CCR Short Takes

TELUS launches TV service in Calgary, EdmontonTELUS Corp. is finally beginning to roll out its TV service neighbourhood by neighbourhood in Calgary and Edmonton, according to the company’s financial results for the third quarter ended September 30. "Friends and family of TELUS employees will be the first invited to experience the differentiated and unparalleled customer choice offered by TELUS TV," reads the financial results released November 10. TELUS says its TV service will be expanded on "a targeted basis through a phased neighbourhood rollout" and that its "own skilled team members will be selling, installing and supporting TELUS TV." (CCR Update, Sept. 30/05). The telco’s TV service was licensed in August 2003. Astral Media launches French-language classic movie channelAstral Media launched the first French-language television channel featuring movie classics on November 1. The Category 2 digital specialty TV channel, called cinépop, is being distributed to digital subscribers by Vidéotron and Bell Express Vu. "Cinépop confirms Astral Media’s pay TV leadership and expertise in offering a varied, accessible and memorable movie experience," said Astral Télé Réseau VP and general manager Johanne Saint-Laurent. "We are convinced that cinépop will quickly become a preferred TV destination for cinema enthusiasts." Rogers adds four South Asian channels to digital lineupRogers Cable Communications Inc. announced November 9 it had added four new Asian Television Network (ATN) channels to its lineup: ATN Zee Cinema, ATN Aastha TV, ATN Bangla and ATN Zee Gujarati. The channels are available to digital TV subscribers in Ontario. ATN Zee Cinema shows black and white classic films and Bollywood movies in Hindi; ATN Aastha TV is a spiritual-based channel broadcasting in Hindi; ATN Bangla is a 24-hour Bengali-language general interest entertainment service; and ATN Zee Gujarati is a family channel broadcasting in the Gujarati language. Subscribers of ATN, which costs $14.95 a month, can get each channel for $5 a month. CAB requests judicial review of music tariff decisionThe Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) filed a request with the Federal Court on November 14 for a judicial review of the Copyright Board’s October 14 decision on two commercial radio tariffs. The board raised by 30% the rates that radio stations pay to the Society of Composers, Authors, and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN), and the Neighbouring Rights Collective of Canada (NRCC) for the right to play music (CCR, Oct. 24/05). The CAB argues that the board’s decision that music was undervalued in the past is based on "immeasurable conjecture." The association notes the board never stated its intent to review the findings of previous boards, and thus deprived broadcasters of defending themselves against that claim. "It is the CAB’s position that the levels of increase in this decision are in no way tied to or supported by any empirical evidence of the increased value of music to broadcasters," states the association in a November 15 media release. The decision to "aggressively" challenge the Copyright Board’s decision was made at the CAB’s annual convention in Winnipeg on November 6. The association is also lobbying politicians in an attempt to convince them that the board overstepped its mandate by trying to create cultural policy rather than setting rates. TSN gets exclusive rights to Monday night NFL actionCTV Inc.’s TSN has acquired the exclusive Canadian rights to Monday night National Football League (NFL), starting in 2006. The specialty sports TV channel also reached a new three-deal with the NFL that extends its Sunday night coverage to the end of the 2008 season. From 2006, the 34 games each season will be broadcast in high-definition on TSN HD. TSN has been broadcasting NFL games since 1987, and says ratings for the NFL broadcasts have increased "dramatically over the past five years." Its season-to-date average audience this year is 374,000 viewers, which is a 47% increase over the season average of 254,000 in 2000, according to Nielsen Media Research audience figures (2+).TSN also stated that its per-game average audience for the Canadian Football League (CFL) this season was 395,000 viewers, an increase of 27% from last year’s season average of 311,000. The November 6 broadcast of the Edmonton-Calgary game attracted 643,000 TV subscribers. CFJC-TV Kamloops applies for disaffiliation from CBCThe Jim Pattison Broadcast Group Ltd. (JPBG) has applied for regulatory approval to disaffiliate its CFJC-TV Kamloops BC television station from the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (Broadcasting