This is definitely a stunner, since TMC was added to the Rogers digital package only two years ago in Central and Eastern Canada (I'm not sure what the situation is out West as to how long it's been available)   We need to hear more from the Lethbridge brain trust, but I can only think of two possibilities.

One, Rogers and TMC haven't been able to come to an agreement as regards carriage rates per subscriber; or at least those who subscribe on the tier where the channel is carried.    This has been an issue not just with TMC.   Years back when I had cable, the small cable company I was on (before it was swallowed up by Cogeco) had a dispute with the CTV network over the rates for the Discovery Channel; the channel was blacked out for a week while something was worked out.    It was probably pennies in that case.    In the present situation, with the apparent declining revenues from telethons and the funk it seems to be in after the departure of the Dewerts, TMC may have raised its carriage rates to the point that it no longer provided value for money for Rogers to even carry the channel let alone offer it.

Two, the States is moving to digital television next year with Canada to follow sometime in 2011 or 2012.   Digital requires much more bandwidth than analogue signals and even with a move towards fibre optics (slowly being rolled out) there's only so much room.    Some compromises may have had to be made to accomodate the bigger "power" the US channels will need so something had to be -- ahem -- sacrificed.     This may leave room for TMC to be added back on at a later date when we make the changeover but being out of access for 24 months is bound to hurt.    (For now, far as I know, it's still on satellite which was digital to begin with.)

Which raises another potential question of its own right:    We know the networks are able to afford the cost of the digital switchover; what is the status of TMC and other religious stations like CTS on this matter?    We know that they are having a dual broadcast on two over-the-air channels (analogue and digital) in anticipation of this but that is a very expensive proposition.    Is it possible that TMC may have to bite the bullet and actually air for profit commercials -- abandoning its business model of non profit status -- just to stay in business?    That should raise some serious questions from the CRTC.

If what you're indicating is true, Tim, then TMC really is in trouble -- and it may shed more light as to why they were so desperate to get the translators in Edmonton and Calgary last year; or rather if they had planned out their budget on the presumption the CRTC would have selected their application and not that of Crossroads -- and now that was denied them they've had to scramble to make ends meet.    Since it would have been over-the-air it would have a) been a must carry station for the cable companies in most of Alberta and b) would have given TMC more leverage in negotiating rates for whichever end received the monies as it would have become a "superstation" much as CTS and E! are here in Ontario.

That of course is the strategy that TBN has used in the States.   Since cable companies wouldn't carry their stations out of the OC or in Texas they've bought up transmitters right across the States and forced the hand of the cables and satellites to show them as part of the basic local package.    (Of course, running a national network of translators is costly which is why TBN now wants its own satellite, if it doesn't already have it -- of course one of those birds costs about a billion bucks.)  Hard to believe some think our CRTC would operate the same way as the FCC -- which it doesn't; and it's reassuring that an essentially flawed agency is despite its faults still trying to protect the integrity of the airwaves that we, the people, own.

If Rogers is out of the picture, it's only a matter of time before Cogeco, Shaw and Videotron would follow suit -- then the independents still left.    As I noted above, TMC's only recourse then may be to go the commercial route and that may wind up actually alienating many of its core supporters.    If the station were to fail due to hubris and not its teachings, it would be the greater tragedy.

In the end, though, I am just stunned by this announcement; even more than when the Dewerts left last year.

I think that CRTC rules for ballanced broadcasts played a more major role than we think.  If I can remember way back when Victory in Medicine Hat had a program on the cable channel there and other denominations wanted equal time, seems that Victory was bashing other denominations.  That is the rule for cable channels.  They have to give equal time to all other denominations.  Now since the issuance of Miracle's licence this rule may have been relaxed,  but I find that I like to turn to EWTN on Star Choice.

brdewi...   I would suggest that your memory is a little foggy. Back in the 90s when Victory ran their program on the local cable station in Medicine Hat they did not go around "bashing other denominations." Regardless of their theological differences, the Thiermans always spoke highly of other congregations - in public or private. As far as the cable station goes, they were always looking for new local shows. Any church, organization, or individual who wanted to could apply to the cable company to run a program - something that Victory took advantage of, but few other churches did.