I can give you an example. KSTP in Minneapolis, an ABC affiliate, became aware that it was being distributed by Canadian distributors in Canada because it started receiving complaints from northern Ontario that its closed captioning was not working properly. At KSTP, there is a very regulated process whereby complaints are followed. KSTP looked into it. They were having no problems with their transmitters. The high definition was working and there was no issue with their closed captioning. Somehow at KSTP, of interest, the signals from Minneapolis are not available off-air in Canada, so they don't spill over the border. Somehow the distributor in question was obtaining these signals, compressing them, and in that process, content was being stripped out of them. The challenge for that particular station owner was that when they became aware of it, there was no place for them to go to have that issue addressed. The distributor didn't want to acknowledge that they were distributing the station. When the distributor went before the CRTC to add KSTP to the list for authorized retransmission, there was no requirement by the CRTC to ensure that the distributor consulted the owner or even that the owner agreed to it.
Just as an aside, when that station owner became aware of this and the challenges, they said they would prefer not to be distributed in Canada. They went to the CRTC, and the CRTC declined their request to be removed from the authorized list, stating it was in Canada's cultural interest to keep them.
The CRTC adds stations to this list on an ongoing basis. In that process, other over-the-air stations from other nations receive better treatment from the CRTC than the U.S. border stations. For example, in 2015 a Ukrainian television station was added to the list, but for that to happen, that television station owner had to furnish a letter confirming that they not only had the rights for the programs that are being retransmitted in Canada, but they also agreed to that retransmission, and that's what's being denied in the Canadian practices.