Public Notice 2005-100). The applicant says that it will instead provide local service based on a joint agreement with Global Communications Ltd.’s CHBC-TV Kelowna. The CBC has provided letters of support for the application, even though it will mean that Kamloops residents will have to subscribe to cable or satellite TV to receive the public broadcaster., if the application is approved. The CBC states that it doesn’t intend to build off-air broadcasting transmitters in the area. CBC English Television and Jim Pattison are currently in the second year of a six-year affiliation agreement, which sees CFJC air about 44 hours of CBC programming a week. "The decision by JPBG occurred much sooner than anticipated ," states the CBC in response to interrogatories in which the commission asks it to justify deletion of its off-air service to the region. "As a result, CBC/Radio-Canada did not budget nor does it have the resources within its current capital plan to introduce retransmitters for CBUT-TV into the Kamloops market to provide CBC service over-the-air."JPBG’s legal counsel Owen Bird Law Corp. asks the CRTC to agree to the disaffiliation, effective January 2, 2006. If granted, JPBG says that it will continue to operate as an independent station at its existing level of local service, while sourcing non-local programming through Global. The small broadcaster tells the CRTC that the agreement, if adhered to for six years, would "have inevitably eroded the ability of CFJC-TV Kamloops to continue its local service during the course of that agreement."CFJC-TV has operated as an affiliate of the CBC for 47 years. Comments on the application are due by December 6. Vidéotron ups damages in piracy lawsuit against Bell ExpressVuVidéotron ltée has amended its lawsuit to demand more money as a result of damages it says it suffered because Bell ExpressVu allegedly failed to "adequately protect its system against signal piracy." The Quebec cableco is asking for $49.5 million, up from the previous claim of $1 million, for profits allegedly lost to pirates over the last three years. Vidéotron is also requesting $314.7 million for alleged future losses, and $10 million in punitive damages." Rogers, Shaw want to advertise Internet services in local availsRogers Cable Communications Inc. and Shaw Cablesystems Ltd. have asked for licence amendments that would allow them to promote their Internet and local telephony services in their local avails (Broadcasting Public Notice 2005-102). The country’s two largest cablecos want the right to advertise their non-programming services within the 25% of local availabilities they are currently allowed to use to promote their discretionary TV packages, channel realignments, and customer service information. In September, the CRTC turned down a request by the Canadian Cable and Telecommunications Association (CCTA) that cablecos be allowed to use the local availabilities for commercial advertising and also to promote their non-programming services (CCR, Sept. 27/05). At that time, CCTA president Michael Hennessy stated that the association likely wasn’t finished its fight to win approval for cablecos to advertise their bundles in local avails. Comments on the requests are due December 21. Ad growth strong at Alliance Atlantis during third quarterAd sales were up 30% and EBITDA climbed 23% at Alliance Atlantis’ broadcasting group in the third quarter ended September 30, the company reported November 11. Alliance Atlantis trails only Astral Media in terms of year-to-date advertising sales growth. Analog specialty TV channels Showcase, HGTV and the Food Network helped the company’s broadcast revenues increase 17% to $64 million, and EBITDA improved to $14.5 million. "By growing audiences and focusing on monetizing that growth through advertising sales, the core broadcasting business continues to deliver strong performance," noted the company. "Our digital channels again outperformed the industry average, with an overall average minute audience (AMA) increase of 30% for the broadcast year. Showcase Action is the number one new specialty network for adults 25-54 and six of the new specialty channels are ranked in the top 20 – Showcase Action, Showcase Diva, BBC Canada, Independent Film Channel, National Geographic and Discovery Health Canada," states Alliance Atlantis. Revenues generated by the company’s diginets increased $8.4 million, or 39.8%, to $29.5 million in the nine-month period ended September 30. The increase is due mostly to an increase in subscribers. The company’s CSI franchise also continues to drive revenues.

CCR Short Takes

Broadcast | November 18, 2005

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