Canada’s broadcast regulator has released yet another proposal aimed at positioning consumers ahead of the country’s broadcasters.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has offered up a draft code that would, if enacted, require cable and satellite companies to make customer contracts easier to understand.
Broadcast service providers would also have to more clearly spell out fees and policies surrounding early contract cancellations and adding or removing individual channels.
The proposal follows on other recent CRTC directives that prohibited 30-day cancellation policies and required cable and satellite services to offer individual channel selection on top of a trimmed-down, lower cost basic TV service.
And it comes on the heels of a dispute that went public this week between the president of Bell Media and CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais over the regulator’s so-called “pick-and-pay” system.
The proposed TV service code is the latest announcement to emerge from the CRTC’s “Let’s Talk TV” hearings held last fall.
The regulator is accepting public comments on the draft code until May 25.
