CRTC to require cable, satellite companies to offer basic package, with $25 cap
Posted Mar 19, 2015 02:07:42 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Cable and satellite service providers will soon have to offer consumers an “entry-level” television service, at a cost of no more than $25 per month.
The requirement comes from a decision released today by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission following its lengthy Let’s Talk TV hearings last fall.
The national broadcast regulator says the requirement to offer a trimmed-down basic package will take effect by March 2016.
The new basic packages must include local channels in each service area, as well as channels currently on the CRTC’s mandatory distribution list such as public interest, educational and legislature channels where they’re available.
The CRTC says TV viewers will then be able to supplement this so-called “skinny basic” package with either individual channels available through a pick-and-pay model, or what it calls small, “reasonably-priced” bundled channel packages.
Customers who are happy with their current TV offerings won’t have to switch.
