Canadian Heritage committee  There is no particular demographic profile. It's more general than that. There are people living in rural areas and others living in urban areas. There are also people who can afford a television set, but choose not to have one. We have not come up with a specific demographic profile corresponding to those who do not subscribe to cable or satellite services.

Canadian Heritage committee  Exactly. This group consists of Canadians from all walks of life.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll skip our introductions. On August 31, 2011, Canada will join the growing list of countries around the world that have made the transition from analog to digital television. The commission established this deadline in 2007 after consulting widely with the broadcasting industry and the public.

Canadian Heritage committee  We ask that question of a distributor because the distributor is the one who deals with all the other services. He has the information that can help us. He can let us know whether he has given a preference to someone in that context. For example, if people working for one service say the rate is clearly prohibitive, we can ask them and they will tell us what rate is being paid by everyone and whether it's similar for this type of service.

Canadian Heritage committee  We have seen a number of developments in Quebec. The market is a little different from the English-language market, although--

Canadian Heritage committee  It may be very different, or it may be only somewhat different. The English-language market monitors what is occurring in Quebec. The largest integrated company is Quebecor. I guess you could say that other distributors are falling into step to a certain extent and doing business in Quebec.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, but that company has created its own star system, I believe, through vertical integration. This is a company that is very successful and has been pushing its stars, for its own benefit. Is this affecting others—in other words, people who are not part of that big team? That is the question.

Canadian Heritage committee  We have not yet worked out this level of detail regarding this proposal. That is why the issue must be discussed during a hearing process. Some of the companies raised it. We should distinguish between the fee-for-carriage system and an attribution of value. If we were to charge all the channels 50 cents, there will be an impact on consumers.

Canadian Heritage committee  Because we are a commission, we face some constraints, and we are required to consult the public and act in accordance with natural justice. However, we have completely changed our game plan. Last April, we were supposed to be issuing licences for seven years. We changed that, and issued licences for one year.

Canadian Heritage committee  It would appear to be around $300 million, which was their estimate of the valuations. Now, somewhere between $200 million and $300 million is the proposition.

Canadian Heritage committee  There's a wider service area than just Windsor, but let's call it the Windsor station for now. There are approximately five to seven hours over that territory of local programming that are required from that station.

Canadian Heritage committee  What we proposed in Bill C-327 is certainly lesser than what we have under the Telecommunications Act. The primary reason, as indicated earlier, is that in the Broadcasting Act there are criminal provisions that are set at certain levels. They're set higher for telecom. A case in point is that revenues are higher in telecom than in broadcasting, so we have to go one step back from that.

Canadian Heritage committee  The licence condition, the temporary licence, is September 20, 2008, so six months from the time we granted it.

Canadian Heritage committee  We want to add AMPs to our other methods, not to replace them. I do not think that we will back down or be less insistent. It is an additional method. I am going to make an analogy with what you have just said. We have a penalty for murder, but not for shoplifting. We do not have this sort of penalty, and that is what we are seeking.

Canadian Heritage committee  I cannot say, and quite frankly, where we've exercised shorter licence terms it has been over a number of different areas; there is not one specific area. Certainly, if you were to look at tempering your response to a non-compliant, often what we would see, and where an administrative monetary penalty would help, is that once you've gone through the motions of calling somebody offside, nine times out of ten after the first call people comply.