The Canadian government will soon require cable and satellite television providers to make it easier for customers to buy only the channels they want rather than pay for bundles, the country’s industry minister said on Sunday. “We don’t think it’s right for Canadians to have to pay for bundled television channels that they don’t watch. We want to unbundle television channels and allow Canadians to pick and pay the specific television channels that they want,” Industry Minister James Moore said during an appearance on CTV’s Question Period.
Democratic senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand expressed concern to the Secretary of State that the FCC may have to reduce coverage areas of stations along the New York-Canadian border as a result of spectrum repacking, “thereby depriving American citizens of access to the signals of their favorite stations.” The senators want the State Department to assign responsibility for conducting the coordination with Canada and “get the process under way without delay.”
With CTV and Citytv locked in a hard-fought battle for primetime viewers, and long-time combatants TSN and Sportsnet squaring off in a battle for similarly lucrative sports territory, Rogers Media has opened up yet another front in its increasingly antagonistic war with Bell Media: local news. On Oct. 3, Rogers plans to launch a 24-hour news service for the Toronto market called CityNews Channel to challenge Bell’s CP24.
