Northwestel exempt from CRTC 'pick-and-pay' decision, says company

NorthwesTel has concluded it is exempt from a new CRTC ruling mandating $25/month basic cable TV packages, citing a lack of subscribers.

The ruling, issued earlier this month, also mandates that cable companies must offer "pick-and-pay" channel selection in some form, allowing customers to choose and pay for individual additional channels.

The CRTC ruling, however, only applies to companies with over 20,000 subscribers. NorthwesTelwouldn't disclose how many customers it has, but says its fewer than that.

However, according to spokesperson Mark Koepke, the company will likely have to offer the service anyway, as it is competing with satellite TV providers that do have to comply with the ruling.

"I don't think there's any specific timeline," says Koepke. "But considering our competitors are looking at a definite timeline, I'd imagine that NorthwesTel will be keeping that in mind."

Companies covered by the CRTC ruling must start offering the $25 cable package and pick-and-pay channel selection by March of 2016.