I know, you’re saying ‘what, another post on pick and pay’?  I just want to direct you to my post on the topic over at TV, Eh? where I outline the many variables that I believe will have to play out before we really know the impact of the CRTC’s pick and pay decision.

I also have one other point that didn’t fit into the post but has been bothering me ever since.   In the CRTC’s decision on pick and pay it confirms that the current process for authorizing non-Canadian services will be maintained.  In other words, non-Canadian services will only be authorized if they do not compete with a Canadian pay or specialty service.  Remember – the previous week the Talk TV decision on content got rid of genre protection and nature of service descriptions.  So how exactly will it be determined if a service is competing when the Canadian service has no set definition?  What happens if the Canadian service decides to morph into something else? And then back again?

So, if the History Channel decides to completely abandon history programming and focus on pawn shops and outlaw bikers does that mean the U.S. History channel will be able to be authorized in Canada?  But what if History changes its mind and decides to go back to history programming?  This is my confusion.  It would be great if at some point the CRTC could explain how exactly this is going to work.