TV-Pick-And-Pay

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TV-Pick-And-Pay

Postby radiofan » Thu Aug 21, 2014 10:15 am

TV-Pick-And-Pay
Regulator offers up broad proposals for changing Canada's TV delivery system

OTTAWA - Canada's broadcast regulator has issued broad new proposals that could dramatically alter how Canadians receive and pay for their television.

The proposals issued today 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.

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.

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

At the same time, it is proposing allowing local TV stations to shut down their transmitters -- a move that might not go over well with consumers who prefer to get their TV programming over-the-air.
(The Canadian Press)
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Re: TV-Pick-And-Pay

Postby Mike Cleaver » Thu Aug 21, 2014 2:29 pm

Pick and Pay should mean ONLY the channels you want, not including what the Canadian Rotten Television Commission wants to force down your throat, such as French CBC and other unwatchable dreck such as the Parliamentary Channel and assorted other marginal interest crap.
Let those who want to watch those channels pay for them and if there aren't enough subscribers, let them go dark.
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Re: TV-Pick-And-Pay

Postby SKradiophile » Thu Aug 21, 2014 3:28 pm

I doubt the CRTC will have the cajones to acually go through this. With Bell and Rogers owning well over half of the Canadian channels not to mention one-third of the national tv networks(CTV) this won't fly. Yes it sounds like a gift for long suffering ordinary cable tv subscribers but rarely is the customer the one these guys are concerned about.
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Re: TV-Pick-And-Pay

Postby radioman » Thu Aug 21, 2014 8:35 pm

What the CRTC needs to do is "gut" the whole cable vision rate structure and get it back to what it was when cable vision first started. To refresh everyone's memory--cable vision services started in order to provide a clearer audio/visual feed than that generally available from an antenna on the roof. Subscribers paid a monthly fee which paid for the cable vision infrastructure and a reasonable profit for the cable vision company. (I recall paying $4.50 per month for basically channels 2 to 13). We got the channels generally available in our area with an on-the-roof antenna array but at a better quality of picture and sound and for that we were happy to pay the monthly fee; and the broadcasters got their revenue entirely from advertising.

But one by one over the years, the specialty satellite only channels have come on stream and the cable vision companies have had to pay to carry the signals and just keep passing on the increased costs to the consumer.

I say--let all broadcasters (over-the-air and specialty satellite channels) survive or die based on revenue from advertising dollars only; and let the cable vision companies provide consumers with the signals at a monthly fee which reflects the costs of maintaining/expanding the infrastructure plus a reasonable profit.

The present system is just a gouge of the consumer and we all have to pay cable vision fees for a bunch of channels that, individually, we are not interested in watching.
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Re: TV-Pick-And-Pay

Postby tuned » Thu Aug 21, 2014 8:54 pm

Rogers and Shaw started as pirates. Some people think they still are. The only reason anyone subscribed to cable was to get American channels. The original business was based on erecting giant antennas close to the border and letting cable "customers" hook into their set up. They didn't pay anyone a penny for the signal and the cost of the service was based on running the wires to your house.
Canadian broadcasters didn't like this one bit because they had some competition. Why watch CHAN when you can watch KING? Next thing you know the government gets involved in regulating cable TV "for the good of Canadians". First order of business was to implement the racket known as "simultaneous substitution" which is the reason that you can't see the US ads during the Superbowl. When a Canuck broadcaster airs the same show as a US broadcaster the US signal is replaced on cable with the Canadian one. A ratings and cash bonanza that made the likes of Izzy Asper filthy rich.
The name of the game was chasing the "simsubs" and Canadian programming became a "tax on the license". It's been downhill ever since. Now the cable companies own everything. The wires, the channels, the broadcasters, transmitters and the programming. Anyone that thinks that the handful of companies that benefit from this quasi monopoly are going to give it up are OD'ing on medical marijuana. Just like in the US, politicians both Liberal and Conservative, Republican and Democrat are equally responsible for the current state of affairs.
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Re: TV-Pick-And-Pay

Postby retireddxer » Thu Aug 21, 2014 9:50 pm

tuned wrote:The only reason anyone subscribed to cable was to get American channels.

OK, American channels were what attracted people to pony up the money for cable in the first place. Local TV News still gets respectable viewer numbers in the major Canadian markets, which means there are lots of people still watching Canadian stations for at least part of the day.

Whether we are talking a half century ago or today, there have always been boatloads of people in this country that can't get decent reception of local television without cable. The migration to Digital has generally made OTA reception even more difficult because of the higher frequencies of most stations after the move. Especially where you don't have a Mount Seymour to put towers on.

So far, the Internet has not caught on, as a viewing method, with many of those people for local television.
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Re: TV-Pick-And-Pay

Postby jon » Fri Aug 22, 2014 5:32 pm

TV industry watchdog says 'pick-and-pay' model would hurt economy, cost jobs
By Terry Pedwell
The Canadian Press
August 22, 2014

OTTAWA - Some local TV stations will be forced to close and more than 30,000 people could lose their jobs if Canada's broadcast regulator adopts changes it wants Canadians to consider, says a broadcast industry watchdog group.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission proposed new regulations this week that would, among other things, allow consumers to pick the individual channels they want from cable and satellite service providers.

