CALGARY – Two weeks ahead of the CRTC’s March 1st deadline for all Canadian carriers to offer a stripped down “skinny” starter TV package to customers, Shaw Cable this week soft-launched Limited TV, its $25/month group of local broadcast stations and mandated must-carry channels.
As readers can see from the image (and this link), the package (this is what a customer from Edmonton would see on the Shaw web site) includes all Canadian broadcast stations (in HD and SD), as well as must carries APTN, AMI, Voiceprint, TVA and the Weather Network.
Expect other carriers to follow suit soon, with announcements on their own skinny packages. On Wednesday, the CRTC issued a reminder that carriers must offer a small entry-level basic service; and all discretionary services on a pick-and-pay basis, or in small, reasonably priced packages that can take the form of either a build-your-own-package option or small pre-assembled packages. This must be made available to customers March 1. Carriers must offer both options by December 1st.
The new regs also said the carriers could include a set of American 4+1s and their HD versions, too, if they desired and Shaw has here. Those channels have been a part of basic cable since the dawn of cable, so the inclusion of CBS, ABC, Fox, NBC and PBS is not surprising.
This, of course, all stems from the CRTC’s TV Policy review, the so-called Let’s Talk TV proceeding. Watch Cartt.ca as other carriers reveal their new offerings over the coming days.
