9(1)(h) COMMENT: The era of forcing us to pay for TV is long gone

IF CRTC CHAIR Jean-Pierre Blais is putting the Canadian consumer back into the CRTC driver's seat, as he has stated repeatedly, then surely the Commission must say no to most of the broadcasters and postulant broadcasters arriving cap-in-hand this week to ask that they be given mandatory spots (and the mandatory dollars that would come with it) in the TV channel lineups of Canadian subscription TV customers. While there’s a long history of forcing Canadian cable subscribers to pay for channels they may or may not have wanted, back in the day, we just accepted it. Sometimes, begrudgingly. Sometimes we...