What began as a nudge in 2011, when the CRTC first talked about a skinny basic cable package and pick and pay channel pricing, on Thursday became a budge to shape industry and consumer choices in the coming years.

“We told the industry in 2011 that we wanted to introduce pick and pay, and there was no movement. In fact, we saw movement towards even larger packages on the part of some major distributors,” Donna Gill, senior manager distribution regulatory policy at the CRTC, told Playback Daily. “It was clear to us that they weren’t going to do it on their own.”

Gill said the CRTC moved to speed up the industry’s adoption of pick and pay after a deluge of complaints from ordinary Canadians.

“They’ve been complaining to us for years that they were forced to pay for a lot of services that they didn’t want, that they didn’t watch. So this is responding to Canadians,” she insisted.

But why did the CRTC opt for a skinny basic and pick-a-channel regime among the new choices for Canadians, and not stick with pick-a-package model for modified cable unbundling?

“We thought that ultimately [pick and pay] is what Canadians want. There’s some Canadians that really would prefer to pick individual services; they’re not heavy viewers of TV. And we tried to come up with a decision that appeals to all Canadians,” Gill said. “The small packages are intended to offer some value to Canadians that they wouldn’t get subscribing to services on an individual basis,” she added.