CRTC Hearings to Take Critical Look at $25 TV Packs

OTTAWA — The national broadcast regulator and the country’s four biggest television service providers are in for an earful this week over the rollout earlier this year of so-called skinny-basic TV.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission will kick off public hearings Wednesday to discuss how the new, trimmed-down $25 packages have been offered to consumers.

Hundreds of complaints were filed with the CRTC and consumer groups in the weeks after the regulator mandated the packages, which came into effect March 1. Many complainants expressed disappointment that the long-awaited arrival of smaller basic TV packages and different channel choices didn’t prove to be the deal they’d hoped for.

To the Consumers’ Association of Canada, which received about 1,000 complaints in just six weeks, it appeared many cable providers were trying to discourage consumers from switching to the smaller offerings by making them as unattractive as possible, said the group’s president, Bruce Cran.

“The service providers went out of their way to make it difficult for all of us as consumers,” said Cran.

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