Why no Canadian TV channels on Verizon?

Question

With Verizon already providing dozens of Mexican and Latin American TV channels, why are there no Canadian TV channels?  There are thousands of Canadians in the U.S., including many part-year retirees in places like Florida, and they would be a large market for this service.  Also a lot of Americans would like to see what is going on in Canada.

Besides English-language channels, there would also be a lot of interest in French-language channels from Canada.  There are many french networks in Canada (Radio Canada, TVA, V, Tele-Quebec, RDI, LCN) and, unlike English Canadian channels, these would have no U.S.-originated programming for there to be copyright problems with.  So why not expand the French language package beyond just TV5?

jasonacg · Accepted Answer

I agree with you. I'm not from Canada, but I visit there as often as I can, and would like to keep up with life up there, when I'm not there.

If you've ever seen cable TV while in Canada, you've probably noticed that it's definitely not a two-way street. Cable and satellite providers carry all of the major Canadian broadcast and cable networks, plus a large number of American cable channels and broadcast affiliates, often from multiple time zones. Come south of the border, and you might find CBC on a small number of American cable providers, and typically only in cities that are close to the border. It's not true of just Verizon FiOS, but all domestic carriers.

I think that the large amount of overlap on broadcast networks, particularly CTV and Global, would prevent carriage in the USA. CBC, however, is virtually all Canadian content, and could probably be brought to a larger US audience. I'd pay for that.