OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Citing the "questionable business practices" of independent cable co-op Campbell River TV Association, Shaw Communications declined earlier this year to renew the contract of its Shaw Pay-Per-View service with the small cable company.
When Shaw made it known to CRTV that the contract would not be renewed, the co-op filed a complaint with the CRTC under section 6.1(1) of the Pay Television Regulations, 1990, which prohibits a licensee from giving an undue preference to any person, including itself, or subjecting any person to an undue disadvantage.
While CRTV said the PPV or VOD options available to it were either impractical or too expensive, and thus caused an undue disadvantage, Shaw contended those limitations didn’t matter and that CRTV could get PPV service from Rogers Communications, Telus or Bell ExpressVu – or it could get its own license(s).
Primarily, noted the decision, "(i)n Shaw’s view, CRTV has engaged in questionable business practices, to the detriment of Shaw, and Shaw PPV was no longer interested in contracting with CRTV."
The Commission sided with Shaw but told the company to maintain the PPV signals for 60 days "in order for CRTV to have the opportunity to find an alternative source of PPV programming," and allow the company to warn its customers that changes in their PPV lineup will be forthcoming.
Shaw’s action stems from a bitter battle in November 2005 when the large MSO accused the 13,400-subscriber Vancouver Island cable company of encouraging its customers to purchase digital cable boxes at retail in nearby Shaw Cable territories and drive them back to Campbell River for use in the CRTV system. Shaw said CRTV was stealing from them.
Back then, Shaw retaliated by cutting off the distant broadcast signals it was providing to CRTV via microwave and the small cableco was forced to go to the B.C. Supreme Court to get Shaw to turn the signals back on.
As well, in 2004, CRTV was forced in a lawsuit to pay Shaw $38,000 when the company admitted that it illegally used Star Choice consumer equipment to receive and send out three Seattle broadcast signals to its cable customers.
– Greg O’Brien
