OTTAWA – The CRTC said today it has selected the wholesale rate proposed by WildBrain for Rogers to carry its discretionary channels.
“With regards to rates paid by non-Rogers BDUs for the Services, the Commission considers that both offers are competitive,” the commission said in its decision. “Factoring in the ownership composition of the market for Canadian linear youth and children’s services and the Commission’s related public policy objectives, the Commission finds that WildBrain’s offer better reflects the Service’s relative market value.”
Rogers filed an application this summer for the commission to initiate a final offer arbitration process after the two parties could not agree on terms over the carriage of the DHX Television services WildBrain Television, Family and its multiplex Family Jr.
Rogers offered a lower rate for reasons including more Canadians are migrating to on-demand and online streaming platforms to watch children and youth programming, Corus’s launch of Disney services has “resulted in the oversaturation” of the market, and WildBrain’s decision to make its programming available broadly, including on YouTube.
WildBrain offered its rate on the basis that viewership levers have been maintained and penetration levels, volume discounts and packaging of the services are comparable to similar programming for children and families.
The CRTC said in today’s decision that Rogers’s approach to “flexible packaging” hurt WildBrain services’ popularity, and that the absolute number of viewers for the services has “remained relatively stable.”
Photo via WildBrain