The so-called "pick-and-pay" option would come on top of a trimmed-down mandatory service, a "skinny basic" package of local and mostly Canadian content that's also being proposed by the CRTC.

In a document released Thursday, the regulator suggested a cap of between $20 and $30 could be imposed on basic TV packages.

The CRTC also proposed banning service providers from airing Canadian advertising over simulcast American programming — what's known in the industry as simultaneous substitution.

Friends of Canadian Broadcasting warns that the combined measures, if enacted, could force up to 19 TV stations to shut their doors.

"The CRTC's proposed changes would be a recipe for station closure and a body blow to Canadian programming," Friends spokesman Ian Morrison said in a statement provided to The Canadian Press.

"They would make it tougher to meet the worthy objectives of the Broadcasting Act which the CRTC is required to uphold."

The group estimates that, by 2020, the changes as laid out would result in the loss of 31,460 jobs, with more than 13,000 being chopped from the broadcasting and production industries alone.

For the Canadian economy, it would be a $2.9-billion blow, the group warned.

The CRTC stresses that its proposed changes are not set in stone, but are simply a framework for public consultations that have been extended until mid-September.

But if the changes were to be enacted, the Coalition of Small Market Independent Television Stations, known as SMITS, has said in a submission to the regulator that the proposals "put in question the very viability of SMITS across Canada."

"This is not a threat, it is a reality," said the coalition, which represents 19 independent stations.

TV broadcasters in some of the country's smallest markets warn that they are vulnerable, particularly in Kamloops, B.C., Medicine Hat and Lloydminster, Alta., Thunder Bay, Ont., and Riviere du Loup, Que.

Bell Media’s CTV2 network of stations in Victoria, B.C., London, Ottawa, Barrie and Pembroke, Ont., are also said to be at risk.

In a recent submission to the CRTC, a group of 21 small stations estimated that they were already under financial stress.

They indicated that their combined profit margins had fallen from just under 15 per cent in 2006 to slightly more than four per cent by 2011.

The potential end of simultaneous substitution may mean that Canadian viewers can watch American ads on TV, but it would cause significant harm to small market TV stations in Canada, said Morrison.

Complaints about viewers not being able to see U.S. advertising are usually the loudest when big sporting events such as the Super Bowl are aired.

But Canadian TV stations rely on local commercial revenue to pay for the rights to broadcast such events, and losing the ability to air Canadian ads over the American ones would come at a hefty cost.

"Simultaneous substitution is a fundamental underpinning of all Canadian broadcasting," said Morrison.

"The loss of simulcast would jeopardize ... the viability of many local TV stations across the country, especially those in smaller markets."

The CRTC is proposing two options for ending the practice: getting rid of simultaneous ads altogether, or disallowing them only during live event broadcasts.

While Friends supports the continuation of simultaneous substitution, Morrison argues that CBC English TV should not be airing advertising at all — a stand that seems to run counter to the CBC's recent drive for more ad revenues as it struggles through a financial crisis.

"But getting out of the ad business would be the first and necessary bold step toward saving CBC from itself and developing a truly distinctive offering," Morrison argues.

His group recommends the CRTC redirect money to the CBC that the cable and satellite companies currently pay into a fund to create community programming.

The group has also proposed the CRTC force new media companies such as Netflix to pay to prop up the Canadian broadcasting system, a measure that it estimates could eventually add $150 million annually to the CBC's bottom line.

"Rather than gutting the underpinnings of a great system, the CRTC should support Canadian programming, strengthen diversity in the system, and use its authority to affirm the cornerstone place of the CBC," Morrison said.
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Re: TV-Pick-And-Pay

Postby Tom Jeffries » Fri Aug 22, 2014 6:16 pm

In other words - this part of the Broadcast Industry is about to undergo what Radio and Newspapers and Magazines, have been going through.

The jobs are gone and they are not coming back.

I hope it all works out - but I am dumping cable - it is way too expensive and I am stuck with all these channels I never watch. I am going with HD receiver and use my new smart TV with the Internet / Netflix / YouTube.

Cable? Who needs it?

Times are changing.
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Re: TV-Pick-And-Pay

Postby skyvalleyradio » Fri Aug 22, 2014 8:03 pm

Duplication of programs numerous airings on multiple channels is another cable company scam: more channels doesn't necessarily mean more programming. Not much on cable for me that I can't get with a rotatable UHF TV antenna. Cable has crappy news channels, plenty of sports but I'm not a sports fan, kidstuff, but my kids & grandkids are too old for these. All that's left are grade-Z movies, rednecks & trailer-trash girls behaving badly. Think I'll join Tom & stick with Netflix & Youtube. Both of these I can watch on my big screen in HD & 5.1 thanks to my "Chromecast" dongle connected to my TV set. Piss off Shaw Cable... :glasses7:
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Re: TV-Pick-And-Pay

Postby jon » Sun Sep 07, 2014 8:53 pm

CRTC set to hold hearing into broad proposals for changing TV delivery system
By The Canadian Press
September 7, 2014

OTTAWA - Canada's broadcast regulator is set to begin a two-week public hearing into sweeping proposals that could, if adopted, dramatically change how Canadians receive and pay for their television.

The proposals, issued last month 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.

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

And the regulator 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.

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

The Conservative 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.

The public hearing starts Monday in Gatineau, Que., and continues until Sept. 19.
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