The Toronto Star is reporting that in September, Canada’s broadcast regulator (The CRTC) will publish a paper that will propose new ways that could “dramatically alter how Canadians receive and pay for television services.” Our gut reaction in the form of our patented “Good and Bad News” can be found below.
Good News: Instead of being forced to pay for 500 channels — 480 of which we don’t watch — Canadians will finally be given the freedom to choose. A choice that theoretically could shrink our shockingly high monthly cable bill (Note to Rogers: Maybe you don’t want to continue to alienate one of the few customers who still believes in paying for GAME OF THRONES instead of stealing it!). What’s more, non-sports fans like your very own TV Addict might, dare we say it, save some money when we aren’t forced to subsidize the sports properties and networks that the likes of Rogers and Bell Media have a habit of shelling out billions of dollars for on a bi-yearly basis.
Bad News: Rogers, Bell Media and the rest of Canada’s cable conglomerates are not in the business of losing money. Which means that what sounds like a good idea on paper, will undoubtedly end up costing us hard-working Canadians even more money in the end. Case in point, Rogers and Bell Media will be only too happy to “give away” homegrown channels like CTV and City, but won’t be so kind when it comes to asking customers to pony up for premium channels such as Sportsnet, TSN, Space, Comedy, AMC, Showcase to name a few. 