GATINEAU – Shaw Cable must change the way it treats and markets Canada’s gay and lesbian category one digital specialty service Outtv, the CRTC ruled today.
The specialty service and Shaw have had a long and rocky history, dating to its launch in 2001 as Pridevision, back when it was owned by Score Media. Ownership of the channel has changed a couple of times since and the most recent owners, extremely frustrated at how the big western cableco has treated the channel, went to the Commission earlier this year for help.
Tuesday’s decision found that Shaw has subjected the digi-net “to an undue disadvantage with respect to the marketing of Outtv, a Category 1 specialty service, contrary to section 9 of the Broadcasting Distribution Regulations,” it reads.
Shaw has long objected to even carrying the channel, saying that it didn’t want to subject viewers to content they didn’t want to see, but since it is a category one digital specialty by regulation, it must offer Outtv. However, the original owners of the channel aired adult content late at night and agreed with BDUs then to be carried as a stand alone and because of the porn, didn’t do any free previews.
The channel struggled for survival since the beginning.
Outtv however, has not carried adult content for some time and has since enforced its regulatory benefits as a category one with other distributors, so that it is distributed and carried as other category ones are – in packages and themes as the lifestyle channel that it is.
Shaw, on the other hand, does not package Outtv like the rest of the digi-nets and, in fact, places it within a lineup of adult services in its channel lineup (it’s on channel 370, with Hustler TV on 371, Playboy on 372 and Red Light District on 373. All other category ones are well down the dial – between channels 95 and 129. Even in Shaw Cable’s “all-in” package of channels, unless subscribers ask for it explicitly, Outtv is not made a part of the all-in.
Outtv said that due to the way Shaw packages it, “the penetration rate of Outtv, as recorded in December 2007, was 0.49% of subscribers on Shaw systems. This compares to 18.11% for Telus systems, 15.69% for Bell ExpressVu, 9.27% for Cogeco systems and 7% for Rogers systems and 6.61% for Star Choice.”
“Shaw stated that the lower level of penetration of Outtv on Shaw systems could be attributed to a public campaign to discredit Shaw that has been waged by (Outtv’s owners) and the previous owners of Outtv. As a result, Shaw submitted that subscribers interested in receiving Outtv may have chosen to subscribe to other BDUs,” says the Commission release.
Outtv believes that its subscribers would jump by 80,000 if Shaw Cable offered it in the same way it sells other services, boosting its monthly revenue by $34,000
However, the Commission found undue disadvantage by Shaw also because the MSO breached section 26 of the BDU regs by changing Outtv’s channel placement without proper notification, too.
So while it can’t issue a mandatory order for Shaw to distribute Outtv how the broadcaster would like without a public hearing, the Commission has directed Shaw “to reply to the Commission within 30 days of the date of this decision setting out the steps it will take to ensure that in the future its marketing of Outtv does not result in the service being subjected to an undue disadvantage,” reads the release.
