Regulator offers up broad proposals for changing Canada's TV delivery system

For some reason that link doesn't work today.

Here's the story...

" Canada's broadcast regulator has issued broad new proposals that could, if adopted, dramatically alter how Canadians receive and pay for their television.

The proposals issued Thursday by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission include requiring cable and satellite providers to offer a basic service made up primarily of local Canadian channels ? something CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais calls "skinny basic."

The CRTC is also proposing a so-called pick-and-pay structure that would allow Canadians to choose individual channels, on top of a basic service.

And it suggests the price of that basic service could be capped at between $20 and $30 per month.

The proposals, which have evolved through consultations with the public and industry over the past year, will likely result in a major departure from the current TV content delivery model, Blais said Thursday in an interview.

"How Canadians consume television content, what is television content, how technology is influencing that, is so significant that I expect out of this there'll be considerable change," he said.

But at least one consumer group says the CRTC hasn't gone far enough and should allow Canadians a "pure choice."

"What store do you walk into, or anywhere else, where you're told you've got to buy certain things before you can buy what you want?" said Bruce Cran, president of the Consumers' Association of Canada.

Consumers should be allowed to buy TV channels one at a time, without having to pay for a basic service, no matter how pared down, he said.

"It makes absolutely no sense as far as the consumers' point of view."

Still, Cran said he understands the CRTC has a mandate under the Broadcasting Act to ensure a certain amount of Canadian content, and that programming is delivered that reflects "Canadians to Canadians."

Industry Minister James Moore first indicated last October that he'd like to see more choice for Canadian television consumers.

The government then laid out its plans to overhaul the country's TV distribution system in its speech from the throne, which included a proposed "pick-and-pay" service structure.

Other proposals unveiled Thursday include requiring service providers to offer build-your-own channel packages or allowing them to continue offering the same packages that are currently on the market.

"(Service providers) would be required to allow subscribers to build their own custom packages of discretionary programming services," the CRTC said in a table incorporated in a new notice of hearing.

"(Service providers) could still offer pre-assembled packages."

At the same time, the regulator proposes allowing local TV stations to shut down their transmitters a move that might not sit well with consumers who prefer to get their TV programming over the air.

"It's an idea that we want to explore," said Blais, who stressed that the proposal is open for debate.

Roughly eight per cent of Canadian TV viewers get their content using antennas, without paying a service provider to deliver programming.

The CRTC also proposes allowing television stations and networks to count revenues from online or other delivery platforms toward their overall revenue base.

The regulators says it has not yet decided which options it will enforce, and is giving the public until Sept. 19 to offer comments on the proposals online.

A public hearing will also be held Sept. 8 in Gatineau, Que.

A number of companies, most of them in eastern Canada, already offer basic service plans and "pick-and-pay" options.

But some service providers have said they need the ability to rework contracts with television program suppliers if the CRTC wants true "pick-and-pay" pricing for consumers.

The regulator touches on that in its notice, proposing that program suppliers be banned from demanding "unreasonable penetration-based" rates for their programming.

In the end, Blais said that while consumers should benefit from more choice through the changes, they will have to pay something for the services they receive.

Otherwise, he said, the programs they want simply would not exist.

"You have to, to a certain degree, be concerned about the underlying economic model," said Blais.

"Canadians love to have that great content, but it still has to be made and paid for."

Once new regulations are adopted, the CRTC said it expects them to come into force by December 2015."

Now me, I'm basically "Go Capitalism", and "Let competition rule", but there are exceptions.

In this case one can't help but get the feeling there's price fixing going on from large corporations. If competition was truly running things here there would be 'pay to play'. You could pick your channels. Also the price of getting any kind of decent selection channels can be right insane in certain areas (like mine, for instance). Why is that happening?

If competition was truly a factor, common sense says those two things would not be happening.

Large corporations can be too big for the average guy to deal with by just depriving the company of his business. In such cases there can be situations where the government needs to be relied on.

Sometimes the government can become a larger problem. That needs to be dealt with too.

All I want is for the 'bundles' and 'packages' to go away. Give me a la carte choices where I can pay for only those channels I want instead of paying for 250 channels which include 200 channels of crap I'll never watch.

I gave up on cable and sat years ago. Nothing but crap piled on top of crap and the few things I want to see I can stream from various sources.

I don't miss the content and I miss the bill even less.

The CBC/CTV/local/US networks were never "free", certainly not when cable came along to dominate the system back in the 1970's. The thing is that we certainly shouldn't be charged as much as we are for those basic channels. It's being priced on the same rip-off style that utilities do for providing electrical/water/gas, or airlines do for flights. About 60% of what you pay is warranted for what you receive (including costs for infrastructure maintenance and employee wages), but the remainder is made up of delivery fees, surcharges, and various taxes. The whole thing is a barely justifiable schmozz that'll probably never change in any meaningful respect. We've heard this song and dance many times before from the CRTC on various similar subjects and this new one is just another tease. The only direction that prices go in this world are up, not down, and that's regardless of whether it's the governments or private industry that's operating a service. Cut the basic package from $30 a month to $20 or lower? You can fucking bet that the cost of the other packages/bundles are magically going to go up by at least $10 a month to make up for it.

Pardon me. When I said if there was real competition there would be 'pay to play', what I meant was there would be 'pick n play', which is what you're calling for.

I was in a rush and made an oops.

No doubt - almost everyone up here promises 125 channels for their extended cable package, but it includes 40 or 50 music channels that I never watch.

It's a total rip-off and designed to make you think you are getting a lot more than you really are.

I'm sure we have the technology where you don't have to subscribe to any channel. You get charged according to how long you watch any particular channel, with all being accessible to you at any time. It seems fair that there would be a basic hookup charge even if you watch no TV at all that month, as long as the charge is based on reality.

They are pissing into the wind / the cows have left the barn / the cat's out of the bag. The CRTC is reacting to the past. The action has moved fairly completely to the internet, leaving TV as a quaint memory. The only thing is that the CCRTC couldn't possibly regulate the internet, so they stick with what they know.

I'm on the verge of cancelling. The kids can always find shows on netflix. Problem is I need an option for Canucks and Whitecaps.

It's a stupid amount of money to pay for cable, considering how much we watch it.

I can watch every Canuck game over here. It's not difficult.

If the whitecaps have a TV deal, then it's also no problem.

I can't complain too loudly. I'm only paying $65/mo for VIP digital cable, which is actually quite a bit less than what I was paying for analogue cable over a year ago.
Admittedly I get a lot of repeat stations like CBC and CTV because of the time zone thingy, but based on the channels I do watch, even if they went with a basic package worth $20 and then allowed you to go a la carte on everything else, I'd probably still be paying at least $65/mo for cable anyway.

My kids watch Netflix, etc. I watch PBS, TVO and occasionally CBC and that's it. A good quality high-gain antenna gives me all of that. The CRTC is reacting to a quarter century ago.