Theuglysideofskinny

Consumersmayhavewantedaslimmed-downtelevisionpackage,butnotthismess

Ifyou’reaFrenchspeakerinSaskatchewan,boy,do thenew“skinnybasic”cablechannellineupshavea screamingdealforyou.Ofcourse,theoddsofanyone beingaFrenchspeakerinthatprovincearevanishingly small. Fewer than 1% of Saskatchewanians speak Frenchonaregularbasis,thesmallestprovincialproportion—outsideNewfoundland—abletomuddle itswaythroughanepisodeofTout lemondeenparle.

Butthesearetheluckiestone-percentersthisside of Wall Street, because in the new, slimmed-down 16-channel“Lite”cable-packageuniversebeingoffered for the rock-bottom, government-mandated price of $25 a month by SaskTel Telecommunications Holding Corp., no fewer than seven of those channels are in French. That means nearly half the package,forciblysoldatadiscountbyofficialgovernmentpolicy,catersexclusivelytoafewthousandpeople. And the 99% in Saskatchewan who speak only English? They get three Canadian networks, a bit ofweather,twoparliamentarychannels,andtheAboriginalchannel.ButnotasingleAmericannetwork.

A year ago, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission announced that itwasdraggingCanadianbroadcastingintothepresentbyorderingcablecompaniestooffersubscribers abasic,price-cappedpackagebyMarch2016,rather thansqueezingthemintoexpensivebundles.Having gotaloadoftheskinnierpackages,criticsnowcomplainviewersarebeingsqueezedinawholedifferent way,withcablecompaniescomplyingparticularlyviciouslywiththeregulator’sdiktat.“Indeed,the‘skinny’ontheseskinnypackagesisessentiallythatnoone will want them — and that, paradoxically, is exactly what the cable providers want,” the National Post’s editorialboardscoffed.DwayneWinseck,aCarleton University expert on the sector, said cable giants wantedskinnybasictobe“astillbirth,”dismissingthe newdealsas“retrograde,”“begrudging”and“behind 1970sstandards.”

Cable companies have always been targets of scorn, and they’d be foolish to offer first-class cable perks to subscribers paying coach. But hand it to CRTCchairmanJean-PierreBlaisforfoolingusall intobelievingtheregulatoris,forthefirsttimeinhis- tory,onthesideoftheconsumerinstandingagainst the cable barons. Announcing the skinny edict, he said he “was forcing the industry to finally face that the world is changing.” Earlier this year, he railed against broadcasting executives “who own luxury yachts and private helicopters,” but still want the CRTCtoprotectthemfrommarketforces.

Butitisn’tfacinguptoachangingworldthattangles up the telecom and cable giants: they’ve been doing that for decades. It’s that the CRTC, despite itsconsumer-friendlyrhetoric,retainsanimpassable thicketofrulesandregulations—suchasthosethat compel cable operators to carry specific, selected channelsoneventhemostbasicpackages.Evenifno one watches them. Greedy shareholders don’t run SaskTel: It’s a Crown corporation. But even it surelyknowsthatitwon’tkeepitsmostfrugalcustomers fromcuttingtheircordsbyofferingabasiccablepackage half-populated by unintelligible programming. TheonlyreasonitmustisbecauseregulatorsinOttawahavedeemedtheFrenchchannelsmandatorycarriage,meaningthecableproviderhasnochoicebutto includethemineventheskinniestpackage.

A smart cable provider might seek to offset the problem by fattening up that bundle with channels that customers actually want to watch. But the CRTC has been fiercely stingy about that, too. When Vidéotron General Partnership in February askedforregulatorypermissiontoaddextrachannels to its skinny package, still keeping its price at $25, it wasrefused.That,theCRTCsaid,wouldexceedthe “maximum” amountofchannels Vidéotronwasallowedtooffer,andwouldunacceptablyblurthedistinctionbetweenbasicandpremiumpackages,controvertingtheregulator’sgoalsofofferingCanadians anentirelyno-frillsservice.

So,tokeepCanada’smediasectorcurrentinauniversewhereNetflix,podcastsandYouTubeofferlimitlesscontent,thisiswhattheCRTCthinksisconsumer friendly:Amandatorycheaperpackage,loadedwith unwatchedmust-carrystations,withaprohibitionon subscribersgettingmoreandbetterchannelsforfree. Now, was someone saying something about cable companiesbeingtheonesoutoftouch?

THECRTC, DESPITEITS CONSUMERFRIENDLY RHETORIC, RETAINSAN IMPASSABLE THICKETOF RULESAND REGULATIONS