Shaw plans to better market free satellite TV program

Shaw Communications Inc. will launch a marketing initiative this summer to promote an underused program that offers free satellite services to rural Canadians affected by last year’s digital transition, the company said. As a part of Shaw's $2 billion acquisition of Canwest Global Communications Corp. in 2010, Shaw adopted a CRTC recommendation to spend $15 million in tangible benefits money to provide free Shaw Direct satellite services to households that would lose access to over-the-air TV signals following the switch to digital television broadcasting on Aug. 31, 2011. All companies acquiring broadcasting assets are required by the CRTC to spend a percentage of the value of the transaction, normally about 10 per cent, on “tangible benefits” to support the Canadian broadcasting system. At the time, Shaw said its program, called the Local Television Satellite Solution (LTSS), would give each qualifying household a free satellite receiver to receive local channels after the shuttering of analog transmitters in large, mandatory markets, or those affected by the switch to digital. Households receiving the free satellites would have the option to subscribe to additional channels for a fee, the company said. In an Oct. 14, 2011 letter from Shaw to the commission, the company said 292 households had applied for the service as of Sept. 30, 2011. The company said it received 3,139 inquiries about the program, “and more than half of those qualified” for it. The company said it now intends to ramp up promotion of the program to increase participation. In an emailed statement to The Wire Report Friday, Shaw spokeswoman Dervla Kelly said “approximately 4,000 homes” have so far signed onto the program. “We promoted the program on our website and the Department of Canadian Heritage's website also linked to our program. Recently, the CRTC approved our request to extend the program to Nov 30 2012, and also approved our request for a local marketing component,” Kelly said. “That plan will be implemented this summer in advance of shutdown of more analog receivers and will consist of publicity in affected markets. This, in addition to continued presence on our website, will ensure that affected Canadians know about the program concurrent with their experience of local signal loss,” she said. The CRTC estimated in 2010 that as many as 31,500 households could be impacted by the switch to digital and lose over-the-air signals. In its October letter to the CRTC, Shaw made a request to extend the offer beyond its original Nov. 30, 2011 deadline to Nov. 30, 2012. The company asked to allocate an additional $2.5 million to administration and marketing expenses for the program. “ublic awareness of the program has been limited by the absence of a marketing allocation in the original LTSS benefit authorization,” Jean Brazeau, senior vice-president of regulatory affairs at Shaw, wrote in the letter. “Shaw continues to believe ... that additional public education will result in increased public awareness and uptake of its program.” In a responding letter dated Nov. 29, 2011, the CRTC agreed to extend the offer window for the program and gave Shaw permission to spend additional benefits money on administration and marketing. The commission said the company could use the tangible benefits money for marketing expenses “provided that the program is made available to 31,500 households if such demand exists.” The CRTC also informed Shaw that it had received “a number of reports” that Canadians who had lost access to over-the-air signals following the digital transition were deemed “ineligible” for the program. “Although Shaw has added flexibility to the eligibility assessment of its program to address this concern, it is expected that all necessary measures will be taken to ensure that over-the-air viewers that lose access to local programming as a result of the DTV transition are provided access to this program,” the CRTC wrote. In January, the CRTC received Shaw’s first annual report on its tangible benefit contributions from the Canwest purchase. The report showed that Shaw spent $505,000 of the $2 million allocated to the satellite program by Aug. 31, 2011, which marked the end of the broadcasting year. Steven James May, a Ryerson University PhD student and over-the-air television broadcasting expert, told The Wire Report last week that this figure indicates that Shaw, until now, has not done enough to market the program. “It’s a great program, but they aren’t really promoting it,” he said in a telephone interview. May said information about the free satellite program on Shaw’s website is not readily accessible. A search of the program by its name, “Local Television Satellite Solution,” on the Shaw Direct website turns up pages with references to the program but no page devoted to it. “If you haven't been a cable or satellite customer in the last 90 days and live in or near one of the cities listed below, you may be eligible for our Local Television Satellite Solution (LTSS) program,” Shaw says near the bottom of a Shaw Direct webpage providing information about the digital transition. “This program will allow you to continue receiving the same or similar Canadian over-the-air channels you've always enjoyed courtesy of Shaw Direct. Please call one of our service representatives before November 30, 2012,” the note says. Grant McCormick, head of McCormick Telecom Consulting Ltd. in Vancouver, said he is unfamiliar with the free satellite program, but that it makes sense for Shaw. It is much cheaper for Shaw to offer free satellite services to a small number of households than it would be to upgrade its local, over-the-air broadcasting stations to digital in areas such as B.C.’s interior, he said. “Unlike the prairies, you have mountains, and pockets of population,” McCormick said. “It made more sense to put in low-power stations to serve those areas, but to convert them all to digital over-the-air, I can’t see the sense of it. It would be much too expensive.” Kelly Lynn Ashton, director of policy for the Writers Guild of Canada, questioned the merit of dedicating millions of dollars to a program that serves a few hundred households. During a CRTC hearing on Shaw's purchase of Global in 2010, she argued that $15 million was too much for the free satellite program. Ashton said it would have been better to allocate the funds to program creation. “That’s what we were arguing,” she said in an interview. “They didn’t need that much money—let’s allocate it properly.” Ashton said the commission has indicated that any funds left over from the free satellite program will be redirected to the development of independently produced programming of national interest. The Writers Guild will not rule out filing a formal complaint about the program to the CRTC, she said. “There are times when we’ve looked at benefits spending and tried to raise awareness of the fact that it isn’t being spent on time in accordance with the schedule,” Ashton said. “That is something we could do.” Kelly said Shaw sees merit in the free satellite TV program. “We have been flexible as possible with respect to making the service available in view of the fact that many unexpected anomalies can arise in connection with signal reception,” she wrote. “We believe the program has helped to ensue a very smooth digital transition for Canada.” news@thewirereport.ca

Shaw plans to better market free satellite TV program

Broadcast | May 25, 2012

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Shaw plans to better market free satellite TV program

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