Cablecos looking to Bell ExpressVu for exclusive delivery of diginet signals

The unavailability of some digital specialty channel signals such as CourtTV Canada via Canadian Satellite Communications Inc. (Cancom) is edging some cable operators to turn to Bell ExpressVu LP for satellite delivery to their headends. A more reasonably priced Tandberg receiver/descrambler capable of providing the ExpressVu-supplied digital signals to CherryPickers and Motorola Headend in the Sky (HITS) equipment is also making it easier for cablecos to go with the BCE Inc.-owned satellite relay distribution undertaking (SRDU). Mountain Cablesystems Ltd., which serves about 38,000 customers in Hamilton ON and surrounding communities, is one of the first smaller sized cable systems to turn to Bell ExpressVu to expand its channel lineup. Mountain used to provide CourtTV U.S. to its subscribers through Cancom. But Shaw Communications Inc. decided to unilaterally stop providing the channel in its cable and Star Choice Communications Inc. satellite TV lineups in April, and it was eventually dropped from the list of signals provided by Shaw-owned Cancom to cablecos. Shaw was unhappy with blackouts imposed by New York-based CourtTV, and has not come to carriage terms with CHUM Ltd. for distribution of CourtTV Canada. CHUM has the Canadian rights to much of the programming aired on the U.S. version of the court and legal issues channel so blackouts aren’t a problem with CourtTV Canada (CCR, April 12/02). Mountain now plans to provide CourtTV Canada and other channels not available through Cancom by using Bell ExpressVu as a secondary signal supplier. "We certainly wanted to return CourtTV to our lineup and this was the way to do it," Pat Kiely, director of business operations and development at Mountain, tells Canadian Communications Reports. "It also offers us an opportunity to put together a more complete cable lineup than we had." He estimates that 20 to 25 per cent of Mountain’s digital cable customer base subscribed to CourtTV U.S. before it was dropped by Cancom. By engaging Bell ExpressVu as a deliverer of broadcast signals to its headend, Kiely says Mountain will also be adding CHUM-owned MuchVibe, Stornoway Communications Inc.’s bpm.tv, the independently owned Movieola, and two channels of The Racing Network. It also plans to add Corus Entertainment Inc.’s Edge TV, which has not been added to Shaw or Star Choice’s lineup due to the five-to-one carriage rule for Category 2 channels. Kiely says that Mountain is not currently considering dropping any of the signals now received by Cancom for replacement by Bell ExpressVu. "The intention is to use Bell ExpressVu to enrich the lineup, and to get those signals that are not otherwise available," he notes. Kiely anticipates that CourtTV Canada and the other new channels will be in its digital lineup by September, after a test with the ExpressVu-supplied signals and a promotional campaign through the summer. Mountain’s Tandberg equipment arrived this week. Kiely notes that grooming equipment is necessary when cablecos choose to source signals from more than one source. "The decision matrix is not simple. One of the issues that we have to deal with is that if you choose more than one source for digital material then ultimately to efficiently put compressed digital signals into a lineup requires an investment in grooming equipment," he explains. "The grooming equipment allows you to ‘groom’ various signals from various sources and you then take the ‘groomed’ signals and place them efficiently into a 6-meg slot, which is traditional for television. The grooming equipment allows you to put between six and a dozen signals into the 6-meg space where you would normally only be able to place one." A July 2002 notice circulated to cablecos by Bell ExpressVu trumps a "cost-reduced" Tandberg receiver for digital cablecos that take its signals. The Tandberg TT1220 model is being offered for US$1,378, with a reduction to US$1,240 if five units or more are ordered. Gord Langdon of Capella Telecommunications Inc., the Canadian distributor for Tandberg products, tells CCR that the drop in price is due mostly to a different model being promoted. The TT1220 model allows for the reception of one signal, while the Tandberg model tested by Mountain last summer was a multichannel receiver (CCR, Aug. 15/01). Priced at about US$3,400, the latter can receive more than one channel off the same transponder. "When we first introduced the product (last August), it was a different unit," Kiely says. "The multichannel receiver could receive five or more services if they were on the same transponder. But it’s pretty rare that a cable affiliate will pick five or six channels from the same transponder. They usually pick one or two here and there, so overall it’s cheaper to buy the single service receiver that we’re selling now." Like with the receiver for Cancom signals, a TT1220 Tandberg decoder is needed for each broadcast signal picked up from Bell ExpressVu. "We’ve had these products for almost two years and sales were rather slow to be truthful," Langdon says. "But I think that ExpressVu has put a lot of effort into promoting the SRDU business for themselves and that should help drive sales. I’ve been getting a lot more calls...I guess now with exclusivity from ExpressVu, some of the operators are having to now look at more than one source for programming." Janet Raabe, director of SRDU sales at Bell ExpressVu, concurs that there has been increased interest recently by cable operators in her company’s service because it is the exclusive provider of some channels and because the Tandberg equipment is now cheaper."(The lower price) makes a big difference. It’s like night and day," Raabe says. "Quite a few are interested, especially in southwestern Ontario. But I don’t want to say anything more until they officially launch. But I think in the last couple of weeks, ten units have been sold." At least a handful of cablecos are looking to Bell ExpressVu to restore CourtTV to their television lineups, Raabe adds. Kiely says the testing last August didn’t go well. "At that time we couldn’t get the signals to work," he says. "There were technical problems, but they’ve been resolved. Picking up the signals wasn’t the issue, but getting them into the lineup and making them work was the hard part." Small cablecos using Cancom’s cost-effective Headend in the Sky – Quick Take (HITS-QT) digital cable solution will not be able to source the CourtTV signal or the others from Bell ExpressVu. Because of the channel mapping necessary for the HITS QT system, Bell ExpressVu signals don’t operate with the technology, which is being used by small cablecos to go digital (CCR, March 15/02).

Cablecos looking to Bell ExpressVu for exclusive delivery of diginet signals

Broadcast | July 18, 2002

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