Canada Going A La Carte

Calling cable bundles large and expensive, Canadian regulators are breaking them up, big time. In what was billed as a World of Choice "roadmap," Canada's version of the Federal Communications Commission, The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), will start requiring multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs, aka pay-TV) to offer a la carte programming options and will not allow blackouts during carriage disputes between programmers and distributors. By year-end 2016, viewers will be able to subscribe to the low-cost basic tier, which will have to include all local and regional television stations, public interest channels such as the Cable Public Affairs Channel and Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, education channels, and, if offered, community channels and the services operated by provincial legislatures. Then, rather than having to add bundled tiers, they can "pick and pay" among other channels, or add "small, reasonably priced" packages of service. CRTC Chairman Jean-Pierre Blaise said the decision was all about choice and affordability.

"More and more Canadians are watching the content they want, when they want, and on multiple devices. They are enjoying the freedom and benefits that come from living in a World of Choice," he said. "They told us that the bundles offered by the cable and satellite companies were large, unwieldy and expensive. They expressed frustration that, in order to access a particular channel, they had to buy others that they didn't want."