OTTAWA – As the so-called "account stacking" proceeding progresses, reply comments were due in last week and the Canadian Association of Broadcasters let it be known again that the practice runs contrary to existing regulations.
The complaint (originally made by Videotron and first reported here, and followed up here) centers on Star Choice’s decision to allow customers to buy more than one receiver but pay just one bill, on the assumption that any additional receivers are in cottages or other such locations.
The broadcasters insist that the regulations and individual contracts say that one address equals one subscriber and Star Choice (which is owned by Shaw Communications) customers should not be able to pay just one bill – and therefore just one wholesale fee to specialty channel owners. As well, say Videotron and the CAB, such a system could be (and is being) abused where additional receivers are deployed at other homes and different customers end up splitting a bill.
Such customers call it account splitting, of course, and do it to decrease their monthly TV fees (more on this on Thursday).
"The provision of service to two residences owned by one subscriber is premised on the notion that, in general, such subscribers will not be occupying two residences at once," says the original Star Choice letter submitted earlier this year after the Videotron complaint. "Reception at the secondary residence is simply a substitute for viewing at the primary residence and DTH technology is well-suited to providing the subscriber with such viewing flexibility."
"In the view of Videotron, this practice by (Star Choice) is anti-competitive and deprives Videotron of subscribers, thereby subjecting Videotron to an undue disadvantage," the CAB said in its original decision. "Videotron further alleged that this practice deprives programming undertakings, particularly specialty programming services and pay television services, of revenue that they would otherwise collect if SCI complied with the Regulations."
Plus, if Star Choice is allowed to do it, other BDUs will follow suit, resulting in lower revenue for Canadian (and American, for that matter) cable channels.
A decision is expected sometime this year.
