Canadian Government Pushes To Unbundle TV Channels

According to a report from Reuters, the Canadian government will soon require that customers be allowed to buy their cable and satellite channels on an a la carte basis, unbundling them from traditional packages. Canada’s Industry Minister said, “We want to unbundle television channels and allow Canadians to pick and pay the specific television channels that they want.” Indeed, some Canadian cable and satellite stations have already begun this process. The odds of this policy making it to the United States seem slim for the moment, but Canada is hoping to put competitive pressure on the U.S., which seems like the only way that the government will buckle to pressure. For the time being, though, Netflix, Amazon, and Aereo (who have been quite successful defending themselves in court recently) offer compelling alternatives to traditional TV.