CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein sees the commission’s recent move to phase out ad time restrictions on conventional broadcasters as a matter of letting viewers decide.

‘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,’ Finckenstein tells Playback.

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 throughout the broadcast day on Sept. 1, 2008. After Sept. 1, 2009, the restrictions will be removed completely.

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

But the regulator will not allow the conventionals to charge carriage fees to cable companies, according to a new policy paper released on May 17. Von Finckenstein says the broadcasters 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.

Also, the regulator has 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 announcements have brought mixed reactions from media buyers and producers.

‘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 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, meanwhile, 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