New media meets TV as CRTC considers applications for new digital channels

Dozens of new media companies have teamed up with broadcasters, production companies and other traditional television players to compete for a new generation of TV services that promise more functionality than the web, and as much uncertainty when it comes to making money. Digital TV ServicesInteractive program guidesVideo on demandData servicesInteractive advertisingE-commerceEnhanced TVTV-based web accessOn April 3, Canada's broadcast regulator received 452 applications for new specialty TV channels, many of which resemble e-commerce and interactive web sites. With subscriber revenues expected to be marginal in the early years, applicants are counting on the cable industry's next generation of set top boxes to provide the interactivity that will allow for new revenue streams. The excitement surrounding the new channels consumed this year's Canadian Cable Television Association (CCTA) conference early this month in Toronto. Attendance was a little sparse on day one of the conference as companies rushed to meet the April 3 deadline for filing new digital TV applications. But by day two the main talk of the show was interactive digital TV.Despite some warnings that new digital channels won't see black for five years, the industry is growing increasingly optimistic that transactional revenues will reduce reliance on subscriber revenues and make it possible for innovative services to make money sooner. "We're looking at all sources of revenue because we know, on that small (subscriber) base, we're going to have to go with all sorts of revenue like subscription, advertising, new media, e-commerce, these sorts of models," Paul Robertson, president of Corus Entertainment Ltd told Canadian NEW MEDIA. Corus filed 33 applications for new channels with such partners as Nelvana Limited, the CBC, the National Film Board and the Discovery Channel. Both Alliance-Atlantis Communications Inc and Astral Communications Inc say their digital TV applications have strong new media components. "New media — e-commerce, interactive TV— are involved in all of our applications," says Astral chair André Bureau, whose company filed 16 applications for new digital TV channels. "But we know it will be a longterm kind of thing (before the channels are profitable). We believe this is the way of the future, and we want to stake our position there and be present," he told CNM. Alliance-Atlantis president Michael MacMillan says his company's applications for an independent film channel, and channels focusing on health, biography, and books, all take advantage of interactivity. The proposed health network is linked with a major U.S. medical web site, and the book channel includes e-commerce elements. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission is considering applications for two types of digital TV licences. Category 1 licences will be guaranteed carriage on a new digital tier, but only about 10 are expected to get approved. Category 2 licences are more of a free-for-all, and will have to negotiate their way onto the new digital boxes. It's not known how many of these licences will be granted. Kevin Shea, president of Global Tele-vision Network Inc, whose company filed 36 applications, says the companies that link their services with the Internet or develop website-like channels will have a good chance of surviving, regardless of the licence category. "We're learning a lot from the Internet: it's fragment, or be fragmented," he told CCTA delegates during the conference. "The Internet gives you such a luxury of choice in different areas, and now we're seeing this on the television side." Global, Rogers Media Inc and Medbroadcast Corp have jointly applied for a Category 1 licence for a national health channel. Medbroadcast, which is 32 per cent owned by Global, operates medbroadcast.com, a Canadian web site for health information (CNM, June 23/99). New digital set-top boxes marry TV and webDigital content and applications developers have good reason to be excited about the prospect of a new delivery platform, one that is projected to reach nearly five million Canadian homes within five years. After years of false starts and empty promises, the cable industry is finally moving towards a widescale deployment of digital set top boxes. A recent report released by the CCTA says the Cadillac-version of these boxes will begin hitting the market sometime in 2001, about the same time new digital TV channels are expected go live. One of the more advanced features of the new terminals will be an interactive program guide, which will be branded under such names as TV Guide Canada, TV Hebdo and Prevue. "As the number of services offered by broadcast distribution undertakings in-creases, the role of the interactive program guide increases in importance similar to a web browser," the CCTA report states. Another feature, called ‘enhanced TV', will enable viewers to choose a specific camera angle during a sporting event, call up a player's statistics, or play along with a game show. "Enhanced TV services are somewhat different than basic web access as the interactive component is synchronized and displayed on the television as part of the traditional broadcast," the CCTA notes. To provide services like Microsoft's WebTV, an Internet connection overlays data from a web site onto a related TV program. Companies like ExtendMedia Inc of Toronto are already providing enhanced programs for CBC's Drop the Beat program as well as Alliance Atlantis' Life Network. (CNM, May 20/99). BlueZone Inc, Vancouver, is also working with independent producers and North American broadcasters to add interactivity to their broadcasts (CNM, Nov. 9/99). Trina McQueen, executive VP of CTV Ltd, believes these advancements could result in the creation of a new medium that rivals the capabilities of the Internet. "Set top boxes are profoundly more easy to use than the web ... you can have interactivity without being a technical genius," she told delegates at the CCTA conference. "The opportunities are unlimited to personalize, to imagine, to fool around with the content in ways that really apply to you alone." The extent to which companies plan to use interactivity won't be known until the applications become public next month. The proceeding will also reveal how far cable and satellite TV companies are prepared to go to support interactivity on their networks.IS DIGITAL TV THE WEB'S NEW COMPETITOR?Digital Set Top Box Forecast (English & French markets)Long-term ForecastsPessimistic (Low Range)Optimistic (High Range)TerminalsTerminalsSeptember 2001486,4861,066,316September 2003872,2581,802,548September 20051,269,9972,536,394Source: Canadian Cable Television Association

New media meets TV as CRTC considers applications for new digital channels

News | 04/20/2000 4:00 am EDT

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