said by travisc:Unless things have changed significantly in the last two years, I can state from having seen many contracts with my own eyes that you're incorrect. I can't speak for why Quebec is different, but elsewhere, in many cases it's the channels protecting themselves by forcing packaged carriage.
It is not uncommon for the channel owners to force bundling on the DBU side, e.g. if you carry Sportsnet One, Rogers also requires that you carry this, and that, and this and to pay for them. Shaw may require you to carry H2 and TVTropolis if you're carrying History HD or whatever else. Still from what I gather, they do not force a BDU to bundle those channels to customers and that any bundling is a BDU's own business decision themselves. Either way, fair enough. I was told what I was told by people I know up at Cogeco, and verified by a good friend who works on the regulatory side of things who has a bit of understanding of how the stuff works. Not forcing bundling on customers may have been specific to digital channels, as I know what are or used to be analog carriage channels are an entirely different beast all together.
That, or it's just specific to the contracts they worked out with you guys