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Headline, Industry News
CRTC orders end to cable’s local programming fee
Thursday July 19th 2012Canada’s broadcast regulator says an obscure fee that cable companies charge to fund local television content is being scrapped, and the companies have until this fall to explain how they will remove the fee from customers’ bills.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission announced Wednesday it plans to phase out the Local Programming Improvement Fund by the end of August 2014.
“The fund was created to ensure television stations had the resources to meet Canadians’ needs for local programming,” chair of the CRTC’s hearing panel Leonard Katz said Wednesday.
Starting in 2008, cable and satellite firms were ordered to pay into the $100 million fund to protect Canadian content during the economic slowdown. They, in turn, passed the charge on to customers, tens of thousands of whom complained about the new, nebulous charge.
The CRTC now says those companies have until Sept. 17, 2012 to outline what steps they will take to ensure that customers’ bills decrease by a corresponding amount, as the fee is slowly phased out before being stopped entirely in 2014.
“They must also provide evidence that consumers have been notified or that they were never required to pay the contribution,” the CRTC said in a release.
In 2010, 78 stations received money from the fund, worth $100 million.
In 2011, 80 stations received $106 million in funding, but the CRTC says the advertising and media landscape has now recovered enough to stand on its own two feet.
That’s the rationale behind ordering cable and satellite firms to stop passing the cost on to Canadians, and explain to them why their customers were never legally obligated to pay them in the first place.
Source: CBC News
Headline, Industry News
CRTC orders end to cable’s local programming fee
Thursday July 19th 2012Canada’s broadcast regulator says an obscure fee that cable companies charge to fund local television content is being scrapped, and the companies have until this fall to explain how they will remove the fee from customers’ bills.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission announced Wednesday it plans to phase out the Local Programming Improvement Fund by the end of August 2014.
“The fund was created to ensure television stations had the resources to meet Canadians’ needs for local programming,” chair of the CRTC’s hearing panel Leonard Katz said Wednesday.
Starting in 2008, cable and satellite firms were ordered to pay into the $100 million fund to protect Canadian content during the economic slowdown. They, in turn, passed the charge on to customers, tens of thousands of whom complained about the new, nebulous charge.
The CRTC now says those companies have until Sept. 17, 2012 to outline what steps they will take to ensure that customers’ bills decrease by a corresponding amount, as the fee is slowly phased out before being stopped entirely in 2014.
“They must also provide evidence that consumers have been notified or that they were never required to pay the contribution,” the CRTC said in a release.
In 2010, 78 stations received money from the fund, worth $100 million.
In 2011, 80 stations received $106 million in funding, but the CRTC says the advertising and media landscape has now recovered enough to stand on its own two feet.
That’s the rationale behind ordering cable and satellite firms to stop passing the cost on to Canadians, and explain to them why their customers were never legally obligated to pay them in the first place.
Source: CBC News
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Headline, Industry News
CRTC orders end to cable’s local programming fee
Thursday July 19th 2012Canada’s broadcast regulator says an obscure fee that cable companies charge to fund local television content is being scrapped, and the companies have until this fall to explain how they will remove the fee from customers’ bills.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission announced Wednesday it plans to phase out the Local Programming Improvement Fund by the end of August 2014.
“The fund was created to ensure television stations had the resources to meet Canadians’ needs for local programming,” chair of the CRTC’s hearing panel Leonard Katz said Wednesday.
Starting in 2008, cable and satellite firms were ordered to pay into the $100 million fund to protect Canadian content during the economic slowdown. They, in turn, passed the charge on to customers, tens of thousands of whom complained about the new, nebulous charge.
The CRTC now says those companies have until Sept. 17, 2012 to outline what steps they will take to ensure that customers’ bills decrease by a corresponding amount, as the fee is slowly phased out before being stopped entirely in 2014.
“They must also provide evidence that consumers have been notified or that they were never required to pay the contribution,” the CRTC said in a release.
In 2010, 78 stations received money from the fund, worth $100 million.
In 2011, 80 stations received $106 million in funding, but the CRTC says the advertising and media landscape has now recovered enough to stand on its own two feet.
That’s the rationale behind ordering cable and satellite firms to stop passing the cost on to Canadians, and explain to them why their customers were never legally obligated to pay them in the first place.
Source: CBC News
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