Canadian lobby group shaking cable regs. (World).

The Canadian Cable Television Association (CCTA), the lobby group for Canadian cable companies, appealed to a Parliamentary committee to make significant changes in the country's Broadcasting Act.

At the top of the list was the request to relax foreign ownership rules allowing increased foreign investment, citing the need for cable companies to access more capital. Such deregulatory provisions would not apply to content creators in the broadcasting sector, since cable companies are separating their content-producing businesses.

Included in the CCTA's recommendations were requests for the government to reduce the size of the federal regulator, the Canadian Radio-TV and Telecommunications Commission; to work on crippling the black market in satellite signals; to give small cable companies more pricing flexibility; and to make competition and consumer choice principles of the Broadcasting Act.