OTTAWA – The CRTC has extended its call for new French-language general interest pay television service applications, but only for channels that don’t plan to compete with Astral’s Super Écran.
That was the gist of Friday’s rather peculiar decision denying a request from TVA Group for a new channel called Ciné-TVA. After asking for comments in January on how best to open up the genre, the Commission acknowledged that a second French-language pay television service could be viable, though applicants must provide evidence "clearly demonstrating demand and a market for the proposed service". It also added that though the service will be authorized to broadcast feature films, it “must be complementary to Super Écran”.
Not only did TVA Group’s application not meet that criteria, it did not demonstrate that opening up the general interest pay services genre to competition in the French-language market “would offer more diversity to consumers”, the Commission’s decision reads.
That prompted a dissenting opinion from Commissioner Michel Morin who accused the Commission of strengthening the “monopolistic position” of Astral’s Super Écran, the only general interest pay television service currently offered by all BDUs in the French-language market.
“It is now clear that the Astral monopoly – which devotes 90% of its programming schedule to recent feature-length films (mostly foreign) – will be well protected under Commission’s wing”, Morin wrote. “This new strategy will deprive Francophone viewers of a second choice at the best price, all in the name of “diversity,” “complementarity” and the necessity “not [to] compete directly with Super Écran.
“At the same time, Astral Media Inc. will continue to ride the success of Hollywood blockbusters and sleep easy with its general interest pay television service. Given the protectionist philosophy of the Commission majority, one question comes immediately to my mind: will (any) new service be so different and complementary that it, too, will be guaranteed “exclusivity” for another 25 years?”
Morin also questioned the Commission’s decision to include conditions like diversity and program availability in this approval process.
“In short, diversity, program availability and “other consequences” are essentially subjective criteria that are difficult to measure over time, whereas economic health and genre popularity are purely objective criteria”, Morin continued. “It is these last two criteria that the Commission should have used to form its opinion, move forward and finally open the pay television genre in the interest of consumers and the Canadian broadcasting system.”
The Commission said that parties wishing to apply for a broadcasting licence for a French-language national general interest pay television undertaking have until May 30, 2011 to submit an application. The time and place to consider the applications will be announced at a later date.
