OTTAWA – The Canadian Broadcasting Corp./Radio-Canada asked the CRTC this week to order satellite TV distributor Star Choice to immediately include RDI in its digital basic to subscribers in Anglophone markets.
It is the second complaint filed this week to the CRTC by the public broadcaster.
“Despite repeated efforts on the part of the CBC/Radio-Canada, the corporation has been unable to secure carriage of RDI on Star Choie’s basic service in Anglophone markets. RDI is not available on the ‘English Essentials package,’” CBC Senior Director of Regulatory Affairs Bev Kirshenblatt writes in a May 14 letter to the CRTC.
In July 2007, under section 9(1)(h) of the Broadcasting Act, the CRTC decreed that satellite TV distributors had to distribute RDI at a monthly wholesale rate of 10 cents to all subscribers in Anglophone markets as part of the digital basic from January 24, 2008 onwards.
Star Choice Manager of Affiliate Relations Programming Raelene Rydzik indicated in a March 10 email to the public broadcaster that the satellite TV distributor would continue to carry RDI in its Essentiels en Francais and Essentiels Bilingue packages.
