GATINEAU – Having to wedge six new channels to the collective basic cable lineups in Edmonton and Calgary at essentially the same time is just too much to ask, Shaw Communications has told the CRTC.
In a recent application, Shaw has asked for a new condition of license to let it carry Crossroads Television System (CTS), a new religious broadcaster in Calgary and Edmonton which has been in operation in Ontario for years, on channel 51 – an unrestricted channel, but well away, numerically, from where most other must-carries are placed.
Shaw notes that the CRTC approved new licenses not just for CTS, but also for Rogers Media’s ethnic broadcaster OMNI in Calgary and Edmonton, as well as new transmitters in Alberta’s two largest cities for CanWest Global’s CHCA-TV Red Deer. As local over-the-air broadcasters, all are basic service must-carries.
That means Shaw has to move some well-placed, popular channels, someplace else on their lineup – which is disruptive to customers.
In its application hoping to be able to place CTS on channel 51, Shaw insists “the regulatory requirement to accommodate the distribution of two new analog television services – Crossroads and OMNI – and to change the channel placement of an existing service – CHCA-TV Red Deer – in its Calgary and Edmonton systems, is an unprecedented customer and network management challenge. It is Shaw’s view that the distribution of Crossroads on channel 51 of the basic service in both Calgary and Edmonton would allow Shaw to accommodate the distribution of new analog and digital services in the most customer-friendly manner with the least disruption, in consideration of the extremely competitive BDU marketplace,” it reads.
Shaw stated that it had developed and presented to CTS a media plan valued by Shaw at approximately $250,000 to support the launch of CTS on channel 51 in Calgary and Edmonton. According to Shaw, CTS rejected this offer, indicating that it must be distributed on channel 22 or below to be viable.
