Last month, Charles Dalfen made his first appearance before a Parliamentary committee as chair of the CRTC. Before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, which is studying the broadcasting system, he focused on foreign ownership and cross-media ownership. He noted that non-Canadians were prohibited from holding broadcast licences, and that while media cross-ownership had increased, there was still a diversity of voices with the licensing of numerous new television and radio stations as well as an explosion in information on the Internet. Below is an excerpt from his presentation.

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Barbara Williams has been hired as VP and GM of toronto/one, the yet-to-launch over-the-air TV channel licensed to Craig Broadcast Systems Inc. Williams moves to toronto/one from Alliance Atlantis Broadcasting Inc., where she was senior VP of lifestyle programming. She also spearheaded the launches of Discovery Health Channel, HGTV, U8TV, and Food Network Canada.

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Shaw confirms it pulled Scream from its digital lineup
In response to inquiries by the CRTC, Shaw Communications Inc. has confirmed that it has pulled the digital specialty TV channel Scream from its digital channel lineup to put it in compliance with commission rules (CCR Update, Jan. 8/03; CCR, Dec. 13/02). By adding Scream to its lineup without adding two additional non-affiliated channels, Shaw had breached the CRTC’s five-to-one rule for the carriage of digital channels (CCR, Nov. 22/02). In a January 13 letter to the CRTC, Shaw notes, "All existing and new digital customers who had placed orders for this service during its free viewing preview period are being informed that the service is no longer available at this time." Ken Stein, Shaw senior VP of corporate and regulatory affairs, further notes, "Removing Scream TV at this time is unfortunate given the suitability of the service to our line-up and its popularity to our customers during the free trial period. We believe that the addition of Scream TV, along with Fine Living and DIY, would have been an attractive and popular programming service to help drive digital household penetration and grow revenues, particularly given the generally slow rate adoption of the new digital programming services." Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. chair and CEO Michael MacMillan told Canadian Communications Reports that the two services weren’t close to launching (CCR, Dec. 5/02).

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Quebecor Inc. has launched a Cabinet appeal of the CRTC decision that concluded that BCE Inc. wasn’t inappropriately cross-subsidizing Bell Express Vu LP’s entry into the Ontario and Quebec markets. The Quebec media giant charges that the satellite TV distributor is being subsidized by profits earned at BCE’s regulated telephone company Bell Canada.

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Major players in the broadcasting industry are opposing the proposed deal between the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) and direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV operator Bell ExpressVu LP on the distribution of out-of-market TV signals. Not one player outside those involved indirectly in putting the deal together favours the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between the two parties in comments filed in a CRTC process (Broadcasting Public Notice 2002-57).

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There won’t be much original high-definition (HD) television programming on the digital version of CHUM Ltd.’s flagship Toronto TV station Citytv when it launches January 16 on cable and over-the-air next month. But it will still be the first conventional TV station in Canada to go digital.

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