CRTC maintains protection for Super Ecran but opens consultation

The CRTC issued a broadcasting decision Friday that maintained regulatory protection for the only French-language pay TV service in Canada but at the same time called for new applications in the French-language market “with special conditions.” In January, the commission received an application from TVA Group Inc. to open up the French-language pay television market to competition. TVA planned to launch a new service called Ciné-TVA, devoted to dramas and theatrical feature films. Right now, Astral Media Inc.’s Super Écran is the only pay TV specialty channel operating in the French-language market. The service devotes about 90 per cent of its programming schedule to recent feature films. On Friday, following a consultation on opening up the French-language market, the commission said TVA failed to demonstrate that the market could support two services of the same genre, and that it would not consider the application. “The Commission considers that TVA Group has not demonstrated that the library of this type of Canadian program is large enough to supply two competing services,” the CRTC said. “The Commission is also concerned that should the genre be opened to competition, services within that genre would be very similar and would not offer consumers enough programming diversity. Nor would these services offer new opportunities for the creation of new content for the broadcasting system.” But the commission noted in its decision that Super Écran benefits from an “advantageous financial situation,” and that a second service of the same genre could be viable if it is complementary to Super Écran, but not directly competitive. “The Commission considers that there is a large repertoire of quality content not currently broadcast by Super Écran that could supply a second French-language general interest pay television service while ensuring diversity for consumers and for the broadcasting system,” the CRTC said. The commission also opened a consultation calling for applications to operate a new French-language general interest pay service “under certain conditions.” “Applicants will therefore be required to provide evidence clearly demonstrating demand and a market for the proposed service. Though the service will be authorized to broadcast feature films, it must be complementary to Super Écran,” the commission wrote. Despite the call for applications, the CRTC added that it has not yet concluded whether it will open up the French-language market to competition. Parties interested in filing an application have until May 30, 2011. CRTC commissioner Michel Morin wrote a dissenting opinion to the decision. He said the proposed TVA service would have introduced competition—but to the benefit of consumers. “The Commission has chosen not to introduce competition for the benefit of consumers and open up the genre to competition, but rather to issue a call for applications for licences for a new French-language general interest specialty pay service that will add ‘diversity,’” he wrote. “This approach constitutes an exception for the French-language market. Never before has the Commission proposed ‘diversity’ as a licensing condition for a general interest pay television service in the English-language market, which includes two competitive general interest pay television services in most areas of the country.” news@thewirereport.ca

CRTC maintains protection for Super Ecran but opens consultation

News | 11/19/2010 9:39 pm EST

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