Donald Iain Smith via Getty Images Girl sitting in front of flat screen television in dark room.

A group of unions and guilds involved in Canada’s media industry are pressuring the federal Liberal government to undo changes to TV rules announced under the previous Harper government. Starting this year, Canadians will be able to pick and choose the cable or satellite TV channels they buy, a move many consumers' advocates applauded. But a new study commissioned by those media groups argues those and other changes will harm the economy. Specialty channels are at risk of disappearing and Canadian content will suffer under the new pick-and-pay rules, according to the report issued Tuesday. It says the changes to TV regulations will cause more than 15,000 direct and indirect job losses by 2020, and will reduce Canada’s economic output by $1.4 billion by that time. "For good reason the new government has abandoned Stephen Harper's policy of denigrating the CBC. It should take the same approach to the CRTC's [TV] decisions,” said Ian Morrison, spokesperson for Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, in a statement. Friends of Canadian Broadcasting was one of the groups that commissioned the report, along with performers' guild ACTRA, the Canadian Media Guild, the Directors Guild of Canada and Unifor.

Changes to Canadian TV distribution rules will cost a cumulative total of more than 15,000 jobs, and will reduce GDP by a total of $1.4 billion by 2020, a new report predicts. (Chart: Friends of Canadian Broadcasting) “Under pressure from the former government, the Commission placed so-called consumer protection ahead of the cultural and democratic interests of citizens and creators in its decisions,” Morrison said. The previous Harper government championed consumer-friendly TV and telecom policies (though some argue they failed to deliver) and it was under its watch that the new TV rules were announced. The new federal Liberal government has not suggested it would like to see any of the CRTC’s rule changes undone, but some experts argue the Liberals are likely to be friendlier to the telecom and media industries than the previous Conservative government was.