Canadian Satellite TV

If you are Canadian and you have Canadian satellite TV, then you know you are also receiving many channels from the US. The top providers on the Canadian market such as Bell Express Vu and Star Choice must include Canadian content such as the CBC English and French language network signals, a CTV network signal, the aboriginal service APTN and the French language service TVA. They are also compelled to distribute the proceedings from the House of Commons as part of their basic service.

They are free to package optional services as long as they give available satellite space to all Canadian pay television and special programs and ensure that Canadians receive a majority of Canadian programs. Anything offered above this CRTC does not control, so it's up to the satellite servers to put together their own packages. If you live in a condominium, then it is likely that your committee will decide if you can have satellite or not, but usually by laws ban satellite from these buildings. CRTC has nothing to do with these decisions because it is left up to the committee that runs the condo complex. The US services such as A&E or CNN reserve time slots for signal distributers to insert their own advertising. These spots are usually known as local availability. In Canada the two leading services may use up to 75 % of local availability to promote Canadian programming and they can use the other 25% to promote their own programming. CRTC does not regulate the prices charged by satellite servers.

They tend to regulate themselves in that. However, if the price is out of range of the average customer this will defeat the purpose, as no one will be able to afford it. The object of the Canadian Parliament is to deliver to the customers a strong and diverse Canadian Broadcasting system and the service packages that make this up are the foundation to achieving this. That is why they insist on a fair amount of Canadian programs, as well as those from the US. A subscriber can purchase pay for view or video on demand without having to purchase the basic service, which gives the subscriber some flexibility in their programming.