OTTAWA – Due to the “complete absence of Canadian conventional high definition services on StarChoice/Cancom,” the Canadian Association of Broadcasters has urged the CRTC to take action against the DTH company and to finally come up with an HD policy when it comes to satellite providers.
As reported by www.cartt.ca, the CRTC issued a decision on May 12 upholding a complaint made against Star Choice by CTV. Broadcasters said that the DTH company’s past practice of excerpting HD content (mostly U.S. content) and compiling it on omnibus HD channels contravened distribution regulations.
The Commission agreed and told Star Choice to change, which affected not just the company’s DTH customers, but the many small cable systems which rely on the company’s Cancom SRDU service for distant feeds.
In response, Star Choice did add additional broadcast HD feeds, eight in total (four from the east and four from the west), but all of which are American broadcast networks. And, the company is still trying to find a way around the ruling to avoid adding Canadian broadcast services, says the CAB.
“The CAB submits that Star Choice’s actions in filling its available HD capacity with multiple US HD services, including split East and West feeds of CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox, at the expense of Canadian conventional HD services, contradicts the spirit and intent of the Commission’s interim policy for DTH carriage of digital services as outlined in paragraph 115 of Broadcasting Public Notice CRTC 2003-61 (PN 2003-61) and its determinations as set out in Decision 2005-195,” says the CAB’s submission to the CRTC.
“Moreover, the complete lack of Canadian conventional HD services on Star Choice is inconsistent with both the Commission’s expectations respecting the distribution priority to be accorded to Canadian services generally, and with the spirit of the ‘preponderance’ rule requiring distributors to ensure that the majority of channels received by a subscriber are Canadian.”
Plus, Star Choice/Cancom has also told Canadian specialty services that they will not be carried in HD right now since, “Cancom cannot authorize the Specialty HD channels for cable until Cancom executes uplink distribution agreements with the programmer,” says the CAB submission, quoting from a June 1, 2005 notice issued by the satellite company.
“The CAB notes that this is an entirely new requirement, unrelated to Decision 2005-195, amounting to a unilaterally imposed obstacle that will further delay the distribution of Canadian HD specialty services on StarChoice/Cancom,” says the association.
With these many delays and tactics, any broadcast transition to digital will just take longer.
“Star Choice/Cancom’s refusal to distribute any Canadian conventional HD services, in the absence of a final regulatory framework for the DTH carriage of such services, means that those Canadian conventional television broadcasters who have launched HD versions of their respective services are unable to achieve widespread distribution of Canadian HD programming. Further investment in capital infrastructure and in the production and acquisition of Canadian HD programming becomes all the more uncertain in the absence of such distribution, thereby hampering the Canadian digital (HD) transition,” says the CAB.
“Moreover, those services that have made the above investments are unable to exercise their entitlement to simultaneous substitution on Star Choice’s service vis-à-vis identical programming provided on the HD versions of the commercial US networks that are distributed. This deprives Canadian broadcasters of a fundamental tool to protect the value of their program rights.”
The CAB, however, is laying these issues at the feet of the Commission saying that as long as there continues to be no HD policy governing high definition when carried by direct-to-home satellite providers, “gatekeeping abuse” like this will continue to happen.
“Star Choice/Cancom’s recent actions (i.e. their decision not to distribute any Canadian HD conventional services and to continue to throw up roadblocks to the distribution of Canadian HD specialty and pay services) clearly demonstrate that, in the absence of a regulatory framework for the distribution of Canadian HD services by DTH, those services will be unable to receive equitable carriage from StarChoice/Cancom, and may in fact receive no carriage at all,” reads the submission.
Almost two years ago, the CRTC said it would launch a new proceeding to look at HD carriage on DTH but has yet to make any sort of move in that direction. The CAB has asked the Commission proceed with this quickly and in the meantime, put an end to Star Choice/Cancom’s HD choices and force them to add Canadian broadcast feeds.
“StarChoice/Cancom should be expected to take immediate measures to distribute available Canadian HD services on their respective undertakings. Only by doing so can StarChoice/Cancom comply with the Commission’s expectation… that ‘in order to be accessible to Canadians as well as financially viable, Canadian programming must receive widespread distribution.’”
– Greg O’Brien
