CRTC pulls plug on plans for third party ad avail sales

OTTAWA – Media de Novo was denied CRTC approval for its plan to sell ad time on U.S. specialty channels' local avails in Canada.In its decision on Thursday, the Commission said that Media de Novo failed to demonstrate “that its proposal would provide sufficient benefits to warrant departure from the Commission’s current policy on local availabilities, or that its service should be licensed as a Category A programming service”. It also expressed concern that Media de Novo’s proposal could result in “an unacceptable negative impact on the advertising revenues of Canadian broadcasters”, particularly “given the severe financial constraints under which...