TORONTO – Last week, Rogers Cable customers received an e-mail from their big red TV provider urging them to make their voices heard in its fight against fee-for-carriage.
Or, if you want to buy into the new vernacular, “value for signal.”
Rogers customers are already a little tender about their bills, having just had under a dollar a month added thanks to the recently established Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF), a subsidy for smaller market television stations.
“I am now writing to inform you of yet another broadcasting policy proposal that is under consideration by the CRTC,” reads the e-mail message signed by Rogers Communications vice-chair Phil Lind.
“After rejecting it twice, the CRTC has reintroduced the idea of having a fee-for-carriage: a payment to Canadian over the air broadcasters that could ultimately end up costing cable and satellite TV subscribers between $5 and $10 per month!”
“The proposal is being championed by over the air television networks such as CTV and Global (Canwest Media). These companies also own highly profitable specialty channels, such as TSN and History, and therefore overall are financially healthy,” continues the e-mail.
“Furthermore, the CRTC has suggested that if the cable and satellite distributors don’t go along with the fee-for-carriage scheme, the television signals of American network stations, (NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX and PBS) which we have distributed since cable TV began, will be taken away.”
The “fee for carriage” proposal is strongly opposed by Rogers and most other cable and satellite distributors, notes the message to customers, which then asks them to act and let the Commission know how they feel.
“To do so you should contact the CRTC before September 14. Simply tell the CRTC what you think of the idea of "fee-for-carriage" by clicking on this link: http://support.crtc.gc.ca/rapidscin/default.aspx?lang=En
• Then Click on the 2009-411-3 under the heading ‘Notice#/Deadline Date’
• Select the ‘Comment’ option in the drop box
• Fill out your comment.
• Follow the remaining instructions until you are done.”
(Some folks [over 100] have commented, although they’re not all Rogers customers, we don’t think.)
“You may also contact your Member of Parliament by e-mail, regular mail or telephone. MPs always appreciate hearing from their constituents,” the e-mail helpfully adds.
