I Want My Spike TV!

Canadian cable companies ask CRTC to strike down requests to pull Spike TV
TORONTO (CP) — Federal broadcast regulators should dismiss an “anti-consumer” application to have Spike TV removed from the list of foreign TV signals that can legally be carried in Canada, says the Canadian Cable Television Association.
The CCTA is referring to a bid by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, operating on behalf of CanWest Global, to ditch the U.S. specialty channel because it unfairly conflicts with Global’s own Men TV.
Spike is the latest moniker for the channel that began as the Nashville Network, then became the National Network and finally the all-guys’ format Spike TV. Spike had other problems south of the border last year when filmmaker Spike Lee complained that the channel’s name was an infringement of his own image and prestige. But after Lee won a temporary injunction against the launch of the channel’s new identity, the dispute was settled with channel owners Viacom.
Meanwhile, the CCTA says the proposal to deny Canadian viewers access to Spike is absurd.
“The fact that this application was filed suggests a growing indifference to consumer choice in the system,” says Michael Hennessy, CCTA president, who adds removal of the channel would only contribute to the black-market satellite problem.
Global argued that there was no process in place to review the status of incoming cable signals when a channel undergoes such a drastic format change.