Angelo Persichilli: Broadcasters change channel in middle of show
A few years ago, a licence to broadcast was considered a licence to print money. The same TV broadcasters are now begging the CRTC to allow them to get more money from us without giving us anything in return.
In the past, they lobbied the CRTC against granting any new licenses on the primary tier. New broadcasters were relegated to the back of the cable lineup as Specialty 1 or 2 channels (the former with mandatory carriage, the latter being only discretionary, but both of them available only after paying a fee).
To protect the conventional broadcasters, the new channels had reduced market penetration. They were available only on cable, with no guarantee of carriage for some and less commercial airtime because all viewers had to pay a fee. The operators of these channels had to work hard to get viewers by inventing and selling new programs. The only sweetener was a fee from the subscriptions that we, the viewers, were forced to pay to protect the conventional broadcasters’ quasi-monopoly on commercials.
Those were the rules that the broadcasters lobbied the CRTC to approve. But now they want those rules changed. Let’s see why.
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