OTTAWA – BDUs must provide at least 60 days notice to broadcasters before changing their terms of carriage, packaging or retailing of any programming service, the CRTC has reiterated to carriers in a letter this week.
The Commission drove home this point, originally set out in Broadcasting Public Notice 2005-35, at the behest of the Independent Broadcast Group/Le groupe de diffuseurs indépendants (IBG/GDI). In a letter to the CRTC, one that also copied vertically integrated companies Rogers, Bell, Shaw and Quebecor, the group expressed concern that the notice policy might be discounted by the big BDUs.
“If adequate notice is not provided, then affected broadcasters will have no option but to require that the proposed packaging change be subject to a “standstill” until sufficient information is provided”, reads the letter dated December 2nd. “It would be regrettable for affected broadcasters to have to invoke the standstill requirement simply due to the lack of information or inadequate notice provided by BDUs.”
The CRTC was quick to assure IBG/GDI that the policy was still active.
“While the issue of changes to packaging was not specifically included in the amended Regulations or addressed in Broadcasting Regulatory Policy 2011-601, the determinations made in Broadcasting Public Notice 2005-35 are still in force”, reads the Commission’s reply dated December 20. “As such, the provision of notice by BDUs to programming services of pending packaging changes remains in effect.”
The exchange of letters appears to be yet another red flag from independent broadcasters who have mainatined that the big, vertically integrated BDUs are seriously bending, if not flouting the rules, including the Commission’s new Code of Conduct. In a recent interview with Cartt.ca, CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein warned that the Code would be strictly enforced.
– Lesley Hunter
