The Financial Post reports in its Friday edition that Canadians apparently have an appetite for the $25 skinny television packages the CRTC mandated last year, but they are even hungrier for the ability to buy stand-alone channels. The Post's Emily Jackson writes that 12 per cent of Canadian TV subscribers said they bought the basic packages after the broadcast regulator required TV providers offer them as of March 1, 2016. Even more subscribers opted to use the pick-and-pay system mandated as of Dec. 1. Twenty-nine per cent have purchased stand-alone channels, with 65 per cent of skinny basic subscribers doing so, according to a survey by the CBC's Media Technology Monitor unit. Although the vast majority of subscribers continue to buy larger packages, MTM's research suggests a massive jump in interest in the smaller packages. The CRTC introduced them in the name of consumer choice after a public consultation where people complained about buying dozens of channels they never watched. There were a complaints that skinny packages were not actively promoted, cost more than the $25 ceiling once set-top box fees were included and that the ability to select individual channels did not result in better deals.