GATINEAU – A program Shaw Communications offered a decade ago to grease the wheels of its acquisition of Canwest's television assets will end before the CRTC makes an official final decision on demands that it be renewed.
It's called the Local Television Satellite Solution, a free basic satellite subscription that was provided to people in areas that would have lost over-the-air TV service as a result of the digital television transition in 2011. It was funded with $15 million from the $180 million in tangible benefits Shaw proposed as part of its $2 billion acquisition of Canwest back in 2010.
The decision approving the deal provided for the service to be provided "until the end of its next (Shaw Direct) licence term." At the time, the licence was expected to expire in September 2010, meaning the renewal would end in 2017, consistent with a seven-year term for tangible benefits. But the Commission pushed out the Shaw Direct licence renewal to 2012, meaning its term ends on August 31, 2019.
Shaw said it voluntarily extended the LTSS system to match the extended renewal date. It also got to reallocate some money from other benefits to support administrative costs to the LTSS, which had grown beyond the 31,500 households it was originally expected to serve.
In its latest licence renewal, Shaw said it would terminate the program on August 31, and instead offer a similar service called LTSS Plus for $10 a month for two years. This prompted several interventions from people who wanted the program renewed.
Shaw persisted, saying it has fulfilled the requirements of its tangible benefits agreement and has no obligation to continue providing television service for free. "The LTSS was not intended to be a permanent response to the digital transition, nor was it established to relieve conventional broadcasters of any obligation to convert to digital television and maintain digital OTA transmitters," it wrote in May.
While the commission considers the merits of those arguments, on July 30 it administratively renewed Shaw Direct's licence until Nov. 30, giving the Regulator another three months finish its work on the licence renewal (and Bell Satellite's, too). However, both Shaw and the Commission say the extension does not affect the LTSS's end date.
"This administrative renewal does not apply to Shaw’s LTSS program, which will be ending at the end of our current licence term on Aug. 31, 2019," Shaw vice-president of external affairs Chethan Lakshman wrote to Cartt.ca, explaining that this was "an administrative renewal of our broadcast licence for a new term beginning Sept. 1, 2019, and was not an extension of the current one."
Shaw told the Commission in May that "fewer than 20,000 households" still use the LTSS program. It declined to provide updated or more specific figures.
For the Commission, there's also no obligation on Shaw's part, since the LTSS "was not imposed as a term or condition of Shaw’s broadcasting licence," wrote CRTC media relations manager Patricia Valladao. "Benefits packages involve a specific amount of money expended over a set period of time. The Commission approved Shaw’s proposal, and required the LTSS to be offered until the end of the licence term expiring 31 August 2019. Shaw has now fulfilled this commitment and has no ongoing regulatory obligation with respect to LTSS past 31 August 2019."
Over-the-air TV supporter Steven James May doesn't agree with that logic. He wrote to both the CRTC and Shaw insisting that because its ilcence term was extended, it must continue offering the service.
He has also written to Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez and hopes Canadian Heritage could fund the program if Shaw is unwilling to do so. "The LTSS has served as a replacement for OTA TV in underserved communities since 2011 and I am exploring the regulatory options available to continue the program," he said.
