OTTAWA – Bragg Communications, the parent company of Halifax-based MSO EastLink, has appealed to the CRTC to expand what can be shown in the two minutes of ad time U.S. cable channels make available for local ads.
CRTC regulations currently say that cable companies may only promote their video or audio services within that avail time. Cablecos can claim 25% of the time and must give the rest up, at cost, to Canadian broadcasters to promote their channels. Channels like CNN and the Golf Channel make two minutes per hour available to its carriers to sell advertising, which is a multi-billion-dollar ad business in the States.
EastLink doesn’t want to sell ads though. It wants the definition of what the MSOs can use to market its own product expanded to include its bundled packages of voice and Internet along with its digital cable products.
The Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association has fought this battle before and was recently rebuffed by the Commission, as reported by www.cartt.ca, when it asked a more complex question on being able to actually sell the local avail ad time, and giving a chunk of that money to Canadian content producers.
Rogers and Shaw asked for similar changes in November.
Comments are due on the EastLink application by March 17th.
