Broadcasters chide Star Choice, urge CRTC to be strict in licence renewal

The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) is asking the CRTC to renew Star Choice’s licence for fewer than the normal seven years, and to provide "explicit direction" to the distributor with regard to its obligations to distribute local signals within its market area. The demands come during the direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV’s distributor’s current licence renewal process in response to what the CAB is calling Star Choice’s propensity to "avoid regulatory and contractual obligations." In separate submissions to the CRTC, broadcasters also independently complain about Star Choice’s reluctance to distribute more channels. The CAB complains that when Star Choice earlier this year uplinked four of the local stations that it’s required to distribute, it only provided the signals to subscribers residing within 80 km of the originating transmitter rather than to all viewers in the respective market area. The matter was eventually resolved, but the CAB remains concerned that when the remaining local stations that Star Choice is required to carry are uplinked, there may be similar problems and delays with respect to providing those signals to all Star Choice subscribers in the service area of each station. The CAB further accuses Star Choice of an "abuse of the administrative process" through its request for a licence amendment that would delay its obligation to add more local TV stations no later than Dec. 31. 2004. Star Choice wants to hold off on the requirement until the launch of the Anik F2 satellite scheduled for mid-2004. "Given that the commission will only hear Star Choice’s application beginning Oct. 20, 2003, and assuming it will only be in a position to render a decision by January 2004 at the earliest, Star Choice will have succeeded in delaying the launch of small market independently owned stations regardless of the commission’s final determination of the issue," charges the CAB in its submission to the CRTC. While Bell ExpressVu LP is also facing a licence renewal process, Star Choice receives easily the most scathing comments from interveners. Both private and public broadcasters complain about Star Choice’s conduct over its past licence term. "The CBC’s experience in attempting to negotiate carriage arrangements with Star Choice has led it to conclude that the only way to ensure that Star Choice acts in a manner consistent with the requirements and objectives of the Broadcasting Act is for the commission to impose strict regulatory obligations on the DTH licensee," Michel Tremblay, VP of strategy and business development at the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., writes in its Sept. 25 intervention. The CBC calls on the CRTC to impose a condition of licence on Star Choice that specifies the number and identity of the CBC channels it must carry as well as when they must be added to its TV lineup. Stornoway Communications Inc. and CHUM Ltd., which have had ongoing carriage disputes with Star Choice, use the process to attack the satellite TV distributor for refusing to carry some required channels as well as more Category 2 diginets. In its Sept. 25 submission, CHUM notes that Star Choice doesn’t carry and has no interest in distributing the analog regional news channel Pulse24 "despite its clear regulatory obligation to do so." Furthermore, CHUM says that Star Choice doesn’t carry its CIVI-TV Victoria channel, which launched in 2001, while it does distribute Victoria’s other channel CHEK-TV. Bell ExpressVu added CIVI-TV to its TV lineup on Sept. 15. CHUM also says that Star Choice distributes only one (CourtTV Canada) of six non-mandated Category 2 channels that it has launched (CCR, July 17/03). Star Choice has made that decision despite the fact that two of CHUM’s diginets - SexTV and Drive-in Classics - are among the most watched digital services, the broadcaster notes. "Moreover, SexTV and Drive-in Classics are available on CHUM’s transponder on Anik F1, which would enable Star Choice to offer these two services to its subscribers without using up any of its satellite capacity," CHUM points out. Stornoway Communications tells the CRTC that the licence renewal hearing affords the CRTC the opportunity to address Star Choice’s refusal to carry more Category 2s. "While we have heard that ‘market forces’ will determine the success or failure of digital channels, the reality is that the DTH licensees including Star Choice have," Stornoway president and CEO Martha Fusca writes in a Sept. 25 submission. "How can we participate when we cannot get access to Cancom if Star Choice and Shaw choose not to carry one of our licensed and launched channels, precluding not only those viewers who wish to access our service, but also shutting out those systems that cannot otherwise get our signal?…How can we compete when we are effectively shut out from one-third (Western Canada) of the Canadian market?" The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) and the Inuit Broadcasting Corp. urge the CRTC to consider its North signal as a local/regional station and thus require Star Choice to carry it in northern Canada. "This displacement of APTN’s northern signal, with the national service delivered via DTH satellite has become a matter of increasing concern to many residents of the north, particularly since APTN’s northern service contains coverage of the proceedings of all three territorial legislatures, which is not otherwise available to the north," states APTN in its submission. "APTN has not yet received confirmation from Star Choice regarding its intention to distribute APTN’s northern signal." Distribution by the satellite TV distributor is particularly important, says APTN, given that cable operators are disappearing in northern communities, and many TV viewers have no alternative to DTH. Bell ExpressVu doesn’t escape criticism for its TV lineup either. Rogers Media takes aim at Bell ExpressVu for carrying its over-the-air ethnic channel OMNI.2 only on its Nimiq 2 satellite. Star Choice doesn’t carry the channel at all. Since OMNI.2 is on Nimiq 2, Bell ExpressVu subscribers require a dual-satellite technical upgrade to receive it, which only about 5% of the DTH distributor’s customer base has, according to Rogers’ estimates. Rogers also complains that the only Category 2 launched in September 2001 that Bell ExpressVu doesn’t carry is its news and information service MSNBC Canada. Rogers tells the CRTC that Bell ExpressVu has made decisions like this to weaken the Canadian cable companies "in order to reduce their ability to compete with (parent company) Bell Canada in the local telephony market." Star Choice is also taken to task by some interveners for the manner in which it distributes its high definition programming. "The commission also needs to immediately put an end to Star Choice’s ongoing practice of ‘cherry picking’ popular high-definition programs from U.S. 4+1 networks and offering subscribers virtual high-definition channels…This practice is contrary to the fulfillment of Broadcasting Act objectives, violates the program exclusivity of licensed Canadian broadcasters and threatens the deployment of high-definition programming by Canadian licensees," writes CTV Inc. in its Sept. 25 submission. The CAB asks the CRTC to direct Star Choice to discontinue its actions with respect to the creation of dedicated HDTV channels. The broadcasters’ association notes in its submission that Star Choice creates as many as five HDTV channels for its subscribers by selecting HDTV programming from various services that it distributes. The CAB contends that this action effectively means that Star Choice is operating as a programmer because it is selecting and scheduling programs, and is doing so without commission authorization. CTV takes further aim at the HDTV plans of its sister company Bell ExpressVu, and seeks clarification of the distributor’s proposal. The DTH distributor indicated in an Aug. 3 deficiency response to the CRTC that it was seeking specific authorization to distribute U.S. 4+1 network high definition channels from cities, other than those used for standard definition television signals, in the same time zone. "If we understand ExpressVu’s request correctly, ExpressVu will be able to create and market a stand-alone package of U.S. network high-definition programming. If this is the case, it would have a negative impact on the deployment of high-definition television by Canadian broadcasters," CTV tells the CRTC.

Broadcasters chide Star Choice, urge CRTC to be strict in licence renewal

Broadcast | October 3, 2003

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us