CCTA urging viewers to push for more foreign channels
The Canadian Cable Television Association (CCTA) says it’s too early to tell how effective its promotional efforts, including a new web site, have been in getting Canadians to push for the entrance of new U.S. channels to the country. The web site http://tvchoice.ca/ allows people to vote "yes" or "no" to the online poll: "Do you want more movies, sports, news and children’s TV channels in addition to those that are available to you today?"The web site also outlines the CCTA’s case for wanting to carry the additional foreign channels and urges citizens to express their views to the CRTC and their local members of Parliament. The CCTA is asking the CRTC to allow its member cablecos to carry 17 new American channels in Canada in digital (CCR, June 30/03). Radio promos for the cause also began airing on radio stations two weeks ago. Last month, Janet Yale, who was then president and CEO of the CCTA, did a cross-country tour promoting the organizations’ views and the web site, which has been live for about a month. Yale went to Halifax NS, St. John’s NL, St. John NB, Toronto, Winnipeg MB, Regina SK, Calgary AB and Vancouver and spoke with local newspaper and radio stations. "We are trying to give our customers more choices," Yale told the Saint John Telegraph-Journal. "We are trying to respond to an environment where there is more and more competition from satellite systems, both legal and illegal." If the CRTC decides to make any of the 17 services eligible for distribution in Canada, direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV distributors would also be able to carry the approved services.

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