Policy dominates TV discussion

By Susan Tolusso

OTTAWA - Fee-for-carriage is back and it’s not just on broadcasters’ wish lists in panel discussion here at the CAB Convention: the CRTC has announced it will re-consider the issue in its forthcoming review of policies for BDUs and specialty services, which has been pushed back from Feb. 4 to Apr. 7. Just an hour before CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein reopened the matter, broadcasters raised it in a panel discussion on the future of television in Canada. While the chairman did not specify what factors encouraged the Commission to reconsider FFC, given the regulator’s refusal to allow over-the-air broadcasters...