ANALYSIS: Why every Canadian TV channel should be a must-carry

NOTHING PUTS THE “FUN” into the dysfunction of our broadcasting system more than a 9(1)(h) hearing. The spectacle in Ottawa two weeks ago was the latest such event, with eight would-be suitors lining up for what has been called, “the last must-carry” by this publication and others.The last hearing for new 9(1)(h) licenses was in 2013, when sixteen(!) applicants applied and almost all were all swatted away like flies by then-CRTC chair Jean-Pierre Blais (the few exceptions being TV5’s second channel, Unis, AMI-tv Français and the Legislative proceedings of Nunavut and NWT for distribution in the North). This paved the...