Canada's nets not coined by cable.

Canada's biggest broadcast TV networks may be forced to reexamine the way they do business after federal regulators at the Canadian Radiotelevision and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) rejected a proposal that would allow the networks to collect millions in new fees.

Led by CTV and CanWest's Global Television, the broadcast networks had proposed charging cable and satellite carriers for their TV signals, a move valued at C$300 million to the broadcasters. CRTC's decision to dismiss the request now leaves the networks with some tough decisions to make during rough economic times.

The fees would have been worth approximately C$75 million in annual revenue for Global TV, a large amount, especially considering that many networks have already begun to see their profit margins shrink.

CTV is privately owned and CanWest is publicly traded. CanWest officials have gone on record as saying that they are not yet looking at layoffs, but noted that Canada's big TV nets are going to have to rethink their business models.

In making their ill-fated proposal, the networks had argued that they shouldn't be forced to give their signals for free to distributors, who then offer them as part of their subscriber packages and make millions in the process. CRTC representatives said that the networks simply didn't make a convincing enough argument that they really needed the money.

Despite CRTC's dismissal of the offer, the regulator did make one concession to the networks, allowing them to negotiate with cable carriers to charge for carrying "distant signals." That could be worth up to C$93 million a year for the broadcast TV sector at large.