CCR Update

Bell ExpressVu adds 76,000 net subscribers in Q1Satellite TV operator Bell ExpressVu LP added 76,000 net subscribers in its fiscal 2002 first quarter ended March 31, according to financial results released last week by parent BCE Inc. This compares to 74,000 net subscribers added in the same period last year. The company had a total of 1.145 million subscribers at March 31. Bell ExpressVu continued to make strong inroads into the urban market in the quarter with 70 per cent of net additions coming from urban areas. At the end of the first quarter, the company's urban customer base represented 57 per cent of total subscribers, up slightly from 56 per cent at the end of the previous quarter. Decima Publishing's Digital Domain report is your most complete source of digital TV market information. More details. CanWest Global registers loss in Q2, but says Prime on the riseCanWest Global Communications Corp. says broadcast operating profit at its analog specialty channel Prime TV rose 41 per cent to $3.1 million in the second quarter ended February 28 over the same period last year. In financials released April 25, CanWest also notes that at the end of the free preview period, its diginets Fox Sportsworld and Dejaview achieved the highest ratings in the 24-54 year-old demographic. Three of its four remaining diginets – Mystery, Men, and Lonestar – also made the top ten, it states. Overall though, the company sustained a net loss for the quarter of $21.7 million, compared with earnings of $10.5 million last year. The company announced that revenues for its conventional TV operations "were slightly ahead on same station basis, although broadcast operating profits declined for the quarter, mainly due to added costs associated with ratings-driven investment in new programming which is expected to improve revenues for the third quarter and beyond." More details. Shaw joins with CANARIE to help establish CA*net 4 networkShaw Communications Inc.’s Big Pipe subsidiary has partnered with CANARIE Inc. (Canadian Network for the Advancement of Research, Industry and Education) and GT Group Telecom to establish CANARIE’s CA* net 4 national backbone network. The high-speed, private Internet network will link all research-intensive institutions coast-to-coast. It is scheduled to be operational by July 2002. Under the five-year, minimum $25-million agreement, Big Pipe and GT Group Telecom will provide the network architecture. More details. Rogers promo captilalizes on ExpressVu slip up in Ottawa marketRogers Cable Inc. ran full-page newspaper ads asking "What Game Were You Watching?" after viewers in the Ottawa region were unable to see the fourth game of the Ottawa Senators-Philadelphia Flyers series on Bell ExpressVu and Star Choice. Executives at ExpressVu and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. say they were flooded with calls by angry Ottawa hockey fans, who could only get the Toronto Maple Leafs-New York Islanders game on their dishes. Bell ExpressVu issued an apology, and blamed it on "a last minute schedule change by the CBC", which holds the rights to the NHL playoff games. ExpressVu says the Ottawa game was to be broadcast on the CBC’s Quebec and Atlantic feed, but that the CBC changed it to the Ottawa feed, which ExpressVu doesn’t carry, at the last minute. Chris Frank, VP of programming at ExpressVu, says arrangements have been made with the CBC to ensure all future Ottawa Senators playoff games are available to all subscribers. That shouldn’t be a problem as Ottawa faces Toronto in the next round of the playoffs, beginning May 2. More details. Radio-Canada workers, management continue standoffRadio-Canada management on April 30 accused unionized workers at the French-language broadcaster of expending more energy on "playing politics than in negotiating". Management was unhappy the Syndicat des communications de Radio-Canada organized and publicized an event on pay equity – an issue on which management says agreement was reached three weeks ago. On April 29, management issued a media release, expressing "surprise" that the union had issued its own long press release asking, "What does the CBC want?" Management charges that the union did not show up for talks over the April 27-28 weekend and deplores "this inexplicable slowdown in the bargaining process". More details. Inside wiring comments deadline extendedThe CRTC has extended the deadline for the filing of reply comments on a proposed rate for the use of inside wiring in multiple-unit dwellings until May 10 – Broadcasting Public Notice 2002-13-2. This extension was granted at the request of Bell ExpressVu. An earlier extension in this process was granted at the request of the Canadian Cable Television Association (CCR, March 28/02). Vision TV, NFB, CBC partner on cultural diversity initiativeVisionTV, the National Film Board of Canada, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. have partnered to try to bring greater racial and cultural diversity to Canadian television. Under the initiative, VisionTV will broadcast the documentaries created by five emerging filmmakers of colour, produced as part of the NFB’s 2002 Reel Diversity Competition. The deadline for applications for Reel Diversity is May 24, with the winners to be announced at the Banff Television Festival in June. More details. CourtTV Canada goes interactiveCourtTV Canada has launched Crimebeat, a series of broadcast shorts with a companion web site geared to teaching users about crimes affecting youth and to gathering more information on the issue interactively. The initiative is being done in conjunction with the National Strategy on Community Safety and Crime Prevention, and the Canadian Policy Research Network, which will compile and publish a discussion paper based on the results. For more details, see the May 1/02 edition of CCR affiliate publication Canadian NEW MEDIA. CHUM brings MuchMusic content to wireless devicesCHUM Television has extended its specialty television brand into the wireless sector with MuchMobile. It delivers MuchMusic-branded wireless programming to mobile subscribers of Telus, Bell Mobility, Rogers AT&T, MTS, Aliant and Sasktel. The content available includes the top entertainment stories and late-breaking pop culture news, and games. More details. CHUM’s Fashion TV gets Asian exposureCHUM Television’s FT-FashionTelevision program has been acquired by China Entertainment Television for broadcast on its satellite channel AsiaSat3, the Toronto-based broadcaster announced April 24. As well, Thailand’s United Broadcasting Corporation has renewed its agreement for FT. FT is now available in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, Micronesia/Guam, Papua New Guinea, People’s Republic of China, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. More details. INTERNATIONAL NEWS Discovery bringing commercials to its VOD serviceDiscovery Communications plans to tap into advertising dollars when it launches its free video-on-demand service this summer. It has created Discovery Sponsor Cinema, or what it calls "random-access advertising space", in an age where technology may allow customers to skip commercials on a widespread basis. Discovery is freeing up space on its server for entertaining commercials, and its VOD offerings will have sponsorship tags. Discovery’s John Hendricks told Mediaweek.com that 10 to 15 per cent of its VOD content would be sponsorship messages – an amount equivalent to the advertising load on its cable networks, which average eight to 60 minutes per hour of commercials. At last month’s Canadian Cable Television Association convention, Leo Hindery Jr. warned broadcasters that tech advances, such as the VOD and PVR, could hurt traditional advertising models (CCR, April 25/02). More details. DirecTV targets hockey fans DirecTV is attempting to capitalize on interest in the current hockey playoffs to hook customers. It is offering new customers who subscribe to its Total Choice programming package at US$31.99/month a free DirecTV system and standard professional installation. "It is our way of thanking you for being an NHL fan," the distributor says in promotions. It is selling the remainder of the 2001-02 season of the NHL Center Ice package for US$109. More details. U.S. cablecos embrace Powell plan for voluntary digital TV transition The top 10 U.S. cable operators have endorsed the plan for transition to digital television advocated by Federal Communications Commission chair Michael Powell. The industry’s endorsement was conveyed in a letter to Powell from National Cable & Telecommunications Association president Robert Sachs. Powell praised the cable industry for "helping us deliver on the promise of digital television for the American people". Powell has proposed that the networks provide high-definition and/or other value-added digital television programming during at least 50 per cent of prime time to attract customers (CCR Update, April 17/02). More details.

CCR Update

Broadcast | May 1, 2002

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