DISTANT SIGNALS: Is $1.2 billion the right price for delivering Seattle to Toronto?

By Perry Hoffman

OTTAWA – The price of delivering Detroit to Vancouver, or Halifax to Hamilton, or any other distant TV signal to a market outside its territory will come under the microscope for the next two weeks at the Copyright Board of Canada.Beginning Tuesday morning, the Broadcast Distribution Undertakings (BDUs) and the Retransmission Collectives will be facing off at a Copyright Board hearing over the value of distant television signals. The Collectives (who are the U.S. and Canadian TV stations, sports leagues, music collectives and such) tell the Board the number of distant TV signals available to Canadian TV subscribers has increased...