By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – An order in council published Monday will direct the CRTC to include modified shopping channels from the United States on a list of authorized foreign programming services available on Canadian television.
The order amends a three-year-old one that only directed the CRTC to list unmodified U.S. home shopping programming, which is specific to the U.S. market. The orders are part of an agreement between the countries under the new Canada United States and Mexica (CUSMA) free trade agreement, which replaced NAFTA under former U.S. President Donald Trump.
The order amends the direction to the CRTC “respecting the implementation of the [CUSMA] in order to list unmodified and modified U.S. home shopping programming services based in the United States for distribution in Canada.”
Modified programming can include advertising on the U.S. shopping channels that is specific to the Canadian market.
“This amended Direction responds to concerns by the United States government about access to the Canadian market for modified home shopping programming services,” a Canadian Heritage spokesperson told Cartt.ca.
“The Direction supports Canada’s ongoing implementation of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) and strengthens the rules-based trading system between our countries,” the spokesperson added.
The provision under CUSMA stipulates that, “Canada shall ensure that U.S. programming services specializing in home shopping, including modified versions of these U.S. programming services for the Canadian market, are authorized for distribution in Canada and may negotiate affiliation agreements with Canadian cable, satellite, and [Internet Protocol Television] distributors.”
In July, the U.S. trade representative pressed Canada’s minister of international trade on the issue.
“We’ve made good progress – this is one of those files that I would classify as ‘well advanced,’” the minister said, according to the Canadian Press. “We are working to implement that part of the agreement…and that work continues.”
Three years ago, the CRTC added popular unmodified U.S. shopping channel QVC to a list of programming services and stations authorized for distribution on Canadian TV as part of the CUSMA trade agreement.
But four years prior, the commission ruled against an application by VMedia to add QVC to the list of stations to appear on Canadian television.
Rogers opposed the application out of concern that QVC would cause a material adverse impact on its own shopping service, Today’s Shopping Choice.
