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“I’m going to put to you that the problem is not so much with the regulatory system,” Mr. Blais said. “Your problem is with your funding model, and the extent to which taxpayers through their elected government are providing you with support.”

The two-week hearing gives cable companies, television stations and advocacy groups a chance to weigh in on a set of CRTC proposals designed to help Canadian television adapt to changing consumer demands in the age of increased competition from online video providers including Netflix Inc. The CBC joined the Ontario government in calling for Netflix and similar services to pay into a fund supporting Canadian content, which detractors have dubbed a “Netflix tax.”

Telus Corp. also appeared before the commission Friday, suggesting sports channels like Rogers Communications Inc.’s Sportsnet and Bell Media’s TSN should be left out of an inexpensive, stripped-down basic channel package the CRTC is considering requiring cable companies to offer. Telus also argued cable companies that make their own programming shouldn’t be allowed to offer it exclusively online, such as the Netflix-like Shomi service that Rogers and Shaw are planning to offer subscribers.

Mr. Blais asked if Telus was trying to prevent cable companies that own sports networks from profiting from their inclusion in a stripped-down basic package.

“Some would say that you’re trying to put a roadblock in their business for competitive reasons,” Mr. Blais said. Telus Executive Vice-President David Fuller denied it: “That’s not why we’re doing this.”

CRTC commissioner Candice Molnar summed up the regulator’s frustrations with the presentations it’s heard over the course of the hearing’s first week. “We’re having an entire proceeding where no one wants anything taken away from them, and yet we’re in a system of change,” she said.

The hearing continues throughout next week. The Walt Disney Co., whose channels could lose viewers under the CRTC’s proposal to do away with bundled cable packages and let consumers choose and pay for only the channels they want, is scheduled to present Monday morning. Netflix is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 19.