MONTREAL – The Quebec language group which took Rogers Cable to task this week for its distribution and placement of French-language channels in Ontario “unfortunately made inaccurate assumptions”, a Rogers official says.
“I think the group didn’t take things in context,” Rogers communications vice-president Taanta Gupta said. “We’ve done a major re-alignment of channels, but we make these changes so that they disrupt the least number of people as possible. We’ve also moved some English-language channels [to digital].”
On Tuesday, the group, Impératif français, complained to the federal government that the carrier is demonstrating “contempt” for the province’s French speakers.
It sent a letter to federal Public Works Minister Michael Fortier, urging the federal government to not renew its cellular service contracts with Rogers Wireless.
Specifically, it complained that Rogers has moved the Radio-Canada arts channel ARTV to its digital tier, dropping it from its basic service, even though the group says the station is made available at no cost to distributors in English Canada. Meanwhile, it said, Rogers made room for several U.S. channels.
It said that in Ottawa, Rogers has placed the Quebec educational and cultural channel Télé-Québec higher on the ‘dial’ than the U.S. PBS network.
It also said that in southern Ontario, Rogers plans to move three French-language channels – TVA, RDI, and TV5 – beyond the 100-channel mark, replacing them with two American movie channels and BBC World.
“No one is losing channels,” Gupta said. “We do not move channels around where there is a significant French-speaking population, such as in Ottawa and in New Brunswick.”
She rejected the notion that a channel’s placement is that important any more because 98% of Rogers’ customers have sets that reach 100 channels and more. “And we don’t talk of a ‘dial’ any more,” she added.
“But if people do have a problem, all they have to do is call us and we’ll find a way for them to get the channel they want and provide a digital box if necessary,” she said, at no extra cost.
– Glenn Wanamaker
