OTTAWA – Three days before the two sides were to face the CRTC, OUTtv and Shaw Communications have settled their disagreement.
The deal means that gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered lifestyle channel OUTtv will be re-packaged on Shaw Cable and Star Choice. OUTtv objected to the way it was being packaged as a stand-alone service, contrary to its rights as a category one digital channel as a must-carry.
Shaw and OUTtv were to face the CRTC for one more ruling on Friday but the channel withdrew the complaint after the two sides came to an agreement last Tuesday. “The Shaw people came to discuss it with me twice in the middle of the gay village (in Toronto) and we negotiated,” OUTtv owner Bill Craig told www.cartt.ca in an interview, referring to his company’s head office.
At launch and through its first years of existence, category one digi-net OUTtv was known as Pridevision. It had lifestyle programming in the daytime and prime time hours and adult movies after hours.
At launch in 2001, MSOs complained about Pridevision’s content and then-owner Headline Media Group agreed that it could be packaged as a stand-alone service – which it was by most carriers – and not in any theme packages. It sold for anywhere between $2.49 and $7.99 a month. It also gained few subscribers in relation to the other digi-nets that launched in the fall of that year.
Last year, Pridevision was sold to broadcaster Bill Craig, who set out to re-brand the lifestyle category one channel to OUTtv, dropping all adult content. It officially re-launched April 12th this year and is carried in certain variety packages by MSOs like Cogeco, Rogers and Videotron. The Pridevision brand lives on as a category two service, which offers all gay porn and is called Hard On Pridevision.
Shaw, while it carried OUTtv throughout the months-long dispute, chose not to actively package the channel as it does with other category one channels and kept selling it as a stand-alone for $7.95 a month. Rogers, for example, carries it in its Lifestyle digital theme pack with channels such as SexTV, One: Body, Mind and Spirit, and Fine Living.
Going forward (Shaw has 30 days to implement the new agreement), OUTtv will be made part of Star Choice’s More Movies package which includes Showcase Diva and BBC Canada. On Shaw Cable, customers will be able to add the channel to their pick-packs.
Initially, OUTtv will bring in fewer dollars, admits Craig, as it emerges from its carriage-imposed shell. “We’ll lose more money earlier in the deal but at the end it will be fine,” he added, saying many in the gay community will now find the channel more affordable.
“We’re re-starting from a negative position relative to the other category ones but we’re quite happy in that we got our rate and got in a good package (on Star Choice).
While Bell ExpressVu still carries OUTtv as a stand-alone, Craig says a new deal with the DTH company is “ninety percent” complete and he anticipates it being completed this week.
– Greg O’Brien
