It doesn't really come as much of a surprise that the CRTC chose an existing and proven entity for its national must carry ethnic station. Watch it or not, it will be part of your satellite/cable bill for years to come. It will cost you 19 cents a month the first two years, 20 by the third and fourth year and 21 cents by the fifth.

You can read the specific promises they made to get this thing here, but there's one interesting aspect for me. Despite the fact Rogers infamously scrapped a host of newscasts as a cost saving measure a few years ago to much complaint, they now vow that they will:

• broadcast at least 6 hours of local original, first-run news each broadcast week sourced from Vancouver, Calgary/Edmonton and Toronto;
• broadcast at least 6 daily, original, first-run, national 30-minute newscasts, 7 days per broadcast week, in 6 different languages; and
• devote at least 40% of the previous year’s gross revenues to the production of news programs.

And what of the existing over-the-air OMNI stations, including the two here in T.O? They've promised to continue them as usual. The new service is supposed to be in place by Sept. 2020.