ANYONE WHO HAS spent longer than five minutes in this industry knows that the lead question Canadian viewers most often have for us is: “Why can’t I get HBO here?” (Actually, it’s very often “why the he** can’t I get HBO?!!)
Finally, we can tell them, “we do have HBO in Canada.” It’s not the exact HBO Americans get because it does have a 30% Cancon requirement, but it’s a lot closer than the way the dominant American pay channel’s programming has historically been available here.
As reported by Cartt.ca Monday morning, Astral Media (owners of The Movie Network, the pay TV network in the east) and Corus Entertainment (owners of Movie Central, the pay television license holder for the west), have announced the launch of HBO Canada. The channel – available in HD and SD – will replace an existing multiplex. In TMN’s case, MMore will be replaced by HBO Canada at its launch on October 30.
The channel will be fed to both sides of the country out of the TMN broadcast centre in Toronto and the agreement with HBO is a “long term one,” Domenic Vivolo, Astral Television’s senior vice-president of sales and marketing told Cartt.ca in an interview on Monday. It’s a significant investment for the Canadian broadcasters, which means a larger fee for carriers.
Of course, most of HBO’s programming was already available to Canadians on The Movie Network and Movie Central, as well as Bravo! and Showcase and TSN and others. But now, all the first-run shows will only be seen on HBO Canada. Second and third windows will still be made available to other broadcasters, however.
The reaction to Monday’s announcement at the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance annual conference in Mont Tremblant by cable operators has ranged from “it’s about time,” to “heck yes, we’ll be carrying it.”
According to Vivolo, who did much of the legwork to get the deal done, the time was simply right to do it. Astral, he said, has wanted to deliver the brand to Canadians for some time. “The door was open so we started talking to (HBO) seriously (months ago) then we came back and started talking with Corus and the three of us came up with this plan to launch a multiplex of our current license,” he said.
For years, “even within the industry people were asking, ‘why don’t you have HBO?’” remembered Vivolo. “Back then, I don’t think there was even an opportunity. We had to convince New York that this was a great opportunity to extend their brand into another country.”
And Astral’s consumer research leading into this launch has simply backed up what most already know. “One of the things that kept coming back was the HBO brand was stronger and stronger,” said Vivolo.
The number one American channel recognized by Canadians “is by far is HBO,” he added. In fact, the consumer research done by Astral shows 81% of people asked were either somewhat or very interested in subscribing to HBO.
The new brand will “significantly” improve Astral Television’s growth prospects, Vivolo said, declining to put a number on it.
An HBO Canada will simplify the marketing messages for cable, satellite and telco TV companies, too, as well as for Astral and Corus. “In the past it was a very complicated message,” said Vivolo. “It was HBO’s True Blood on The Movie Network.” Now it’s just True Blood on HBO Canada.
Now while it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison, when MSNBC Canada launched in 2001, consumers complained that it was too different from the original MSNBC and they stayed away from the channel. That and other reasons led license holders Shaw Communications and Rogers Communications to drop the news service and instead petition to get MSNBC approved on the eligible satellite list.
Is there any worry that the differences between HBO and HBO Canada will cause consumers to grumble the same way? In a word, no, said Vivolo. “We start off with day and date of new series’,” he said. Drawing on HBO’s library of content to fill out the schedule around the first run originals like Entourage – using discontinued series such as Oz – will make HBO Canada even more HBO than the original.
“We’re trying to be very pure to the HBO brand,” explained Vivolo. “It’s not going to be a watered down version… It’s probably going to be more of an enhanced version.”
The big difference premium content viewers will notice is that the main TMN and Movie Central services lose their HBO content as it gets shuffled to the new channel. The pay channels will retain their Canadian series and Showtime originals – as well as movies, but all HBO content is moving to HBO Canada.
For distributors, as well as Corus and Astral, this is very good timing, too. Consumers are still buying high definition TVs by the truckload and need HD-delivery gear from their TV provider. With Christmas coming, expect a big marketing push from distributors as well as Corus and Astral through November. “TV, radio, outdoor, newspaper, TTC, GO, online – It’s a real comprehensive launch,” said Vivolo.
And now with the HBO question answered, Canadians now want to know, “Why the he** can’t I get Showtime, or ESPN?”
