Cable and satellite providers are now required offer customers a slimmed-down basic service package for $25 or less.
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If you’re sick of paying too much for cable, you can now buy a basic package for $25 per month. They may also include local AM and FM radio stations, up to 10 non-local TV stations and another province or territory’s educational programming if there’s no local alternative.
Rogers, for instance, offers 30 to 40 channels, depending on service location, and includes USA network channels.
“[We] will certainly be following through on ensuring that they promote this package and these opportunities as well as they promote their other packages”, said Scott Hutton, the CRTC’s executive director of broadcasting. “People are shying away from the traditional live television with commercials that annoy us”.
On March 1st, 2016, Canada’s licensed TV service providers must start to introduce new options for customers. As of December 1, providers must offer channels both individually and in packages of up to 10 channels, according to the CRTC. The CRTC’s mandatory distribution list includes CBC, Global and CTV, as well as public interest stations like APTN and minority French or English language channels.
To be part of pick and pay, customers have to subscribe to a basic package first before adding on one channel, like The Food Network, for instance.
Peter Miller, a consultant, said that market research conducted by Nordicity at the end of 2015 had indicated a small percentage of Canadian viewers will opt for basic services in the coming years.
“In an environment map, some channels will cost more on an individual basis because they will share more revenues from larger packages, recognizes the body”.
The CRTC said this comes after many Canadians said they wanted to see local and regional news, and information programs, prioritized.
And the à la carte channels don’t come cheap: Most cost between $3 and $7 each per month.
“The television system is evolving as Canadians’ viewing habits change and technology provides more options”, said Jean Pierre Blais, Chairman and CEO of the CRTC, in a statement.
“I urge them to make the products they sell even better for Canadians, and put viewers – their customers – back in control of their televisions”, he said.
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Cross-subsidization happens when service providers offset the costs of carrying more expensive channels with the lower costs of their less-expensive channels by offering them together as a bundle.
