OTTAWA – On Wednesday, the CRTC said Canadian cable companies should be allowed eliminate most of the radio stations they currently carry on their systems.
Section 22 of the Broadcasting Distribution Regulations says that Class 1 and 2 cable companies must offer all local radio signals over their cable systems to subscribers. Trouble is, said the cable industry in its CRTC filing last year, hardly anyone listens to the radio on cable.
The now-defunct Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association told the CRTC it needed the additional capacity to add channels, specifically, HDTV services, as reported by www.cartt.ca.
The Canadian Association of Broadcasters, said it understands the limitations of bandwidth and suggested to the Commission that instead of mandatory analog carriage of local radio that the signals be must-carries on digital instead.
The Commission disagreed with the CAB and others who opposed the move saying, in Wednesday’s release, "(i)n the Commission’s view, the distribution of all local radio stations by Class 1 and Class 2 BDUs does not generally represent the most effective or efficient use of distribution technology."
And, "(i)n the Commission’s view, requiring the digital distribution of all local radio signals would place additional costs on Class 1 and Class 2 BDUs, but would yield no additional benefits. Consequently, the Commission rejects this alternative."
So, adds the decision, "(i)n light of the above considerations, the Commission is of the view that section 22 of the Regulations, in its current form, is no longer appropriate."
However, the Commission isn’t prepared to repeal the section entirely and said that it wants MSOs to continue carrying CBC Radio in English and French, any local community radio stations and any local campus radio signals.
Click here for the full decision.
A call for comments on the exact wording for a new section 22 will come later, said Wednesday’s announcement.
