The expansion in distribution of Crossroads as an analog channel has thrown a wrench into negotiations between Rogers Cable Inc. and Carleton University’s educational access channel. Carol Miles, director of the Educational Development Centre at Carleton University, tells Canadian Communications Reports that Rogers had begun negotiating with Carleton to move the school’s channel to digital so that it could split the analog channel into space for numerous digital channels. During previous discussions, Miles says that Rogers was dangling carrots such as carriage on all Rogers digital systems in Ontario and moving Carleton’s programming onto video-on-demand (VOD) as enticements to switch to digital carriage. But negotiations have slowed now that the CRTC is allowing Hamilton-based Crossroads Television to add transmitters in Ottawa and London. Rogers in Ottawa must now use the newly free spot for the religious channel.

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