Local1 network to produce 10 local newscasts updated three times daily: Corus

Corus Entertainment Inc.’s proposed all-news network Local1 will produce 48 hosted segments each day, including 10 separate local newscasts updated three times daily, the company said last week in new information filed with the CRTC. Corus filed the information as part of its appearance at a public hearing in Saskatoon, Sask., last week. As a result of the new information, the CRTC said in a notice Tuesday it is now giving parties until Oct. 18 to comment on the new information. Corus will have until the end of day on Oct. 21 to reply. Corus said the all-news channel—which will take a “hyper-local” approach to news, weather and community information in 64 markets in Western Canada—will produce a national newscast and a regional newscast, each updated three times daily. If approved, the Category 2 specialty channel also intends to broadcast four different provincial newscasts updated three times daily and 10 local newscasts, each updated three times daily. In an Aug. 9 letter to the commission, Corus said the Local1 channel will replace the company’s TV Listings service, for which Corus announced a cancellation in August. The listings service, designed to help viewers find programs on analog television, had become obsolete with the popularity of digital television services that offer on-screen program guides. Corus says its revenue model for the proposed hyper-local news service will draw significantly on advertising—which has drawn concern from local television stations. Canwest Global Communications Corp.—which is being purchased by Shaw Communications Inc.—submitted in a comment to the CRTC that Local1 would increase competition for local advertising dollars among “fragile news outlets operating within the struggling conventional television sector.” At the CRTC hearing in Saskatoon last week, a coalition of TV and radio companies, including Astral Media, Channel Zero, CHEK Media Group, and others, asked the commission to deny Corus’ application. Cam Cowie, general manager of Harvard Broadcasting and a member of the coalition, said the content for the Local1 newscasts will “emanate from a central broadcast facility in Calgary. It won’t come from Lloydminster or Red Deer or Saskatoon.” The coalition said it expects Corus to effectively expand its TV Listings service and pursue new types of advertising from a wider base of advertisers. The coalition also referred to CRTC distribution policy 2008-100, in which the commission expressed concern that over-the-air stations could not recover advertising dollars lost to specialty services. “By licensing Local1, other broadcasters would believe that, contrary to your long-standing policy on local advertising, it’s OK to extract local advertising revenues from communities where they do not provide a real local programming service,” Mike Keller, vice-president of industry affairs at Newcap Radio and a member of the coalition, told the commission last week. Pelmorex Communications Inc., owner of The Weather Network, also argues Local1 would compete with it directly, and told the commission at last week’s hearing the proposed service “copies The Weather Network and contravenes the commission’s genre exclusivity policy.” In its Aug. 9 letter, Corus noted that advertising dollars will be key to its revenues. “Subscriber revenue is important to our viability but if a service cannot generate sufficient audience potential to obtain measurable audiences then it will never have the ability to develop traction with ad buyers,” the company said. But in new information filed with the CRTC last week, Corus said it is prepared to accept a condition of licence that limits advertising to no more than 12 minutes per hour and local advertising to no more than six minutes per hour in communities served by local newscasts. In the Aug. 9 letter, Corus said it hopes to negotiate an initial launch on Shaw’s 10 cable systems within six months of CRTC approval, but added that Shaw is an independent company and that the Local1 service “will be required to negotiate carriage with all relevant BDUs , including Shaw.” Corus is owned by the Shaw family. The company added in the letter that it expects to launch the network during the 2012 fiscal year. Corus said it does not expect the service to reach less than one per cent of the total viewing audience share within its first three years of service, but expects to “recapture” lost levels of audience share previously held by its TV Listings channel. “We have assumed that local advertising would make up 75% of the total ad revenue with the balance from national advertisers. This varies from the original application in that the TVL service will no longer be operational by the time of launch of a new service which we would assume would be in Fiscal 2012,” Corus wrote. “Local TV services such as TVL have historically provided entry level pricing for advertisers who might not otherwise be able to access the large regional and national broadcast offerings. LOCAL1 is positioned as such.” In the information filed with the CRTC last week, Corus provided new revenue forecasts for the channel, showing that most of the revenue generated would be earned in British Columbia and Alberta in markets like Vancouver, Kelowna, Victoria, Edmonton, and Calgary. It’s total projected revenue in its first year of operation is $2.5 million, rising to $9.15 million in its seventh year. CTV Inc. and Global did not comment for this story Wednesday. sdoyle@thewirereport.ca

Local1 network to produce 10 local newscasts updated three times daily: Corus

Broadcast | October 13, 2010

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