Other Highlights From CRTC Announcement

Here are some other highlights from Monday's CRTC announcement:

• One-year licence renewals for over-the-air TV stations owned by CTV, Rogers, Canwest, and TVA.
   
• Canwest got a big boost as Global TV in both Toronto and Montreal will now be reclassified as local broadcasters, not regional, making the company able to solicit local advertising in their markets.
   
• Rogers did not get what it wanted for Citytv. It wanted relief from having to show Canadian drama in favour of concentrating on more local content and movies and it wanted to overlap more of its programming with its OMNI multicultural stations. The Commission said no to both requests.
   
• Canadians who don't live in big cities (or in a provincial or territorial capital) won't be getting high-definition television over-the-air. The Commission has set the benchmark at cities with populations of 300,000-plus, with exceptions for the capitals. So Iqaluit will have digital transmitters but Kingston, Sudbury, Kelowna and their ilk won't. The Commission has said that only " 'wherever possible,' " will Canadians retain access to their existing local conventional television services. But that " '(t)his may be accomplished through OTA transmission or via cable or satellite BDUs.' "
   
• The Commission is truly adopting a " 'technology neutral' " stance on TV by looking at entire ownership groups for licensing.


Sources: Cartt, 07/07/2009, Globe & Mail, 07/07/2009