Telus and Shaw say their customers largely aren’t watching OMNI

GATINEAU, QUE. -- Telus Corp. and Shaw Communications Inc. say their customers largely have not expressed much interest in OMNI, and instead choose to purchase select ethnic discretionary channels. Telus submitted internal data Wednesday in front of the CRTC that shows viewer uptake of OMNI Regional for more than an hour per month was at only 1.7 per cent for its entire base. The data adds fodder to the company’s previously submitted intervention to the regulator, which continued a four-day hearing this week into whether or to whom it should grant a much-coveted mandatory carriage license for an ethnic channel on basic TV. That submission, reiterated Wednesday on the third day of the hearings, included a request for the CRTC to actually do away with a mandatory ethnic channel and deny the pleas of eight applicants for the sole licence heard over the preceding two days. Last year, Rogers Communications Inc. was granted the extraordinary mandate for OMNI Regional for an interim period of three years. The call was met with agreement from Shaw representatives, which also suggested no service should be given a mandatory broadcast licence on basic TV. In fact, Dean Shaikh, vice-president of regulatory affairs at Shaw, said his company also has its own data that suggests OMNI Regional is one of its lowest-ranked services among ethnic and third-language viewers. He did not provide specific numbers, but said the company would provide data to the regulator where it has on the viewership numbers. Shaikh challenged the three-member CRTC panel to revert back to a broadcasting system before Rogers was given the OMNI mandate by stripping the company of the licence and relying on what it says is the over 200 licensed services already in the system. Telus also gave a similar figure in its opening statement. “It’s absolutely essential that the system as a whole provides diversity,” Shaikh said, adding a single service can’t “meaningfully” meet the needs of Canada’s diverse populous. Shaw outlined other concerns with forcing Canadians to pay for services “they do not want or need,” including a migration to alternatives -- meaning more cord cutting. It said Rogers' proposed rate of 19 cents per subscriber per month -- up from its current 12 cents -- and increasing to 21 cents in the last year of the term in 2025, would create a “negative impact” on Canadians, if it's granted. However, if the commission were to grant a mandatory licence, Shaw said it should be on a non-profit basis, or a cap of 12 cents per subscriber per month for the broadcaster to host the service. “Experience can be one of the factors you consider when you make that determination,” he said. “In the case of Rogers specifically, I don’t think they’re entitled to win the service based on incumbency.” In his opening remarks on Monday, CRTC chairman Ian Scott alluded to the possibility the regulator may find that none of the eight applicants meet the commission’s bar for mandatory distribution. The commission, he said, will decide “whether any of the proposed services should receive a licence and have the privilege of receiving mandatory distribution." "We are seeking an exceptional service that will contribute to the diversity of Canada and best serve Canadians,” he said. No need, Telus said Wednesday. “When consumers have selected, have chosen a programming service, they generally engage with it a lot more,” said Ann-Mainville Neeson, Telus’ vice-president of broadcast and regulatory affairs. “I think a mandatory service on basic may not garner that same interest, but also you’re looking at a service that is attempting to be everything to everyone and that is very difficult to hold the engagement of any specific community, whereas a discreet, dedicated third-language programming service is more likely to continue to engage,” she added. Telus argued that its discretionary channels have garnered much higher interest. To illustrate the argument, it noted that despite OMNI being available to its entire viewer base, it doesn’t break its top 100 services. On the flipside, discretionary ethnic and third-language content, with a much smaller base, rank amongst the top, said the company’s senior manager of consumer products and content Mary Sun. Telus’ Optik TV service offers over 75 channels broadcasting in third-languages and provides programming in 16 distinct languages, it said in its submission, with the stated intention that it will add more. Telus warned if the commission were to issue the licence, it should not go to either BCE Inc. or Rogers, both large companies that own content and the network that delivers them, so as not to inflate their market strength. It is an argument that has been echoed by other, non-vertically-integrated players during the hearing. Some warned a large company holding the licence would give it less attention. Rogers, which presented its case for a mandate extension on Monday, initially shuttered OMNI newscasts in 2015, but sought to revive them through guaranteed revenues provided by the CRTC’s mandatory distribution policy. Rogers has said it operates OMNI on a break-even basis. Telus said in its original submission the regulator was too quick to grant the licence when OMNI was undergoing financial pressures, and asked the CRTC to “sunset” the program’s interim three-year term, which began in September 2017. The fact that Rogers did waver under financial pressure and sacrificed OMNI staff and services over the years did not project confidence with Monica Auer, executive director of the Forum for Research and Policy in Communications (FRPC), who charged the company Wednesday with having a “cavalier attitude.” “Rogers has an issue with credibility,” Auer said in response to a question from commissioner Christianne Laizner, who asked how the FRPC sizes-up supportive submissions for Rogers’ application with its assertions. “We can say that people may not recall the many cuts that were made over the last five years, but we do, and we remember the hundreds of staff that it let go,” she said, suggesting the cuts show it isn’t committed to the effort. Despite these concerns, Auer said she doesn’t think a lack of viewership means that there shouldn’t be a mandatory ethnic service. “Parliament clearly intended that ethnic audiences in Canada should have access to high quality programming, and so the fact that people may not be watching it now is to me evidence of a real need for better programming.” — With reporting by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca and editing by Kyle Duggan at kduggan@thewirereport.ca

Telus and Shaw say their customers largely aren’t watching OMNI

News | 11/28/2018 4:29 pm EST

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