It sounds more like the BDUs are being thrown through a closed door. The CRTC forces the BDUs to carry the channels and now say "oh you should pay for those signals we are forcing you to carry", even though we have said "no, they shouldn't be paid for it twice already".

Both CTV and Global own speciality channels that make a profit but they do not seem to figure into the equation. They sure figure into the equation though when it comes to advertising on them. TSN has become annoying to watch with the constant CTV promos every commercial break - and here I thought they were seperate entities when it came for the purposes of this tax itself, with CTV stating their profits from specialty are separate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With the implementation of the LPIF and the soon to be FFC, I have chosen to offset the increases I will pay right now by reducing the amount of specialty theme packs I have and have focused on removing ones that are mostly full of CTVgm and Canwest channels. But in the near future, I will be cancelling my Bell TV account and going with either DirecTV or a large ugly C-band dish.

How the hell do they get away with it? By contrast, I have never found CTV's simulcasts as obtrusive or ham-fisted.

As far as I know there was no license change involved in this. Most licenses allow for random stuff as long as it doesn't take up the majority of the schedule. One might ask what the point is, however, since nobody tunes to CHOM for sports.

In late October 2008, the CRTC created the Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF) to take effect in September 2009 and to be paid via a 1% charge applied to the TV revenues of satellite and cable companies. The LPIF was initially designed to subsidize the production of additional local programming in small communities by TV stations.

More recently, on July 6, and before the LPIF takes effect on September 1, the CRTC increased this tax to 1.5%. Furthermore, the CRTC has now decided that funds generated by the LPIF tax need not be spent by TV stations on additional local programming and, in some cases, has lowered the local programming obligations of TV stations.

Bell is extremely disappointed by the CRTC's latest decisions regarding this TV tax and, in order to meet the CRTC's orders without impacting the current and future quality of its products and services, Bell will apply a monthly fee to customer billing which will not exceed 1.5% of Bell TV charges incurred on and after September 1, 2009.

The CRTC also supports an additional new TV tax, commonly called fee-for-carriage, which Bell opposes. This additional tax would see satellite and cable consumers pay more for access to TV stations that have always been available free over the air. If implemented, this new fee-for-carriage TV tax will result in further increases to customers' bills. The CRTC is holding a public hearing related to this new tax in the fall.

Some online comments by various forum members regarding the proposed tax:

"Yet more farcical policy from the CRTC. Are these yahoos in the pocket of CTV/Canwest, or do they just work really hard to make it look that way?

One day I should add up just how much of my cable bill is imposed on me by the government to fund crap that I don't watch and don't want to pay for, and compare that to how much is for the channels I actually want. CTV/Global are nothing but retransmitters of US programming.

Then again, maybe not. That would be a good reason to drop TV entirely."

"I would have some respect for the CRTC if they had done this before almost all the small market stations were sold to CTV/Canwest and before smaller networks like CH, Craig and Chum were dissolved. As it stands, it's a hindsighted piece of pork that stinks of corporate nepotism on the part of the CRTC and the federal government. Due to CTV's and Canwest's drastic local programming cuts in small markets, those areas are not being served well. The CRTC's actions that let CTV and Canwest maintain the status quo does not serve Canadians."

"I will be canceling Bell TV come September 1st as well as writing a letter of complaint to my MP. The CRTC is out of control."

"So what exactly does this get a BDU subscriber in Red Deer, Alberta who's losing their ONLY station on September 1st? Paying for funding an Edmonton local news? Thanks for NOTHING, CRTC! Must be nice that big Canadian broadcasters (CTV, Global) can get away w/ blackmailing the CRTC.

This "fund" allegedly pays for small-town local news, but it WON'T stop the loss for secondary 'A' stations for CTVglobemedia. Won't make them even break even and won't make them a profit. So I predict we'll see only a calendar year for the remaining 'A' stations (starting Sept. 1, 2009), then they'll shut them down. So this "fund" is only paying for an additional year of local news at most; just postponing the inevitable."

"I have decided that the day this tax shows up on my bill, I will cancel my TV."

"My advice is to go digital OTA if you can. It's free, and the CRTC can take a flying hike with this nonsense. Asking consumers to fund local stations while at the same time cutting down the number of local hours to be aired, shows that this is not a issue to save local TV.

Just thinking... It would have been better to use the 100 million collected to have the government purchase the stations that CTV & Global want to kill, hire a firm to turn those stations around, and then offer a IPO on those stations to the public. At least we would see our money well used. And actually show some sort of profit.

This CRTC plan just forces consumers to throw good money towards bad situations, with a no ending in site.

Honestly, look at what you can do to go OTA. It won't work for eveybody that doesn't live near the US border. But, it can help some people. I see no reason why the Canadain public should be financing bad companies, bad mangers."

"On my monthly e-bill today:

TV service providers such as Bell have been ordered by the CRTC to contribute to the Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF) to subsidize TV station programming. To fulfill this obligation, starting in September 2009, Bell will apply a monthly fee which will not exceed 1.5% of your monthly Bell TV bill. Please visit http://www.bell.ca/lpif for more information.

I sent a letter of disgust to the CRTC, might as well have written to Santa Claus; tomorrow I will give Bell my 30 days notice of cancellation and revert to rabbit ears."

"We have to vote with our wallets. The CRTC and our MPs will not give a crap. The providers have far more influence. As I said above, I will be canceling also. So far there are three of us.

I am lucky I have the option of OTA and other nefarious sources for TV."

"That is some consolation. I wonder if CTV and Canwest small market stations quality. If so, the money is still going to the wrong stations, IMHO. I guess CTV's threats worked on the CRTC. No doubt they will be back with more demands soon."

"But it will go to the owners of those small market stations who "lo and behold" are often owned by CanWest, CTV etc. Anyway you look at it, this is $100 million dollars of corporate welfare to companies that spent billions over the last few years on buying specialty channels and other companies. The CRTC is simply giving them more money for more takeovers."

"Can someone please tell me what this $100 million buys us? That's the $100 million dollar question.

Evidently the answer is nothing. It's a bailout for CTV and Canwest on the backs of the consumers and nothing more.

What we have here is consumers being forced to pay for channels they already get both from BDU's and over the air, that are already being subsidized by the Canadian Television fund, and who run their business' with reckless abandon.

The hypocrisy of this whole situation is laughable. We are paying more so these channels can produce more Canadian programming, when in actuality, the money will go to pay for all the American programming they are not forced to buy. If these channels were truly Canadian, and used all their resources to fund Canadian programming, then they wouldn't be in the position they are.

They spend millions to acquire American programming, while sticking their hands out for more funding to supposedly keep local programming afloat. Not only should we not be giving them anymore money, but we should be suing for fraud. Only in Canada."

CRTC -- you're ticking off more and more people everyday.