GATINEAU – Rogers Cable has been subjecting new pay TV service Super Channel to “an undue disadvantage” in its marketing, the CRTC ruled this morning.
Contrary to section 9 of the Broadcasting Distribution Regulations, which say all channels have to be treated equally, the Commission has directed Rogers to file, by October 19th, written documentation “setting out the steps it will take to ensure that, in future, its marketing of Super Channel does not result in the service being subjected to an undue disadvantage,” reads the decision.
The Regulator, however, said there was insufficient evidence to establish that Rogers has given an undue preference to Astral Media’s The Movie Network, HBO Canada and MoviePix, in regard to the marketing of Allarco-owned Super Channel.
Allarco claimed in its filing back in April that Rogers was not pushing the new must-carry national pay television service as hard as it was selling other channels.
“Allarco noted, for example, that the combination TMN/HBO Canada is offered in a package called ‘Rogers Digital VIP’ (DVIP) only to people who place calls to Rogers’ call centres, whereas Super Channel has not been and currently is not offered in such a package, despite repeated requests by Allarco. Allarco also submitted that Super Channel is not included in the DVIP package on Rogers’ website while TMN and HBO Canada are actively promoted. Allarco further noted that the combination TMN/HBO Canada/MoviePix is offered within the ‘Rogers VIP Ultimate with Movies’ package, while Super Channel is not,” notes the decision.
As well, Super Channel complained Rogers customer service reps were not pushing it as hard as they push TMN and others.
Rogers defence was “that the manner in which CSRs are trained is not a term of carriage and falls far outside the scope of section 9 of the Regulations. It claimed that it has consistently provided its CSRs with internal bulletins relating to Super Channel that are designed to promote and inform them about the service. Rogers further submitted that there is no merit in Allarco’s allegation that it was denied access to CSRs during the period in question whereas other pay television services were provided such access,” reads the decision.
“However, the Commission considers that Rogers’ CSRs are not promoting Super Channel as vigorously as they are promoting TMN, since they are only identifying Super Channel as an alternative movie service in about 4% of the cases (based on a sample of 320 telephone calls) when a customer requests any movie service,” said the Commission.
This is a win for Super Channel, but just round one in its battle to grow as it is still under creditor protection and has a pending lawsuit against Rogers before the courts as well, as we noted in a story in the summer.
– Greg O’Brien
