The CRTC is preparing to eliminate advertising time limits for conventional television stations but will not allow them to charge carriage fees to cable companies, according to a new policy paper released on Thursday.

The current limit — 12 advertising minutes per hour between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. — will increase to 14 minutes on Sept. 1, 2007 and to 15 minutes on Sept. 1, 2008. After Sept. 1, 2009, the restrictions will be removed completely.

‘We are getting out of the business of regulating advertising. We don’t think it’s necessary for us to restrict something Canadians can do themselves with their remote control,’ Konrad von Finckenstein, the chairman of the CRTC, tells Playback Daily.

The CRTC says it is making the move to help broadcasters increase revenues in order to adapt to changes in the industry.

But the feds will not allow conventional broadcasters to charge carriage fees to cable companies because, says von Finckenstein, they didn’t make a strong enough economic case when they came before the CRTC at last fall’s public hearings.

‘The data is insufficient. We didn’t want to make major changes to the broadcasting system based on what we heard. Relaxing advertising restrictions will give them access to more revenue,’ he says.

The regulator has also set Aug. 31, 2011 as the deadline for switching from analog transmission to digital, but says it will allow exceptions for remote regions. The deadline in the U.S. is Feb. 17, 2009.

The changes have brought mixed reactions.

‘The good news is that it expands the commercial inventory. And obviously, where the supply increases, that is good news for advertisers, both in terms of availability and pricing,’ says Hugh Dow, president of the ad firm M2 Universal Communications.

‘The concern I have is, of course, about increased commercial clutter and declining ad effectiveness — not so much in the short term but over the longer term, in years two and three, where it becomes unlimited commercial time in 2009.’

The CFTPA says the CRTC should have taken immediate action to force English-language broadcasters to up their Canadian content. The federal agency expressed concern about low spending on Cancon among English-language broadcasters, but said it will discuss the matter during licence renewals.

‘We believe the Commission has missed a perfect opportunity to begin reversing these disturbing trends, which are clearly inconsistent with the objectives of the Broadcasting Act,’ said Guy Mayson, president of the CFTPA, in a statement.

The CRTC also ruled that English- and French-language broadcasters must provide closed captioning for all of their programs over the 18-hour broadcast day, with the exception of advertising and promotions.

With files from Media in Canada