The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has approved Bell Canada’s plan to withdraw its Channels for Program Transmission service, but pushed the final kill date to December 1, 2026, in a decision published August 21.
It is also the latest in a busy stretch of CRTC and Bell friction, after the Commission demanded answers over emergency alert spam, cracked down on locked phones, and rejected a bid to stall the switching-fee probe.
The copper-based service links radio and TV studios to local transmitters so stations can get signals on air. Bell told the CRTC the gear is end of life, spare parts are nearly impossible to find, and remaining customers face more outages that may never get fixed if the service stays up.
Bell originally wanted out by March 1, 2026. Groups speaking for more than 100 stations, including Corus, campus station CKUT-FM, Quebec community broadcasters, Leclerc Communication, and the National Campus and Community Radio Association, said that was too fast for budgeting, site access, and technical cutovers, especially in rural areas.
Community and campus stations also warned that Bell’s suggested IP replacements can run far higher. Interveners cited quotes around $3,100 a month in some cases, which they said could mean six-figure annual jumps and staff cuts. Bell replied that those figures often reflect non-contract rates and that fibre IP-VPN, Ethernet, and Internet options from Bell and other providers are already carrying many broadcasters, including Bell Media’s own migration plans.
The Commission sided with withdrawal on reliability grounds, saying the legacy copper path will only get less fixable over time, while noting workable alternatives exist at competitive forborne rates. It still stretched the deadline after Bell itself offered December 1, 2026, with service only on a best-efforts basis if parts fail earlier.
Bell must file a current customer list with the CRTC within 15 days, keep those customers informed, and issue revised tariff pages within 10 days. Stations still on the old circuits now have a hard calendar to finish moving before winter, or risk an earlier cut if Bell literally cannot source parts.
The timing lands hard on local and community newsrooms that are already stretched. Corus has been cutting jobs across Global and talk radio this month, and campus and community stations told the CRTC that jumping to pricier IP links could force staff cuts or thinner local programming just to keep a signal on air.
For listeners who still rely on neighbourhood radio and regional TV news, the order is less about copper nostalgia and more about whether smaller outlets can absorb another fixed cost hike while big media companies are already shrinking newsrooms.
The ruling is Telecom Order CRTC 2026-213.
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