CORNWALL – The manager of CogecoTV Cornwall is upbeat about Wednesday’s ruling from the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).
The federal broadcast regulator is changing some rules to free up about $90 million to allow television stations to produce local news and information programming.
But it’s also tightening some of the rules on community television programming to make sure more money goes into on-screen products and less into overhead.
The timing couldn’t have been better as Calvin Killoran shared the news with volunteers and staff during a season finale party at Ramada Cornwall.
So what’s the ruling mean for the Cornwall community cable station?
“It’s status quo as far as I know. Policies are always open to interpretation so…it looks awesome (the ruling)…I think everybody should be happy with that,” Killoran said.
He suggested a more detailed response to the ruling will be coming from Cogeco in the coming days once the ruling has been scrutinized.
During the CRTC “Let’s Talk TV” hearings, CogecoTV proposed to provide local news and information programming in 14 small markets in Ontario and Quebec, not currently served by over-the-air TV news.
Cogeco has 22 community stations in Ontario and 15 in Quebec with close to 1,000 volunteers.
Cogeco Connexion is the second-largest cable operator in the two provinces.