CRTC Television Ruling

The CRTC made a decision on Monday that attempted to appease both local broadcasters and cable companies. The ruling was an attempt to end the disputes between the two powers and ended with "broadcasters welcoming the prospect of negotiating fees for their local signals [and] broadcast distributors warning of increased costs" (Geist). However, fee negotiation can lead to problems, for instance, if broadcasters are unable to reach an agreement with cable companies then they may block scheduled programming. Furthermore, extra fees may be passed down to the consumers, although the CRTC maintains that Canadians should be able to afford a modest increase in their cable bill. Michael Geist notes that this may inadvertantly drive more consumers to US programming or the internet to recieve content. Another issue which has arisen is that while this new ruling requires local broadcasters to spend money on Canadian content, it does not require them to air it. Actor Nicolas Campbell notes that "[broadcasters have] been given free-reign to dump all of their drama on their specialty channels while feeding Canadians a steady diet of made-in-the U.S. programs in prime time” (OurTV).

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