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The CBC is asking the CRTC to force the satellite TV distributor Star Choice, owned by Shaw Communications, to pick up the broadcaster's over-the-air TV signal it recently dropped.
Ben Kirshenblatt, CBC's senior director of regulatory affairs wrote in the CRTC filing that " 'Star Choice appears to be in breach of its condition of licence which specifies that the number of CBC English-language owned and operated television stations distributed by the licensee never falls below the number of English-language conventional stations distributed from any other individual broadcast group.' "
Star Choice's channel line-up currently distributes eight CBC TV stations, twelve from CTVglobemedia, eight from CanWest Media, and five from Rogers. Under current rules, Star Choice should be carrying 12 CBC signals -- the same number as CTV.
CBC Saskatchewan was among five TV channels Shaw recently dropped from its basic service line-up. Over 40% of Saskatchewan viewers aged 2+ receive their TV signal from direct-to-home satellite. The distributor also removed CTV in Calgary, Global in the Atlantic, Citytv in Winnipeg and SunTV in Toronto. The CTV Calgary signal was reinstated after complaints from viewers.
Ken Stein, senior vice-president of corporate and regulatory affairs at Shaw Communications says that the changes made to the basic package were based on what customers wanted. Star Choice sent a notice to customers saying it was replacing the dropped TV channels with specialty TV channels MuchMusic, MTV and Teletoon Retro and three other specialty TV channels -- YTV, TLN and CMT -- that are owned by Corus Entertainment, which is controlled by Shaw.
Source: Cartt, 05/13/2008
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