HAMILTON – Community television will never be the same in Canada.
Cable 14 Now launched Tuesday in the Steel City allowing Hamiltonians the opportunity to watch live and on-demand HD video of local content on web-connected devices at their convenience. The online service is the product of three local companies working together as Cable 14 partnered with Clearcable networks in Hamilton and Ancaster’s Hifyre, a digital media company.
“This will allow the cross-pollination of community channels across the country,” Rob McCann, president of Clearcable told Cartt.ca at the launch event. “We will be launching another (online service) in Quebec next week. It’s exciting for us to be able to unlock this opportunity in communities across Canada.”
Clearcable launched its Canadian Content Distribution Network (CDN) and Authentication Services on September 1, 2015. The company’s CDN offers television programmers and service providers an alternative means to transmit and receive traditional linear digital content and live over-the-top streaming content across the country by employing a distributed network of edge caches that move live content closer to the subscriber network.
“It was a significant cost for infrastructure, to establish a data centre,” said McCann. “We spent two years working on this (CDN) but we knew right away there was an opportunity to make this happen.”
Cable 14 Now is available to anyone with an internet-connected device until Oct. 31, 2015. After that date, Cable 14 Now will be available to Rogers and Cogeco cable television subscribers at no charge, augmenting their regular Cable 14 broadcast (Rogers and Cogeco co-own the community channel). Besides the local live web stream, all of Cable 14’s programming content will be available on an on-demand basis within 48 hours of the regular broadcast.
“I think this helps legitimize us,” said Brent Rickert, general manager of Cable 14. “We’ve always had the creditability, but this takes our partnership with viewers to a higher level. It’s a vehicle for the people to get more local programming.”
The timing couldn’t be better for Rickert’s group. His programming received a considerable boost this season with a minimum of 65 Ontario Hockey League games from the Hamilton Bulldogs. Last year the community channel broadcast 12 American Hockey League Bulldogs games (last year, the Bulldogs were a minor pro AHL team and this year they’re a junior hockey OHL outfit). The sports content is augmented by high school and varsity sports. Cable 14 also offers viewers a number of local affairs shows.
“The Broadcast Act recognizes community as one of the three pillars of the Canadian broadcasting system alongside private and public providers,” said Rickert. “Recently the CRTC announced the hearing dates for a policy review for community and local television commencing in January 2016. One of the outcomes the Commission seeks to achieve as part of this hearing, and coincidentally the first one listed is that, Canadians have access to locally produced and locally reflective programming in a multi-platform environment. We think we are in a position today to help them with that outcome.”
