Rogers says it will have 1,000 Canadian films on video-on-demand by summer

Rogers Communications Inc. is aggressively licensing new Canadian films for its video-on-demand platform to better compete with TV rival BCE Inc., not as a way to head off an application for a new Canadian film channel mandated on basic cable, said David Purdy, Rogers’ senior vice-president of content. “It’s part of a strategy we’ve had for a number of months now, where we’ve wanted to really differentiate ourselves against the current IPTV provider we compete with,” Purdy told The Wire Report Monday after the company appeared at a hearing to oppose mandatory carriage applications for new channels on basic cable. “They have a relatively modest VOD offering,” Purdy said, without referring to Rogers’ competitor, BCE, by name. He said Rogers’ efforts to license Canadian films—it recently licensed 300 Canadian films and will have 1,000 titles by the summer, he said—predated the CRTC’s hearing on mandatory carriage licences, also called 9(1)(h) orders. At a CRTC hearing last week at which the commission is looking at broadcasting applications for mandatory distribution of channels on basic TV packages, a group of filmmakers and producers appeared to discuss their application on basic for Starlight: The Canadian Film Channel. Norm Bolen, chief executive of the proposed channel, told commissioners last week that there is “market failure” in the availability of Canadian film on television. Canadian film producer Robert Lantos, who is backing the channel, said at the hearing last week that an unnamed Canadian broadcast distributor had licensed 300 Canadian films for its video-on-demand service and that the move may have been inspired by the Starlight application. Proponents of Starlight say video-on-demand libraries are expensive and do not provide the same kind of access to Canadian films as their channel would. Starlight is asking for mandatory carriage on basic with a wholesale carriage fee of 45 cents per subscriber per month. Purdy told commissioners that Rogers is trying to reinforce its online, on-demand TV service, called Anyplace TV, with a larger catalogue of content, particularly as the company negotiates distribution agreements with channels and content providers. The company wants its video-on-demand platform to offer twice as much as its competitors, he said. “It’s not about quotas, it’s also about driving the revenues,” Purdy told commissioners. He said the company will pay to digitize the 300 Canadian films it licensed, and referred to content acquisitions for video-on-demand and TV everywhere platforms as an “arms race.” Purdy said video-on-demand pricing is becoming more flexible as consumers’ options increase, and that TV subscribers have access to more options than video-on-demand pay-per-view libraries. TV subscribers can access free video-on-demand content linked to the specialty channels they subscribe to, Purdy said, referring to video-on-demand content available through services like MovieTime or Hollywood Suite. He also expects more “all you can eat” packages to become available through TV providers, referring to Quebecor Media Inc.’s Videotron Ltd. subsidiary’s online and mobile TV service, called illico Club Unlimited. BCE has also said it has plans to launch a TV Everywhere service, and that it will allow other broadcast distributors to licence it with Bell-owned channels and content. Cogeco Cable Inc. said in a release Monday that it also expanded the number of titles available through its On Demand Online service, which now offers 3,000 TV shows and movies. Cogeco said the service, which allows Cogeco’s cable subscribers to access on-demand content online, now offers content from Canadian TV channels The Movie Network, HBO, Treehouse, Global Television, Super Ecran, Teletoon, and CBC/Radio-Canada. “With this service, Cogeco Cable gives its customers total control of their own entertainment, additional flexibility and options for accessing the best of television, movies, kids' series and vast musical programming as well,” the company said in the release. Rogers and other distributors, including Cogeco, MTS Inc., the independent distributors of the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance, and Shaw Communications Inc., also appeared before the CRTC on Monday to voice their opposition to any potential that new channels would be forced onto basic through regulation. They said additional channels would add costs to their companies through wholesale carriage fees paid to the channels and other expenses such as network capacity and running customer service centres. “The commission has set a very high bar to ensure that mandatory distribution orders are issued only in exceptional circumstances. We strongly support the commission’s high threshold and its transparent framework,” Jean Brazeau, senior vice-president of regulatory, told commissioners. Brazeau said there is no real “markup” that distributors add to wholesale carriage fees, and that adjustments to costs are viewed as a whole company. Keith Stevens, chairman of Execulink Telecom who spoke as a member of the CCSA, said small distributors do not have the network capacity to add more channels to basic service, and that adding a channel would mean taking another one off. In comments filed with the commission in January for its consultation on mandatory carriage, Rogers, BCE, Bragg Communications Inc., Cogeco, Shaw, and Telus Corp. said mandatory carriage fees resulting from more 9(1)(h) orders would lead to higher monthly TV bills and cause customers to downsize their subscriptions or cancel them altogether. The hearing continues this week with more interveners Tuesday and Wednesday and the 9(1)(h) applicants' chances to respond on Thursday. —With reporting by Simon Doyle at sdoyle@thewirereport.ca and copy editing by Nicholas Kyonka at nkyonka@thewirereport.ca

Rogers says it will have 1,000 Canadian films on video-on-demand by summer

News | 04/29/2013 8:57 pm EDT

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