COUNT CANADA’S SATELLITE and cable companies (outside Quebec, anyway) as generally pleased with the Commission’s new policy on over-the-air TV broadcasters.
"We think it’s a very balanced decision and we’re happy with it," said Rogers Communications vice-chair Phil Lind.
"I think it’s overall a balanced decision," added Shaw Communications vice-president, regulatory, Ken Stein.
"They were clearly listening to everybody because they’ve come up with a balanced decision that reflects all parties representations I think," explained Bell ExpressVu president Gary Smith.
Only Telco TV’s Ann Mainville-Neeson stayed off the balance beam, saying: "Kudos to the Commission for a very clear decision, a concise one, and one that doesn’t stray into what should be left to the market." (Telco TV is the consortium of Telus, MTS and SaskTel, who presented a united DSL TV front at the hearings in November/December.)
There was some fear among distributors that some kind of new wholesale fee would be applied within the system, somewhere, to be dedicated to Canadian production (thanks in part to some overly sure of themselves commentators like this pinhead here who said as much back in November)
However, with scant evidence the fee was required, the Commission denied the requests and instead opted for more ad time. "They had no evidence about choosing a rate, they just picked one," said Stein.
The new allowable ad minutes say that when September 2009 comes around, there will be no limits on the number of minutes of ads that can air. Look for a 16-minute maximum, however, as that is the standard upon most U.S. network fare is built. Right now the limit is 12, rising to 14 this fall and 15 in September 2008. (It will be interesting to see how this new reality affects the upfront fall TV ad sales market in a few months.)
The distributors were also pleased to see a set deadline for broadcasters to complete their conversion to digital, even if it is August 31, or 30 months after the U.S. will reclaim analog broadcast spectrum from American broadcasters.
"We think it’s a little long, but at least there’s a date there so let’s get on with it. We want to get as close to the U.S. date as possible," said Lind. "I think over time, maybe (the broadcasters) will speed it up, once they now realize that they’ve got to do it."
Watch for Rogers to lead the way, actually, with OMNI. "I would suspect that we’ll be leading the charge in high def because it’s something very close to Ted Rogers’ heart and he has the means to push," predicted Lind. :If he says ‘gee, it would be nice if we were high def,’ people listen."
With the deadline though, there are bound to be stragglers among consumers. In the U.S., the government is funding a subsidy program which will supply those who do not have a digital television set with set top boxes to decode the digitall signals for viewing on an old analog set.
Will that happen in Canada? The new policy addresses it in passing, but doesn’t describe any plan of action. "We’ve still got quite a while," noted Mainville-Neeson. "
When August 2011 comes around it will be likely three years since consumers were able to buy a new analog TV in stores anyway.
Smith says he was disappointed, however, in the Commission’s decision to prefer terrestrial expansion of digital broadcast. In Thursday’s decision, the Commission said essentially that if broadcasters want to continue to take advantage of the regulatory regime where their signals are must-carries and simultaneous substitution must be done by cable and satellite companies, they have to retrofit their towers.
"The Commission is of the view that construction of OTA digital facilities should continue to be at the discretion of television licensees, however it will retain its current approach to regulatory privileges, such as priority carriage and simultaneous substitution, in order to encourage the extension of local and regional digital OTA services," reads paragraph 75.
"We see satellite as being a good alternative to the build out of HD digital transmission facilities across all of Canada in rural areas – particularly because the amount of money being spent to build out those terrestrial facilities would be disproportionate to the number of people actually using it," said Smith.
"Satellite is a better technology for servicing those customers and we remain very willing to talk to the broadcasters affected – the terrestrial broadcasters who otherwise have to build out those digital distribution facilities – and see if we can’t build a solution for them.
"It’s a little bit disappointing that in the decision the Commission said they prefer terrestrial distribution," added Smith.
