Reflecting on a new broadcast Vision

The beginning of the real new millennium signals a dramatically new era for Vision TV and for all broadcasters; the real start of the transition to digital technology. My retirement from Vision TV is as good a touchstone as any for an impression of the accelerating changes that are underway. When I came to Toronto as CEO of the network in January 1995, Vision and the broadcast universe were secure and reasonably predictable. Our spiritually inspired, multi-faith mandate to provide a space on television for the full range of Canadian faith and belief, made us unique in the world Our position as a "basic" service was well established. We could be found (under the aegis of the CRTC’s "under channel 31" rule) on channel 24 in most major Canadian centres. A small, not-for-profit "family firm", with most of the original board and much of the original staff still in place, we had no debt and a healthy balance sheet. There were only a handful of other specialty channels and with no direct competition, Vision had a respectful and growing share of the audience. Six years later almost everything — the leap-frogging technology, the take-over-addicted business environment, and (with the impending departure of Françoise Bertrand) the increasingly pressured regulatory environment — has changed. With the acquiescence of the CRTC, our easily accessible, low-number signal was bounced up to channels in the less well traveled stratosphere of most major cable systems, replaced by what cable operators saw as more popular services, in some cases enterprises in which they had a financial interest, or with which they had a business relationship. Cable, the power player in the system, persuaded the CRTC to licence only a handful of new channels in 1997 and then filled the spectrum created by renovations to their existing analog systems with an armload of new channels, most of them foreign. Part of the necessary reaction was the creation of a specialties services industry association, SPTV-TVSP. I had the opportunity to be one of its founders, and was chair of the association when it merged with a parallel organization established by the CAB to serve traditional broadcasters who also operated specialty channels. The new organization will provide an even stronger voice for specialty services, which have emerged as the fastest growing sector of the broadcasting industry. With many more channels competing both for audiences and for programming, and with the CRTC beginning to license other religious broadcasters, it was clear that Vision TV had to grow, and to broaden its financial and audience base. If I can be allowed a baseball metaphor, we went to bat. We hit into a double play with our 1996 application for KidsNet, a channel that would have allowed Vision to do for children what we do for adults. We lost to a network that promised first that it would only launch in the digital world, and second, that it would do so only after analog services licenced by the commission had been launched on cable. Our second at bat was a line drive to left field. Our application for Réseau Vision, a French-language version of Vision TV, was picked off at short stop when the commission decided to license only four new French-language channels. We thought we could have been a fifth. But in last year’s round of digital applications, we were ready for the fast ball, and hit a three-run homer, scoring a highly valued Category 1 and two Category 2 licences. Wisdom: Canada’s Body, Mind and Spirit Channel, will be an out-of-the-park hit. This changes everything for Vision, which will now lead a family of channels with strong partners in for-profit businesses. My successor, Bill Roberts, with a strong background acquired as secretary general of NABA, and senior positions at TVO, the CAB and CRTC, has taken charge, and, still with no debt and a strong balance sheet (some things didn’t change), will lead Vision into the new, more competitive, more challenging and more profitable environment. As for me, it’s been a great ride with more high spots than bumps. And after nearly 50 years in broadcasting, I will keep my hand in as a member of a number of broadcast-related corporate and not-for-profit boards – but will devote the majority of my time in "retirement" to writing. Fil Fraser is the former president/CEO of Vision TV.

Reflecting on a new broadcast Vision

News | 01/17/2001 5:00 am EST

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