Le Réseau des sports (RDS), owned by Bell Globemedia, is asking the CRTC to issue a mandatory order to ensure that Quebecor complies with a commission ruling. In a September 10 letter to the regulator, RDS president and general manager Gerry Frappier notes that the situation "goes to the very core of the commission’s supervisory role with respect to its licensees." The CRTC ordered Quebecor-owned Vidéotron ltée., which unilaterally reduced the fees it paid for RDS by 62 per cent, to reimburse RDS from the date the new rate was imposed (CCR Update, Sept. 4/02). Quebecor responded by saying it isn’t possible to comply because of pending court action on the same matter. Vidéotron is suing RDS for $15 million in Quebec Superior Court for allegedly billing Bell Globemedia affiliate Bell ExpressVu less than it charges the Quebec cableco for the French-language sports specialty channel. The CRTC estimates that the annualized losses incurred by RDS as a result of Vidéotron’s actions will reach $16 million by December. Below is an excerpt from RDS’ response to Quebecor’s non-compliance.

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Colette Loumède takes up the position of executive producer at the National Film Board’s Studio A (formerly known as the Society and Science Documentary Studio) on October 15. She takes over from Eric Michel, who has been at the helm of the studio since 1984, but was promoted in January to head of the NFB’s international coproduction unit. From 2000, Loumède worked for the government agency SODEC as a project manager. Prior to that, she conceived and developed La culture dans tous ses états, an award-winning series of 19 documentaries on Québécois culture that was broadcast on Télé-Québec.

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Bell ExpressVu subscribers get Leafs exhibition games free
To promote the digital channel LeafsTV, Bell ExpressVu LP subscribers can watch the Toronto Maple Leafs’ nine pre-season games this year for free. The free games are being offered through Bell ExpressVu’s pay-per-view service on a complimentary basis to subscribers in the Leafs TV broadcast area, and as part of the NHL Centre Ice package to viewers outside Ontario. The direct-to-home satellite television distributor will offer the digital channel LeafsTV as part of its regular programming in 2003 on a subscription basis. This year’s exhibition games are the first live Leafs games that have been broadcast on the regional diginet. The rights to the Leafs’ regular season games this year have already been sold to other networks. "We hope that by offering these pre-season games that Bell ExpressVu subscribers will be enticed to sign up for LeafsTV with us next year," says Chris Frank, ExpressVu’s VP of programming and government affairs. The Leafs play their last exhibition game October 5 against Tampa Bay.

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A group of small cable operators in southwestern Ontario has pooled resources to share a digital headend, rejecting more economical but more restrictive digital solutions offered by Canadian Satellite Communications Inc. (Cancom). The move will allow the cablecos to source digital signals from any provider rather than exclusively from Cancom.

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An overly complex regulatory environment and restrictions on its ability to raise foreign capital leave the Canadian cable industry seriously undervalued compared to its U.S. counterpart, says the Canadian Cable Television Association (CCTA). As a result, the cable industry is impaired in its ability to offer next-generation services and programming that meet consumer demands, according to the lobby group.

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The president and CEO of the Canadian Cable Television Association is calling on the federal government to stand up for its own television and cultural policies by cracking down on the illegal black and grey satellite television markets. Despite proposing in a speech last week that if government inaction continues then Ottawa should "let this industry do business like any other business," Janet Yale is tentative about the industry’s willingness to dismantle a broadcast system that has protected both Canadian distributors and broadcasters from outside competition.

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Telus Corp. is the latest Canadian telephone company vying to go head-to-head with existing broadcast distributors in a bid to realize increased revenues from its broadband network. Subsidiary Telus Communications Inc. has applied to the CRTC for broadcast distribution licences to provide digital television service in British Columbia and Alberta, a move it says will allow it to bundle multiple services to its consumers and bolster customer retention – Broadcasting Notice of Public Hearing 2002-10.

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