GATINEAU – In preparation for the migration to digital of all analog TV, the CRTC told existing analog specialty services in February of 2006 that in order to maintain their legacy positions on the cable lineup it was prepared to entertain applications for "digital basic" status.
So, channels such as YTV, The Weather Network and CBC Newsworld submitted such applications, asking they maintain their spots on the dial and their mandated rate structure even when all channels are someday distributed digitally.
What the Commission maybe didn’t expect is that three new channel applicants also submitted requests to be granted digital basic status: Métis Michif Television Network (a channel by and for the Métis people); The Accessible Channel (aimed squarely at those with disabilities); and Canada One (a new ethnic channel focused on Canadian content).
Should the channels gain approval, a digital basic distinction would make them available to all Canadians, rather than just a fraction, as current digi-nets are.
Channel Zero (Movieola, Silver Screen Classics) vice-president and general manager Cal Millar told Cartt.ca that he doesn’t object to the proposed content of any of the potential channels nor their desire to be categorized as digital basic (who wouldn’t want to be in front of millions?).
However, he does object to the disjointed, unusual, process and wants to be given a chance at a digital basic distinction, too. Normally, when new licenses are being considered, there is an open call for applications from anyone who might like one in certain categories or geographic regions.
For example, when a call went out for new pay-TV licenses in 2005, it was spurred on by an initial application for a national pay TV service by former Alliance Atlantis executive George Burger. Millar’s company competed in that process with a proposal called the Canadian Film Channel, an all-Cancon pay service, but the license went to Allarco.
This time though, along side long-time analog choices like Vision TV, TV5, and Vrak.tv which are seeking to be classified "digital basic", the three new applicants mentioned above are seeking a digital basic license while another "All Points Bulletin" – currently a category two license holder – has also asked for the distinction as well.
The three new applicants should be asking for licenses "in a process where others should have been allowed in," said Millar. "If the Commission is going to consider the creation of digital basic, then they should consider others." He added if the call was open, Channel Zero would likely retry its Canadian Film Channel concept.
Besides, "you’ve got to be analog first in order to digitally migrate," explained Millar, who has also written to new CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein asking him to look into the matter.
"Mr. Chairman, as a potential applicant for a mandatory basic carriage service I feel that this process has been neither transparent nor fair," he wrote.
The deadline to intervene in the process is Thursday, March 8. The public hearing is scheduled for March 26.
