Front Runner: After 17 months, High Fidelity HDTV is still Canada’s HD leader

Industry leaders are responsible for clearing a path. They have to cut through previously uncharted landscape at great expense, even though it leaves a trail their competitors can easily follow. And sometimes during their sojourn they encounter a challenge that, in its retelling, most clearly demonstrates exactly how uncharted their course is. While charting Canada's high-definition television universe, High Fidelity HDTV has faced such challenges. Last fall High Fidelity was invited to appear before the CRTC as part of a commission-backed meet-the-industry session to talk about the HDTV landscape. As Canada's leading HD broadcaster with four all-HD specialty channels - Oasis HD, Treasure HD, Rush HD and Equator HD - High Fidelity was an obvious choice. There was one catch: the CRTC had no method for screening HD programs inside their facility in Gatineau. "We literally trucked in a 50-inch monitor and an HD playback deck, hooked it all up before the meeting and had samples of our programming on tape for them to watch, and some of them had never seen it," says John Panikkar, co-founder of High Fidelity. Panikkar isn't taking a shot at the commission, but rather offering the anecdote as a comment on exactly what High Fidelity has gone through since launching its first channels, Oasis and Treasure, in the spring of 2006. Panikkar, however, hardly needs to say a word; when it comes to HDTV in Canada, High Fidelity's status and progress alone provide all the commentary needed. Indeed, when High Fidelity's first channels hit the airwaves via Bell ExpressVu a little more than 17 months ago, Canadian Communications Reports noted: "It says a lot about the state of high-definition television programming in Canada when a new broadcaster can launch its first two channels and automatically become the nation's HD leader."In addition to maintaining its lead by launching Rush and Equator on September 1, 2006, High Fidelity has also widened its distribution to channels to include SaskTel, Regina's Access Communications Ltd., Delta Cable Communications Ltd. in BC, and Source Cable Ltd. in Hamilton. Panikkar adds that High Fidelity is also actively negotiating with every other carrier in Canada. The broadcaster has also drastically reduced the repeat factor on its channels. High Fidelity, admits Panikkar, originally launched with 29 hours of inventory. It now counts about 200 hours of programming per channel, which it plans to increase by 150 hours per channel every year. It's a further comment on the industry that High Fidelity has been able to reduce its daily repeat factor by about 75% in 17 months as HD programming has become that much more readily obtainable. "It's by no means easy, but every month it gets easier," says Panikkar. "We're getting more and more calls from producers who realize what we're doing and want to make programs for us....Obviously there's growing awareness among us, not only among viewers but certainly within the industry. And there are more and more producers taking the leap into HD."Some of those producers, both in Canada and internationally, are future-proofing their content by creating HD programming even if the first run is to be aired only in standard definition. It's a process that allows High Fidelity to purchase second-run programs and still offer the HD broadcast premiere. But while High Fidelity's steady growth may serve as a barometer for Canada's HD industry, it doesn't give more than an average reading according to some. Michael McEwen, former president of Canadian Digital Television (CDTV), which ceased operations last fall, says Canada certainly hasn't narrowed the HD gap between itself and the US in the past year and a half. On the plus side, he adds, we're not losing ground. "I think we're doing some things in the programming side now, more and more product is coming in high-definition," he says. "So I think that message has certainly gotten through, and that had to happen; if it didn't happen we'd be in real trouble." McEwen's own career path is also somewhat a comment on our broadcast distribution industry. Now with the consultancy Media Asset Capital, McEwen says CDTV closed down because its members felt it had done job of educating the industry and "could allow the broadcasters themselves to carry the torch."The problem, however, with HDTV uptake, says McEwen, is that in Canada's heavily regulated, protected environment players are slow to embrace new technologies unless they have to. However, the CRTC took care of that when it mandated an August 31, 2001 shutdown-date for all analogue television signals last May. Adds McEwen: "With that 2011 date, I think what you're going to see over the next four years is that gap closing very quickly."Of course, that means more competitors will inevitably be nipping at High Fidelity's heels by following it up the path that it worked so hard to carve itself. Panikkar understands it's all part of the business. "Clearly we went into this knowing we would be pioneers," he says. "We're happy to take the lead and be Canada's HD leader, and we look forward to the day, frankly, when more broadcasters are in HD because of the rising-tide theory. We're quite happy to be at the forefront now. Obviously other broadcasters are going to come in and catch up at some point."It's natural to assume that Panikkar might be nervous that High Fidelity will lose its inherent advantage as more Canadian broadcasters embrace HD, but he says the format of his channels has always been secondary to the content. "We go out in the marketplace, and have done since day one, and say ‘you need these channels because they're unique, specific programming niches that you won't get anywhere else,'" says Panikkar. "We say ‘of course they're in HD because that's what a number of consumers expect and demand from the broadcasting system.'"

Front Runner: After 17 months, High Fidelity HDTV is still Canada’s HD leader

Broadcast | September 5, 2007

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