Why you couldn't watch Mayor Ed Holder's state of the city address in real time

The head of London's Chamber of Commerce says he didn't allow live-streaming of Mayor Ed Holder's state-of-the-city address Thursday because making the speech available for free could hurt ticket sales. 

"It's to protect the ticket purchasers who spend good money to attend," said Gerry McCartney, the chamber's CEO. "They have a right to hear that address first-hand."

The chamber has hosted the mayor's annual speech for more than 30 years and McCartney said it's an important fund-raiser that helps pay for the chamber's advocacy and education work. 

For $65, attendees get breakfast and the opportunity to hear the mayor lay out plans and priorities for the year ahead. 

"There's nothing in these addresses that I would consider to be earth-shattering news or something that's going to change anyone's life overnight or your budget or your strategic plan or anything of the sort," McCartney said.

In the past, mayors have used the speech to publicly announce for the first time business investments in London. 

Sold out event

The annual speech is typically attended by all members of council, London's business community and leadership of local service agencies. It's also well covered by all the city's news outlets. 

Thursday's speech at the London Convention Centre drew an audience of 1,400 people, enough to sell out the venue. 

In previous years, media outlets have live-streamed the speech, allowing people to watch it in real time from their mobile device or computer. But this year media outlets, including CBC News, were informed moments before Thursday's speech that the live-stream wouldn't be allowed this year. 

That decision drew some criticism.

On CBC London's Facebook page, some commented that the speech is a significant news event with important implications for public policy and should be broadcast online, as it happens.

"The state of the city address should be accessible to every citizen in the city, not just those with time and money to physically make it out," said one commenter. "It's what technology's for."

But McCartney disputes that saying the news media eventually makes details of the speech available. 

"All of that is available in a rebroadcast format on a number of different outlets. Both in print and in electronic form. It's right there for anyone to see within hours of the address." 

Mayor approves live coverage

Michael Meagher, the mayor's senior advisor, said decisions about live streaming are up to the chamber as host of the event. He said  "the mayor would have been delighted if it was live-streamed."

Meagher said in the interest of government transparency, it's important the address be available to all Londoners, including those who can't attend in person. The city hired a video crew to cover Thursday's speech and an edited video of the speech will be posted on the city's website next week, said Meagher. ​

The city did make available the full text of the speech in a news release issued just after 9 a.m. Thursday, shortly after Holder finished speaking. Text of the speech was also posted on this page of the city's website at the same time. 

Technical glitches in previous years

In addition to protecting ticket sales, McCartney said in the last two years technical glitches related to live-streaming pushed back the speech's start time.  Also, McCartney said some media outlets failed to tell the chamber ahead of time about their intention to live-stream. 

"We had eight other outlets and individuals ask if we could live streaming," said McCartney.  

As for next year? McCartney said the chamber will consider allowing live-streaming of the speech. 

"We're not saying it's never going to happen, it did happen a couple of times," he said. "And we are looking forward to looking at ways to accommodate that."