Cablecos take another stab at local avails

OTTAWA – Both Rogers and Shaw Cable have applied to the CRTC again to alter the rules surrounding local ad avail time on U.S. cable channels. Currently, American channels such as CNN, A&E, The Golf Channel and others make two minutes an hour available for cable companies to sell local availability time. In the U.S., it’s a multi-billion-dollar sales industry. In Canada, MSOs are not allowed to sell the time by the CRTC. They must give 75% of the time to Canadian specialty channels (who have to also pay MSO costs) and to use the remaining 25% to promote its...