Post Tagged with: "program deletion"

Broadcaster Plan Involves More Than Just Fee-For-Carriage

In the weeks leading to the CRTC hearing on broadcasting licences, Canadians were inundated with splashy advertising campaigns claiming that new fees for local signals were either a TV tax or would save local television.  With all of the major broadcasters and cable companies appearing before the commission, the fee-for-carriage (or value-for-signal) issue unsurprisingly took centre stage at last week's hearing.

Yet those convinced that the broadcaster plan was limited to a new fee were in for a rude awakening.  My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes that fee-for-carriage is only part of the story, as broadcasters are also seeking to block U.S. signals, leave some Canadian communities without over-the-air television, and delay the transition to digital television transmission until 2013.

The prospect of blocking U.S. television signals will come as a shock to many, but both CTV and Canwest, Canada's two largest private broadcasters, have asked the CRTC to establish a new program deletion policy. 

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November 23, 2009 24 comments Columns

Broadcaster Plan Involves More Than Just Fee-For-Carriage

Appeared in the Toronto Star on November 23, 2009 as Broadcasters Want More Than Fee For Carriage In the weeks leading to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission hearing on broadcasting licences, Canadians were inundated with splashy advertising campaigns claiming that new fees for local signals were either a TV […]

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November 23, 2009 2 comments Columns Archive

CTV & Canwest Ask CRTC To Order Blocking Of U.S. Programs

The CRTC kicks off two weeks of hearings next week that place the spotlight on the fee-for-carriage fight. Last night, I participated in an interesting debate on the issue on TVO's The Agenda called A Pox On Both Their Houses: Cable and TV.  The program is embedded below.  One issue […]

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November 13, 2009 38 comments News