CRTC allows Canadian broadcasters to show unlimited commercials
Hot on the heels of the 1.5% tax that consumers will have to pay to the Local Programming Improvement Fund, and fee for carriage that is sure to see our Cable and Satellite bills ballon even further, the CRTC has stuck it to the consumer once again. Effective September 1st, Canadian broadcasters are now allowed to air as many commercials as they want, previously, broadcasters were limited to 15 minutes per hour of advertising. I have a feeling that this slipped past the media as two of the Canadian broadcasters, Global and CTV own the newspaper and TV news outlets.
So as a consumer what are you paying for when you support your local station? Not much, your going to have to pay to recieve those signals into your home, saving the broadcasters from having to build out more broadcast towers, and since you are paying for it, you will be force fed as many commercials as they feel like giving you. That means we’ll likely see the typical 90 minute movie cut down to one hour and slotted into a two hour time slot.
Its time for Canadian consumers to stand up and write the CRTC asking them to allow us to pick and choose which stations we want! I don’t want to pay for Global, or CTV if they are going to force me to hit fast-forward on my DVR more than I already do. I’m tempted to dump my cable service entirely! As consumers we are paying more and more every month for less and less service.
Apeman, don’t get fooled by the tv tax lie!I just came across this cool site and thought you may find of interest http://www.TVtaxlie.ca
@Bill
Thanks for your comment. Despite the CRTC stating the Satellite and Cable operators (BDU’s) should not be passing these costs onto the consumer, it looks like it hasn’t stopped them. I can sympathize with the BDU’s since the cost of running their business just increased, and it was stupid of the CRTC to assume that this cost would not be passed on.
What are our alternatives as consumers?