See examples of what sites are doing on July 12 here: https://www.battleforthenet.com/july12#join

The great unbundling: Canada is forcing cable operators to let people pick their channels

qz.com

O Canada, the true north strong and free.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission said it will require cable TV providers to let their customers “pick-and-pay” for channels after buying a basic package capped at $25 a month. It’s perhaps the most sweeping reform measure ever enforced on the television industry by government regulators.

“This policy sets out a roadmap to give Canadians more choice when it comes to the selection and packaging of their TV services,” the CRTC said in a statement. “It also seeks to ensure that Canadians have access to a diverse range of content through a healthy, dynamic TV market.”

Starting in March of 2016, Canadians will be able to buy a slimmed-down TV package for no more than $25, and then have the option to supplement that with smaller packages of channels or a pick-and-pay system, according to Global News. And then in December of 2016, cable operators will have to offer both options on top of the slimmed package, which must include local channels, US channels that can be picked up free over the air, and channels the CRTC deems to be in the public interest.

This is clearly a massive victory for Canadian TV-watchers who wanted more choice in their programming without having to pay exorbitant cable fees. The cable providers, however, argue that it could result in job losses and revenue drops. If the model is successful, it could blaze the trail for other countries to implement similar mandates.