OTTAWA-GATINEAU – It was an application that asked for the insertion of a new middleman in the Canadian television scheme and the CRTC said a definitive “no” to the concept on Friday.
Former Craig Media CEO Drew Craig created Only Imagine Inc as a company which would sell the two minutes per hour of so-called local avail ad time American cable channels provide to cable companies to sell.
Of the millions OI said could be brought in, most of it would go to fund Canadian content. Cable companies, broadasters and commissioners were opposed to the idea, as we reported.
In the U.S. selling two minutes per hour of ad time on the likes of A&E and CNN to local companies is a multi-billion dollar business there. In Canada, that time must be sold – at cost – to Canadian specialty channels (75%) and used for BDU promotional messages (25%).
“The Commission finds that approval of OI’s proposal would require the Commission to impose unduly intrusive regulatory measures, and that OI’s proposal would not provide sufficient benefits to the Canadian broadcasting system to justify such a fundamental change in the current policy on local availabilities. Further, in the Commission’s view, the benefits that might result from OI’s proposal could be realized by other less intrusive means that would be more consistent with the Commission’s usual regulatory approach,” reads the decision.
– Greg O’Brien
