Public backs heavy CRTC hand in TV service: survey

The CRTC has the backing of the general public if it decides to get into regulating the prices people pay for television service, according to a new survey. A poll done by Forum Research, released in advance to The Wire Report, shows that 79 per cent of respondents agree with the idea of the CRTC getting back into the practice of regulating cable and satellite fees, while 60 per cent "strongly" agree. The survey found that 80 per cent of respondents agreed with using regulations to limit TV-service prices to no more than the rate of inflation, and 58 per cent "strongly" agreed with this notion. Forum Research president Lorne Bozinoff said that after many years of moving away from regulation, the public seems to want the CRTC to reverse direction and regulate more heavily. "I think this could be ticking time bomb for the government, because it wouldn't take much in an election — which there will be one next year — for one of the parties to say, 'Hey, we should be regulating this more,' " he said in a phone interview. "And anything that connects with the public the way this does — 80 per cent in favour of something — I think is dangerous for the government to be on the wrong side of that." The survey, conducted with Canadians 18 years or older who subscribed to a TV service and knew approximately how much they were paying, found 92 per cent felt their service fees were too high. Seventy per cent said they were "much" too high. Most respondents — 52 per cent — disapproved of any moves to lower requirements for Canadian content on TV, with 35 per cent approving. Approval for lowering domestic content quotas was relatively high among respondents in Alberta, at 52 per cent, and among those identifying themselves as Conservatives, at 51 per cent. The respondents were fairly evenly split on whether they agree that cable and satellite companies should be allowed to carry more foreign channels than Canadian channels, with 43 per cent in favour and 44 per cent against. The CRTC generally requires that the majority of services customers receive from a broadcast distributor be Canadian, except in cases where licence conditions state otherwise. Major TV-service providers such as Rogers Communications Inc., Shaw Communications Inc. and BCE Inc. either declined to comment on the survey or did not respond to requests for reaction. CRTC spokeswoman Céline Legault also said the CRTC would not comment on the poll results or whether issues such as regulating prices would be considered in its review of Canada's TV industry. "We cannot comment on what is on the table or not because the proceeding is still ongoing," she said in a phone interview. In a notice of consultation about its Let's Talk TV review, the CRTC said the price Canadians spend on TV services has risen faster than the consumer price index in recent years. It said that the average amount Canadians spent on cable and satellite services in 2012 rose five per cent to $52 a month, compared to an inflation rate of 1.5 per cent that year. That notice did not mention the possibility of regulating the price of TV services, though it did say the CRTC "wishes to explore possible strategies to keep consumers informed of the programming offered to them and how the services to which they subscribe are packaged and priced." As part of that process, the CRTC has already endorsed the idea of consumers choosing what channels they receive from a service provider beyond a basic package of Canadian, over-the-air channels and other services. A deadline for comments in the review is June 25, and a public hearing has been scheduled for Sept. 8. The survey was carried out by Forum Research of 1,341 randomly selected Canadians through automated phone interviews between June 16 and 17. Forum said it is representative of the population within two percentage points, 19 times out of 20. — With reporting by Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Public backs heavy CRTC hand in TV service: survey

News | June 19, 2014

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Public backs heavy CRTC hand in TV service: survey

News | June 19, 2014

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